The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning COMPLETE
by Lady Lestrange
Summary: SUMMARY INSIDE5th bookCOMPLETE not GH romance HG POV strong Harry Ginny OC Sirius alive Trying2Btrue to canon preOotP esp. Draco subplot Snape spying Who to trust? DE take AskabanFree Bellatrix groups.yahoogroupTheSeersTruth
1. SUMMARY: Would you read on Why orwhynot?

**The Seers' Truth: The Broken Beginning**

**By Lady Lestrange**

**SUMMARY**

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infrigement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. Thanks JK.**

**Lady Lestrange**

**Special thanks to my beta, ennui de mort who thought of the title and who always does such a good job being my extra muse as well as proofreading, moral support and just plain fun.**

Told from several viewpoints, to get the suspense of knowing what the other side is planning. Including POV are Ginny's and Harry's. This is not a romance fic. Try to read this summary like a movie trailer. Quotes from HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH are in italics.

THE SETTING IS WAR:

Voldemort is undoubtedly on the rise. Dumbledore has his run-ins with the ministry, trying to convince Fudge that whether he wants war or not, it is coming—Indeed it is here. And Snape's opinion:

"One other thing, Albus. Do not talk to me about any of this in the dungeon. The walls have ears."

"They are children," began Dumbledore.

"No, they are not. They are Slytherins-all of them-and some of them are Death Eaters."

"What can I do to help you, Severus?" asked Dumbledore.

"Kill Voldemort."

AND EVERYONE IS INVOLVEDTHE GHOSTS

"Indeed they did." Said Olive. So don't let that moody little adolescent bitch distract you from your fine work. She is unimportant."

"You're right, of course." Said the Baron.

"Hasn't Tom always kept his promises to you? Wasn't she the first to die?"

"She was."

THE CHILDREN

Harry's fifth year begins at Hogwarts with the Hogwart's Express crash, and a meeting of several new friends. Once at Hogwarts, things go from bad to worse.

When he reached to open his trunk, he discovered it was unlocked. He knew he had locked it this morning before he went to class, but what about when he came back for the map for Defense class? With a knot of fear in his chest, he dug through it looking for the Marauder's Map.

"Yes," said Harry, coming back to the present. "I'm ready now." The chamber echoed with Harry's hissing. " Speak to me, Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwart's Four."

Ethan sums up Harry's dilemma:

"Of course you know," said Ethan. "You feel The Dark Lord's power. Perhaps you feel it more than any of us."

When the sorting hat is tampered with our intrepid trio goes on the lookout to find the "tamperer", but they must also deal with the consequences: Mentoring new students. But did the teachers' idea of how to sort them work? What happens if the sorting hat really did send "a badger to live with a snake"?

Hermione said: No one could have sneaked anything by the other founders. They all had to be present when each one cast his or her spell (on the sorting hat), and surely one of the four would have realized the spell was left open ended, specifically made for someone else to add something later-like a Fifth Founder.

"Or an Heir?" suggested Harry, casting a sudden chill over the group.

What will happen when Neville tries to mentor—is this a Ravenclaw? And we've all wondered if Neville really belongs in Gryffindor. I can tell you unequivocally yes he does.

Ginny befriends someone who's leaned her previous magic from a book. Harry thinks it's a Dark Book, but Ginny's not so sure. Should we trust Ginny's opinion of Books? Is this like Tom's diary or worse? Speaking of Tom, we all know Ginny didn't get away from that diary unscathed. She still has feelings for Tom, but what are they: love, fear, pity—or is it just that irrepressible Gryffindor bravery kicking in?

Lots of Ginny POV in this book, but not much romance, for anyone.. Does Harry finally notice her only to discover –well maybe I shouldn't tell that—

Only one living person had ever been with him when he fought Voldemort, and that person was Ginny, even if the image of Volemort was only a memory from a diary. He wanted to ask her what it felt like to have another person in your head: to have Tom Riddle or Voldemort invading your thoughts, and yet, he knew he would not ask her that.

Hermione's mentoree seems at first glance to be a harmless Hufflepuff. Or is she in fact a Gryffindor? Only time will tell. Is she harmless? Is there much more to Hufflepuffs that we don't understand from JK's books. Visit Hufflepuff Hall in this book:

And what about those twins—not Fred and George—although their jokes abound in this book.

No, I'm talking about Ethan and Edward Lestrange, the "little brothers" of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Is it possible for one twin to be Gryffindor and the other to be Slytherin? How will their sibling rivalry effect Harry and Draco. And what happens if/when the Dark Lord releases their parent from Askaban?

ALL INTERMIXED WITH ALL THE MUNDANE CLASSES WITH OUR FAVORITE TEACHERS—

"Mr. Longbottom, I am aware of your deficiencies in things magical, but I did assume that you could count. That after all is not a difficult skill. It takes no magical talent after all."

"You won't die, you imbecile. You don't die under crucio! You just suffer—forever."

Trelawney's eyes narrowed and then rolled back in her head. She sank back into her chair, and blinked. Her eyes cleared, but the anger did not go away. "Get out." She said. "I will not have a minion of the Snake in my class."

You need a lighter swish and flick," said McGonagal, "You're trying too hard. Relax."

. "Permutatio—" she began as she tried to swish and flick. Apparently, she got it just right because suddenly blue flame shot from her fingernails. "Shit!" she spat. Then looking at Ginny, she said, "I'm gonna kill your brothers." For emphasis, she blew out her fingernails.

The class dissolved into hysterical laughter.

The students worry about Voldemort's return. The prediction and old magic hold the key, but will they figure it all out in time?

WILL THEY FIND WHAT THEY NEED?

In knockturn alley:

"If you change your mind, Mr. Lestrange—premium mudblood is much more valuable than hair, you know—"

Soft laughter caused them to turn. "Selling body parts, now, are you, Lestrange?" drawled a lazy voice from the shadows.

Or want:

"That pensieve belonged to Morgan LeFey's grandson."

Draco a hero?

She felt Draco's left arm tighten around her. In his right was his wand. "Accio Nimbus," he called and a broom struggled to get itself beside him. "Alohomora," he said and the night wind billowed in upon them as the side of the compartment opened to him. In an instant, he was airborne on the broomstick with her held tightly in front of him. He let go of the broom, guiding with his legs; she surmised and put his wand away.

Below them, the train was in flames.

Or is he?

I've been waiting forever for this day," he said. "The day I can best, the great Harry Potter."

And then again:

"What about Professor Snape?"

"I took care of Snape," said Draco.

More of our favorite Dragon:

Draco leaned in close to her. She could smell his cologne, feel his breath on her face, see his molten red aura

"You've never seen this dragon breathe fire," Draco said in a low voice, his aura flashing various hues with his anger.

And later,

"Ever the valiant Gryffindor," spat Draco. "Crucio!"

(A/N: Draco's so fun to write!)

Rita Skeeter returns:

Edward tapped on the terrarium and the bug scuttled under some foliage. "My granny said someone was going to get that woman," said Edward.

How will Snape balance the war with classes and who's side is he really on?

All our favorites:

Tom we've not seen before:

With a wish that was real the stick became a snake. It slithered in the woman's hand and bit her on the forearm. She shrieked and dropped the snake made from a stick. Slamming the door, she left Tom in total darkness with the snake and the rats.

And the Voldemort we all know:

Then he told Narcissa. You and Severus may see to the teaching of the young ones. They can practice crucio on Lucius. It will be a pleasant diversion from the work with bugs.

I'll need veritaserum. I wish to speak with Virginia. Oh, and don't let the Lestrange brothers kill Lucius." He paused. "Draco, should be last, I think. I want to see how he handles—his father."

"As you wish, Master," said Snape.

(A/N: This was fun to write too!)

The thrilling final confrontation

Harry raised his wand and the full force of the magic struck the wand. With a sickening crack, it split straight down the middle and the phoenix feather core floated to the ground.

Please read through chapter 3, before clicking off—You won't be sorry.

Lady Lestrange

If you haven't read Order of the Phoenix, you may wish to click to the next chapter now.

ADDED AFTER AUTHOR READ ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. (OotP spoilers here)

I have just finished reading JK's fifth book OotP. Although I love JK, I don't think it is her best book. Personally, I like both CoS and PoA better, so those of you that are mourning not having OotP yet can relax and wait for the library copy. The reason I am writing this is because some of the events and ideas in OotP seriously disturbed me. Honestly, I could see how some authors could get litigation happy. Without inflicting major "spoilers" on you, I have to say my ideas from Seers Truth, chapters 1-41 were written before JK's OotP was released, so my strangely twisted version of some of the things that JK brings up in OotP, was just my interpretation of the "planted items" she put in the first four books and how I thought JK might use them. She chose to use them very differently, or with some similarity. Some things, she chose to not use at all—such as a number of characters, which I included. Other characters she developed differently: Ginny has virtually no scars from second year; Arabella Figg as the 'old (wizard?)crowd'; Harry/Voldemort connection. Please understand that some of the close similarities are because I correctly interpreted some of her "foreshadowing" –in fact, some of the things I wrote gave me chills when I read JK's book, and realized how closely I guessed on some things. This was pure coincidence. Although the research was done intentionally, this is in no way an infringement upon the world of Harry Potter, created by JK Rowlings. Some things I interpreted completely differently, and fanfic readers might therefore say some of my characters are OOC; however, since I wrote the first 40 chapters of my fic before I read JK's OotP, I could not use JK's new ideas about the characters, and had to make my own interpretations. This is most evident in my Slytherin characters, who have different first names and personalities than JK's new Slytherins. I considered changing them, but it would involve a major re-write and quite frankly, I like my version, so be aware that although I said in my summary that this fic would keep characters true to JK's characters, that will not be true for those characters introduced or further developed in OotP. Characters are true to JK's characters prior to OotP.

Lady Lestrange

Please read to chapter 3 of Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth before deciding if you like it or not. POV is mostly Harry and Ginny. There are only a few Parvati sections.

Some of the readers have asked for a summary of what aura colors mean. Here it is:

Lady Lestrange

Try doing a google search for Auras.

In general, the more colorful, cleaner and brighter the Aura, the better and more spiritually advanced is the person. Also, the more uniform the energy distribution in the Aura, the healthier and more balanced the person is.

Distribution of the energy in the Aura seems to have the potential of a powerful medical diagnostic tool, but usually requires using a complex equipment. The scope of this article is to concentrate on what we can easily see with our eyes.

Our Aura surrounds the entire body, but the interpretation of colors below relates to the Aura around the head only. Meaning of colors around the head presented below suggested in the literature has been confirmed by the author. When you learn to see Aura well, you can verify it for yourself, by concentrating on certain thoughts while watching your Aura, or telling people what their thoughts are when you see their Auras.

Usually, people have one or two dominating colors (strong points) in their Aura. These colors (or their Auric pairs) will be most likely their favorite colors.

In addition to dominant colors, the Aura reflects thoughts, feelings and desires, which appear like "flashes", "clouds" or "flames", usually further away from the head. For example a flash of orange in the Aura indicates a thought or desire to exercise power and control. Orange as a dominant color is a sign of power and general ability to control people. Quickly changing "flashes" indicate quickly changing thoughts.

Purple: indicates spiritual thoughts. Purple is never a strong point in the Aura. It appears only as temporary "clouds" and "flames", indicating truly spiritual thoughts.

VIOLET

vision, imagination, intuitiveness , healing Mystical, unifying, enchantment, charm and

deep spiritual understanding. High spiritual energy that can transmute lower energies.

Blue: Balanced existence, sustaining life, eased nerve system, transmitting forces and energy. People with blue strong point in their Aura are relaxed, balanced and feel ready to live in a cave and survive. They are born survivors. Blue thought is a thought about relaxing the nerve system to achieve the balance of the mind or a thought about surviving. Electric blue can override any other color in the Aura, when the person is receiving and/or transmitting information in a telepathic communication. For example Michel Desmarquet, author of "Thiaoouba Prophecy", frequently glows with the electric blue during his lectures, especially when he answers questions from the public.

BLUE

peace, tranquility ,honesty Blue Depth of feeling, love,affection, communication, fulfilling

the highest ideals of unity.

INDIGO

spirituality ,integrity, psychic skills ancient memories, blending of blue and violet

Turquoise: indicates dynamic quality of being, highly energized personality, capable of projection, influencing other people. People with turquoise strong point in their Aura can do many things simultaneously and are good organizers. They feel bored when forced to concentrate on one thing. People love bosses with turquoise Auras, because such bosses explain their goals and influence their team rather than demand executing their commands. Turquoise thought is a thought about organizing and influencing others.

Turquoise: Love healing heart generosity

Green: restful, modifying energy, natural healing ability. All natural healers should have it. People with a green strong point in their Auras are natural healers. The stronger the green Aura, the better the healer. They also love gardening and usually have a "green hand" - anything grows for them. Being in a presence of a person with a strong and green Aura is a very peaceful and restful experience. Green thought indicates a restful state and healing.

GREEN

growth, change, healing, abundance, adaptable sympathetic, takes life easy , teaching, endurance, perseverance, persistence, high self-esteem.

Dark green adaptability

Yellow/Golden: joy, freedom, non-attachment, freeing or releasing vital forces. People who glow yellow are full of inner joy, very generous and not attached to anything. Yellow halo around the head: high spiritual development. A signature of a spiritual teacher. Do not accept spiritual teachings from anyone who does not have such a yellow halo. Buddha and Christ had yellow halos extending to their arms. Today it is rare on Earth to find a person with a halo larger than 1 inch. Yellow halo appears as a result of a highly active brow chakra (which can be seen glowing with violet by many people at my workshops). Highly spiritual people stimulate the brow chakra continuously for many years, because they always have intensive spiritual thoughts in their minds. When this chakra is observed when highly active, a yellow (Auric pair) halo appears around it, surrounding the entire head. Yellow thought indicates a moment of joy and contentment.

YELLOW

analytical, discipline Sun, dispel evil , scientific mind ,overcomes ignorance ,artistry,

wisdom, creativity , confidence Sunny, exhilarated, mental, power, expectancy, tenacity.

Gold: Christ consciousness or Goddess energy transformation, openness. Golden may mean

spiritual knowledge or mental strength.

Orange: uplifting and absorbing. Inspiring. A sign of power. Ability and/or desire to control people. When orange becomes a strong point, it usually contributes to a yellow halo, which then becomes gold, indicating not only a spiritual teacher, but a powerful spiritual teacher, someone capable of demonstrating his/her unique abilities. Orange thought is a thought about exercising power or a desire to control people.

ORANGE

creativity, high aspiration , proud self sufficient, direct, high minded, restrained, ambitious not warm or sensual ,wants success rides over others, self justified, confident narrow outlook. Sacrifice Creative, artistic, expressive, fullness of experience, urge to achieve results or success.

Red: materialistic thoughts, thoughts about the physical body. Predominantly red Aura indicates passion or a materialistically oriented person.

RED

Vitality ,life force, assertion, forcible active urges, stalwart brave, vengeful, virile ,passion, drive, endurance. Force of will, passion, vitality, desire, physical activity, excitability, anger, intensity of experience.

maroon stamina strength purpose and restraint fighting spirit warmth cooperative effort, recuperation, moodiness, selfishness Crimson optimism go getter, challenging competitive nature ,eager for success, ready to champion cause ,reckless scarlet impassioned likable spiteful, short tempered volatile vivacious

dark red anger, willpower Pink sensitivity , unconditional love ,gentleness willingness to help serves others ,easily hurt not spiteful or jealous

Red Overlay:

A red overlay is not to be confused with the actual color red in the aura. This is separate from the aura and is often seen in abused children or survivors of trauma and war.

Pink (purple+red): love (in a spiritual sense). To obtain a clean pink, you need to mix the purple (the highest frequency we perceive) with red (the lowest frequency). Pink Aura indicates that the person achieved a perfect balance between spiritual awareness and the material existence. The most advanced people have not only a yellow halo around the head (a permanent strong point in the Aura) but also a large pink Aura extending further away. The pink color in the Aura is quite rare on Earth and appears only as a temporary thought, never as a strong point in the Aura.

Meaning of Dirty colors:

(colors appearing darker than background more like a smoke than a glow)

Brown: unsettling, distracting, materialistic, negating spirituality.

BROWN/TAN: earthiness, grounded, practical

Gray: dark thoughts, depressing thoughts, unclear intentions, presence of a dark side of personality.

Sulfur/yellow-brown: (color of a mustard): pain or lack of ease, anger

White: serious disease, artificial stimulation (drugs). Why does the white color in the Aura indicate problems? White color is like a noise, rather than a set of harmonious tones (monochromatic colors). It is impossible to "tune" the noise to an orchestra playing harmonious music, hence the white Aura indicates a lack of harmony in the body and mind. Nature, which we are a part of, is harmonious. This harmony comes in discrete vibration "tones" or harmonics, partially described by the modern quantum physics.

Several hours before the death, the Aura becomes white, and greatly increases in intensity. For this reason in most cultures "death" is depicted in WHITE (not black), because in the past, people could actually see a white Aura before death.

WHITE

God ,oneness Spirituality; highly evolved spiritually; motivated; incorporates qualities of all other colors.

Black

Hidden, secretive, indicating a highly evolved individual who is capable of shielding his aura. Death.

My assessement of aura colors as found in various books and websites. Simply look up "aura colors" on a search such as to find a wealth of information.

Healers often have green, blue, or violet in the aura. Happily pregnant women run to pastels. Lovers often have a glow of rose throughout the aura. Intellectual activities can show up as yellow tones, or in some books blue tones. Violet and purple is usually a flash of color indicating a flash on insight or enlightenment, although some 'higher souls' hold the violet longer. Orange is both control and creativity. Turquoise if organizing and influential. Indigo is psychic power and honesty. Clear pure colors are indicative of stronger harmony than muddy colors. Tans and browns indicate earthiness. Red overlay indicates trauma.

Hope this helps all of you who have been confused by Samara's seeing auras. I have recently started on a sequel to this story and there is a very active group at yahoo groups. TheSeersTruth

Lady Lestrange


	2. Ch: 1 Trapped in Twilight

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Trapped in Twilight

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

The dream started like it always did, with the diary. It came sliding back into her life like a dementor, and it was about as welcome. She had thought she was free of him. She had not dreamed of him since first year. She had not heard his voice in her thoughts. She had not clutched his wretched book to herself in the darkness. She did not lie awake at night wanting. She had schooled herself not to think of him at all. She almost succeeded. All that had happened to her happened a lifetime ago. It felt like yesterday. It was two years, two months, two weeks and two days since she had felt his touch. It was over. Or was it just beginning?

Ginny Weasley rolled over and clutched the sheets trying to wake up, whimpering in her sleep and shivering. In the dream, the night was cold, but the weather had nothing to do with her tremors. 

__

"That was a stupid stunt!" The writing appeared harsh and round like a child scrawling on the paper, pushing too hard and making thick black lines of ink. "Green as a fresh pickled TOAD! How did you keep this Valentine stuff from me?"

"I didn't think ahead. The dwarf asked some of us girls if we wanted to send a Valentine and I just wrote it—started to write it and then you made me change it. If the dwarf hadn't read it back to me—"

__

"Yes. I know. If the dwarf hadn't read it back to you, I might not have known and it is possible that Harry Potter would have gotten the message, though not likely, considering how stupid Gryffindors are."

"Harry is not stupid," wrote Ginny. "He would have figured it out. He still might, even though you made it all mixed up."

__

"You better pray he doesn't. You're lucky. If this little stunt had succeeded I would have had to hurt you, Virginia."

She knew he had underestimated her, but it would not happen again.

"Don't make me have to punish you. Didn't you learn anything from our little session after you tried to flush the diary?" 

She whimpered in her sleep and tried to push the memory away.

The diary itself was trembling with anger, and she couldn't withdraw her hands from it. If she could, she would have slammed it shut.

"I'm sorry," Ginny sobbed. "I won't do it again." She felt the panic starting to rise as she thought of how angry he had been that she tried to flush the diary down the toilet— No, she wouldn't think about that. 

She sniffled, wishing she could blow her nose and wipe her face. "I was so embarrassed." She sniffed again, "Did you have to embarrass me?"

__

"Embarrassment is the least of your worries, Virginia. You do realize what spell I've been using on you these past few weeks when you've been obstinate, don't you?"

"No—I—"

__

"The Imperius Curse," answered Tom.

"It's an Unforgivable—"

"Yes, well, if they put me in Azkaban, you're coming too," he sneered. "And you realize I have other spells at my disposal if you need some incentive to be obedient."

"Yes." She tried to pull her hands away from the diary, but as soon as she did so, waves of nausea shot through her. She grasped it again and wrote, "I need my handkerchief."

"Are you crying? Good," came the words, but the diary did not release her. "Copy this. Harry Potter did not conquer Lord Voldemort," wrote the diary.

"But he did," wrote Ginny.

__

The words came fast and furious. "It's not finished yet!" wrote the diary. "What the fuck do you think you've been doing with my basilisks all this time? You're lucky your fellow Gryffindors are as stupid as you. Now write. Harry Potter did not conquer Lord Voldemort!"

She started to write, brushing at her tears as they continued to fall making wet splotches on the diary. "Harry Potter did not conquer—" She stopped and started again, writing, "the poem said Dark Lord not Lord Voldemort."

The words appeared, lightening fast. "I'm well aware of what you wrote, but I am not The Dark Lord."

Ginny just stared at the page. After a while, she wrote, "You're not?" 

And abruptly, she didn't need the diary to communicate with him. 

__

"No, Ginny Love," his voice was infinitely patient, explaining as if to a very young child. "The Muggles must die. It's very simple really, just like the roosters had to die to make way for the basilisks, the Muggles have to die to make way for the wizards. It is not Dark to do what others are afraid to do. It is courage. Now write. Harry Potter did not defeat Lord Voldemort."

She didn't know how many feet of parchment she had used in writing the letters in perfect symmetry, but her hand started to cramp and she wanted to quit. She put the quill down wondering if he had left her.

__

"Do you know what day this is, Virginia?"

"My birthday," she murmured. "I'm twelve today."

"Wrong, Virginia. It's the day you learn to obey me."

Within seconds, the nausea was back, followed by an awful tingling that felt like tiny knives piercing her skin all over her body. 

She awoke shaking, the same tingling feeling echoing through out her body and making her cringe and cry out.

Ginny blinked awake, thinking she had been dreaming but the dream now eluded her. It was something about Tom. Well, she thought, she was going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. She looked out the window at the pale light of the stars. No, she corrected mentally, not tomorrow, today. It was probably past midnight. She was alone in her bedroom at the burrow, but the image of Tom Riddle stayed in her mind. She reminded herself it was just a memory and no longer a vision of her future.

===

Another was also dreaming of the past, but it was a dream that affected her future. It affected everyone's future...

Little over 50 years ago in a small Muggle town a grand manor stood, and in its shadow a boy waited. Dark haired and pale, he looked older than his 18 years his face aged with hate and anger. He pushed his hair out of his face and drew his cloak about him. He worried about what he came here to do but it was too late to turn back now and they disserved it. Taking a deep breath and setting his jaw he walked defiantly onto the large wrap-around-porch. Up to the double doors with the big brass knockers and the words _The Riddles_ stamped on above them in gold letters. Locked! But locks couldn't keep him out for he was no ordinary boy. 

__

No, I'm much more, and I will make them pay for what they've done to me. 

"**ALOHOMORA!**"

The door swung open soundlessly on well-oiled hinges. He walked into the dark entry. The black marble floor flecked with silver and gray swirls, was covered with beautiful rugs. On the walls hung expensive tapestries and paintings. 

__

All this could have been mine! All this should have been mine! It's my right! 

Down the corridor a door was slightly open and a light shone though the crack. The forest green carpet muffling the sound of his feet the boy inched closer to the door, listening. Loud voices could be heard inside. He wouldn't let them know he was here. Not just yet. A male voice, flat and angry, floated though the crack 

"And who is this girl?"

"Lorrissa—"

"Not her name, boy! Who IS she? A nobody, that's who and not suitable."

"Tommy, you're barely more than a baby—"

"I'm not a baby, Mother. I'm seventeen!"

At this the cloaked boy's breath caught in his throat '_17! 17! So my father didn't waste any time did he?_' 

"Go to college and make something of yourself, Tom," his mother added. "Why would you want to marry this girl?"

"Mother I…"

__

The boy's name was Tom? The silent stranger reached into his robe pocket and slowly and carefully wrapped his fingers around his wand. _How could they name this boy Tom?_

The boy's father was speaking again. "You're too young and that's final!"

"No, Father, you misunderstand. I didn't come here to ask your permission."

"Well, you don't HAVE MY PERMISSION," he shouted. "You are my child and you WILL DO as I say." 

There was a crash as if the man had hit his fist on the table, and the tinkle of some fine crystal breaking and then silence. 

The cloaked boy outside the door couldn't keep quiet any longer. He pushed the door open a crack and stiffened as he heard the man continuing to speak, "You're my son." His arm was draped over the tense shoulder of the boy. "You must carry on the good name of Riddle. You are my son. The only one I've got."

The pale-faced boy stepped quietly out of the shadow. "Now, Father," he said, "you know that's not true." 

He removed his hood, throwing his face into harsh light. The woman screamed.

"Mother!" The son wrapped a reassuring arm around his mother.

"How did you get in here?" growled the father.

"It's a simple spell Father, all I needed was a word, not a wand or a potion or a…"

"LIAR! I WILL NOT HAVE MENTION OF SUCH UTTER RUBBISH UNDER MY ROOF!!"

"Utter Rubbish? UTTER RUBBISH! BEFORE THIS NIGHT IS OUT YOU WILL LEARN THE POWER BEHIND THAT UTTER RUBBISH!!" 

"See here, boy, if you do not leave this instant I will call the authorities."

At this the boy began to chuckle: a cold mirthless laugh which did not reach his eyes.

"That's funny Father," the boy said calmly. "As if the Muggle police could contend with LORD Voldemort! I'd like to see them try. By the way, Father, you won't have to worry about your precious name. I am no longer Tom Riddle. I am LORD VOLDEMORT!" The chandelier rattled with the sound of his voice.

The father was silent, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish turning red around the gills. "Get out!" he shouted, "Get out!"

"Tut, tut, Father, is that how you greet the son you haven't seen for 18 years? Shame, Shame."

"Thomas—" croaked the woman who was still being fussed over by her son. She seemed to have finally regained the ability to speak—but not to him—only to the father. "Thomas, who is this boy?"

But before her husband could answer, Voldemort cut in. 

"He never told you about my mother? No. He preferred to pretend she never existed. So tell me, Father, after she died, did you dump me in the orphanage and run off with this harlot in the same night, or did you wait a whole week in respect for the dead?" 

Both the woman and her son seemed too shocked to speak. 

Apparently the boys' father was not.

"I will not be spoken to like that!"

"I—WILL—SPEAK—TO—YOU—ANY—WAY—I—WISH!" Voldemort's voice dropped dangerously low. His fingers closed slowly around the wand in his robe pocket. As he expected, it was hot. He could almost feel the phoenix feather core within it bursting into flame with the intensity of his emotion. So be it. With the fiery anger of this spell he would purge himself of this final weakness, and be re-born. 

A dozen curses flew into his mind, each vying for the right to be used on his father—

__

Crucio!—

__

Imperio!—

His wand felt alive in his hand—a spell dancing on the tip—all he had to do was say the word, but for a moment, he hesitated. He saw his father, as—no—this Muggle was never his father. He saw Tom Riddle as a greasy little rat and even that was too good for the likes of him…RAT… 

__

I used to have one once, long ago, when I was a boy…The thought was a fleeting one, and the wand in his pocket was suddenly warm and reassuring.

Voldemort became aware of the stinking Muggle poking his finger into his chest, emphasizing each hateful word. 

"YOU SHUT-UP AND LISTEN TO ME, BOY!" His hot breath in Voldemort's face smelled of wine and smoke. "YOU AND YOUR MOTHER!" White drops of spittle began to collect in the corners of his mouth as his face turned red and he continued to poke a finger in Voldemort's chest. "LIARS! ALL OF YOUR KIND! FREAKS AND WEIRDOES! YOU'RE A NOBODY! A LYING WORTHLESS NOBODY LIKE YOUR MOTHER…BUT SHE COULDN'T LIE TO ME. I KNEW." Specks of spit flew from his mouth as he spoke and splattered Voldemort's chest. "I KNEW HER FOR WHAT SHE WAS. YOU'RE NO SON OF MINE! THIS IS MY ONLY SON!" Mr. Riddle yelled. His hand was groping out behind him toward the silent, shocked boy who was still standing next to his mother.

With tremendous control, Lord Voldemort refrained from using any of the forbidden curses. He pulled his hand out of his pocket away from his warm wand. "I'm sorry you feel that way Father. If you're going to renounce me, and deny my existence, I'll show you the same courtesy. You will never be my father. I am my mother's son."

"It doesn't matter who you are. You're nobody. As far as I'm concerned you were never born. YOU'RE DEAD TO ME!"

"No Father," Voldemort said, his hand flying back to his wand, which was now so hot he felt his fingers sear. He closed his hand about it anyway, determined to force his will through it. "You are dead to me, Tom Riddle."

__ ****

A V A D A

K E D A V R A !

****

There were three flashes of green fire as three human lives were snuffed out and one wizard was reborn as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. 

===

Faraway, safe in her bed, a young witch awoke screaming. 

"Parvati, what's wrong?" called her mother as she came in and the glow globes flickered into life. 

"Nothing mum, just a dream," she answered. Her heart was beating fast and her breath coming in short gasps. "Or maybe…" Parvati jumped out of bed and hurried over to her desk, where she started shifting stacks of parchment and looking though large divination volumes. Her mother gave her a quizzical look.

"I'm ok mum, really." 

"Alright then. Try and get some sleep sweetheart. We have to get up early to catch the Hogwarts Express." She left, closing the door softly behind her.

Parvati was skimming though page after page until at last her finger ran across what she was looking for:

**__**

Oneiromancy: Divination by the interpretation of dreams

She was glad she'd be going back to Hogwarts in the morning. She couldn't wait to tell Professor Trelawney about this dream. Lavender was going to be so jealous. She snatched up her dream journal parchment and sitting cross-legged on her bed, she began to record the dream in meticulous detail, just as Professor Trelawney had taught her. 

**__**

===

The next day, Parvati couldn't wait to share her Seeing with Lavender, but Kings Cross was crowded with people: wizards and Muggles alike. Platform 9 ¾ was just as crowded. There was no time to talk privately with Lavender and Parvati had no intention of sharing her divination with Hermione Granger nearby. It was no secret that Hermione thought Divination was just a bunch of fairy tales made up by people who didn't have her cleverness. Or perhaps just didn't want to study. Well, Parvati wasn't going to open herself up to ridicule. She could wait. 

"I have something important to tell you," she whispered to Lavender as they entered the Hogwarts Express. "As soon as we find an empty car I'll tell you."

"O-o-o-o, you've had another Seeing. I can tell."

Parvati hushed her as several of their fellow Gryffindors came their way. It was Harry Potter and his friend Ron Weasley, followed by the entire camp of Weasleys and, of course, Hermione Granger. Hermione seemed to have gained a new friend: a pitiful, sallow skinned child who looked like she never heard of a glamour charm, and her clothes couldn't be any worse if they were Ginny Weasley's cast offs.

"Oh, hi Parvati, Lavender. This is one of the new students, Beatrice Ellis."

"Hi Beatrice." Parvati wondered why Hermione seemed so intent to introduce her to a first year. "First year at Hogwarts?" she asked.

Beatrice nodded vigorously while sticking a potion holder of some kind into her mouth and squirting the contents. She took several deep breaths while Hermione continued. Lavender looked away uncomfortably, and exchanged glances with Parvati.

"Beatrice is a fifth year, like us," Hermione said. "She's been studying with Mrs. Figg at home."

"Why would you want to do that?" interrupted Ron, looking at Beatrice, but she didn't answer.

Hermione did. "Beatrice's father was a wizard, but she lives with her mother in the Muggle world. Her mum wouldn't let her come to Hogwarts, so Mrs. Figg has been tutoring her. But now that her asthma is under control, her mother finally agreed to let her come to Hogwarts—with Mrs. Figg."

Harry moved closer at the sound of Mrs. Figg's name. "You live on Privet Drive? I've never seen you there." He wondered what her father thought of her living in the Muggle world, but didn't ask. He hated when people asked him personal questions before they could be considered his friend.

Beatrice nodded again and took a deep breath. "I knew you lived there, and you were…are…" She started to blush around the ears and the red quickly colored her whole face.

"The great Harry Potter!" cut in Ron, laughing as he licked the last of the chocolate frog from his fingers. "So what's your dad think of living on Privet Drive? My dad would probably love it. He works for the Ministry: Dept of Muggle Studies."

Suddenly it got very quiet. There was a quick spray of Beatrice's puffer, and then she said, softly, "My father is dead. He-Who—" she took another breath. "Who-Must—"

"I'm sorry," Ron interrupted her labored explanation. "Hey, let's get moving so we can get a car to ourselves. If I have to put up with Fred and George for the whole ride, I might move to Privet Drive!"

The group chuckled quietly as they turned the opposite direction from Fred and George. Lavender and Parvati also moved away from them. Beatrice looked uncertainly from one group to the other as if she were worried they all would abandon her. "You can sit with us," Hermione said. Beatrice looked visibly relieved. Ron looked at the ceiling. Inviting Beatrice meant that their conversation would be limited. They couldn't discuss Sirius or Lupin openly. In fact, Beatrice looked as if she might faint if she saw or heard anything remotely like Dark Magic. Wait until she had her first look at Snape's dungeon and potions. Ron wagered she wouldn't last very long at Hogwarts. It was going to be a very boring ride.

Before the four of them even had their trunks stowed, the train started to inch forward. Harry leaned his forehead against the window. His scar hurt. It had hurt a lot this summer, which was proof that he and Voldemort were more firmly entangled than before. He heard the snakes that lived under his Uncle Dursley's porch every time he went outside. They were just garden snakes, but sometimes he'd imagine…

Harry opened his eyes wide. Someone was trying to catch the train. The stranger was sticking a trunk upon the train several compartments forward. After a quick flick of a wand, the trunk was stuck to the side of the train as if by glue and the stranger put his wand in his mouth and started to jog alongside of the train with one hand outstretched to catch a handrail. Harry remembered his panic when he and Ron had missed the Hogwarts Express and he was instantly in action. _"**Alohomora!**"_ The glass disappeared from the window and a rush of cold wind poured in on them even though the train was barely moving yet. 

Beatrice screeched and huddled in the corner. Harry already had flung himself half way out of the opening he had made and was reaching toward the jogging stranger. Ron dropped the chocolate frog he was eating and grabbed the back of Harry's shirt. "Bloody Hell Harry!"

With a gigantic tug, they managed to pull the stranger into the car. They all sat panting and laughing on the floor. Hermione stood beside her partially stowed trunk and looked down at them. The wind was blowing her hair wildly about her face now. "What are you going to do about this?" She gestured toward the open end of their car, but before anyone could move, the stranger flicked a wand—

The opening knitted itself up from side to side, leaving a window and a pocket for belongings. Then the stranger reached up and pulled her hat off of her head. "Whew!" A cascade of curly dark hair fell to her waist. "I thought I missed it. Thanks guys!" She twisted her hair up into a bun, tucked her wand into her hair, and stuck out a hand to Harry. "I'm Sam," she said. "Well, Samara Donnally."

Harry was looking thunderstruck. When he yanked the stranger aboard the train, he had thought it was a boy, not a girl—he wouldn't have yanked so hard—but then she might not have made it aboard.

"And you are?" she continued. Her dark eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Harry Potter."

"Whoa! THE Harry Potter." She reached up and brushed the hair back from his forehead. "Yep, scar and all. Only one to survive Voldemort…"

"I know," said Harry coldly. "The whole world knows."

"Oh. I'm sorry. That was really rude, wasn't it? It's just that I was just reading about you in _Hogwarts: A History_…you know you have a whole chapter!"

"You've read _Hogwarts: A History_?" interrupted Hermione.

"It's on the suggested reading list," said Samara matter of factly.

"Yes, but not that many people have read it!" Hermione looked pointedly at Harry and Ron.

"I don't see why not, it's terribly informative..."

"Chocolate frog?" offered Ron.

"Might as well," said Harry, leaning his head back against the newly made window.

After a few minutes Ron asked, "Hey Harry, where did that other girl go to? Beatrice. Don't suppose we knocked her out the window, did we?"

"Maybe she went to the bathroom," Harry suggested without opening his eyes.

"I'm here," said a small voice from the corner.

Both Harry and Ron jumped. "Don't do that!" Ron scolded. "Where did you go? I didn't see you there a minute ago."

"I was—I was—" she reached for her puffer.

A knock at the door was followed by Lavender's voice. "Hello? Gryffindors? Can we share this car with you? There isn't a car open all the way down the train."

"Please," said Parvati, "we really don't want to sit with Malfoy or Pansy Parkinson. The Slytherins are spread out all over."

Everyone squeezed a little closer together and introductions were made. Since two more trunks wouldn't fit under the seat, they had to leave Parvati's in the aisle way. "It's really no wonder the Slytherins are nervous, with You-Know-Who on the Rise," Lavender said.

"It's not just the Slytherins," commented Ron.

"But at least you don't have parents who are Death Eaters," said Parvati.

"Whose parents are Death Eaters?" asked Samara.

No one answered. 

"Aren't those Voldemort's followers?"

"Beware of speaking the name of the Dark Lord," intoned Parvati.

"Voldemort?"

"Stop it!" cried most of the people in the car.

"Where have you been all your life that you think you can just say the name of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" asked Parvati. "Don't you realize it's dangerous, especially now?"

"No," said Samara, "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

It became silent; everyone thinking of his or her own personal terrors of the Dark Lord. After a few moments Samara asked quietly, "I'd like to know. Why is it dangerous now? This wizarding stuff is new to me."

"You're kidding. After that spell?" Ron pointed to the beautiful window she had conjured. "I thought you were an exchange student."

Samara shook her head. "No, First Year. Professor Lupin said that the wizarding world couldn't afford to leave any talented wizards and witches in the Muggle world even if they ignored the Hogwarts letters in their eleventh and twelfth years. Apparently, someone named Dumbledore sent these wizards to search us out. I was so glad! When the letter came when I was eleven, my parents called it a hoax…"

"Your parents are Muggles—er, not wizards or witches?" questioned Hermione.

"Right. Anyway, several more letters came when I was eleven, but my parents threw them all away. I wanted to go so badly! I made a pretend wand and I practiced. Nothing worked for a long time, of course, but I read everything I could find on wizardry and witchcraft. Some of it was really bad."

"You have no idea," said Ron. "Remember the monster book that we had last year for Care of Magical Creatures?"

Several of the group shushed Ron, and Samara continued.

"Some of the books were helpful, but one was wonderful. I found it buried under a bunch of old books in a used bookstore called Trash and Treasure. As soon as I touched it, I knew it was a real wizard book and I studied it. That's when I started experimenting with wood for wands. I didn't know to use willow or ash or hew. My first one was oak, absolutely useless. I tried it first because the druid books said it was the most powerful, but I soon got bored with druids. They would wait around for years for the wand to come to them. Now, I know the wand picks the wizard, but still you can't expect it to walk up to you and say 'I'm your wand, take me.' You have to go find it."

"You made your own wand?" Hermione asked interested

"Yes," said Sam, taking it out of her hair again.

Harry noticed it looked very different than the wands from Ollivanders. It wasn't stained to look beautiful nor did it have anything remarkable about it. It looked like a simple piece of wood but sanded and obviously well taken care of.

"Then, when I was twelve and thirteen, the letters came again. I caught one of the owls last July and I sent a message back that I wanted to come."

"So your parents relented?" Harry asked.

"Oh no. I didn't tell them. Another owl came in August and told me to come to Platform 9 ¾ but I couldn't find it. Then, I thought I would miss it AGAIN this year even after Professor Lupin made a special trip to convince my parents. Harry, I'm so glad you pulled me in—"

"Harry pulled you in where?" asked Lavender.

Sam just realized that Lavender was there.

"I'm talking too much, aren't I? My mother always says never get Sam started on the subject of herself because she'll never stop. I suppose she's right. I do tend to babble on and on and..." Sam took one look around her. "And I think it's time for me to shut up."

Harry explained to Parvati and Lavender how he pulled Samara in to the train.

Sam was fast becoming bored. Well, if she was going to be at Hogwarts for three years, she might as well see who was here. Sam decided to explore the train.

"I'm going to take a little walk," she said. "See who's about."

"Be careful," Parvati said, sounding a little like someone's mother. 

"Sure." Samara closed the door behind her and started to walk down the narrow passageway between the compartments. Some compartments were open and over-flowing with occupants. She noted one such compartment contained two red haired boys who could be none other than Ron's brothers. Several of their companions were sporting yellow feathers and the whole group was laughing uproariously. After an initial moment of shock, Sam smiled and continued walking. She passed the witch who was pushing the food cart. 

"Would you like anything, deary?" the witch asked. "A sandwich?" 

Samara shook her head. 

"A tart or sweet perhaps?"

"No. Thank you."

The witch continued past Samara and knocked on the next closed door. It was opened by one of the biggest, ugliest boys she had ever seen. Samara stared and the boy stared back.

"Goyle, close your mouth before something nasty flies in," drawled a lazy voice behind him. "It's just a girl. You've seen several of those, I believe, but perhaps none this close."

Goyle closed his mouth. "Food cart," he mumbled, still staring at Samara.

The boy with the lazy drawl sauntered forward, laying some money on the cart as he passed it. The two boys behind him began picking sweets from the cart. "You'll have to forgive Greg Goyle. He doesn't get out much."

Samara had to laugh. "Samara Donnally," she said, holding out her hand.

"Draco Malfoy," he said, taking her hand in his own and holding it. He brought his other hand up and wrapped it possessively around her wrist. His eyes never left hers. "You don't look like an eleven year old," he said softly.

"And you don't look like a Dragon."

Draco laughed aloud. "Looks are deceiving," he said, his eyes flashing fire and Samara realized he was teasing her. 

"So what did you study before you came to Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Oh, this and that," Samara answered. For some reason, she didn't want this one to know she hadn't really studied magic formally. She thought he would think less of her if she told him, and she wanted to make a good impression. Her heart was pounding and her hands were getting sweaty encased in his. "Druids…Elven Magic…"

"Ah. The Old Magics," Draco pronounced, pulling her into the compartment. "We have to talk. I think the old magic is awesome. We've lost so much." He turned to Goyle and the other boy, who were still picking sweets from the cart. "Take a walk," he said shortly. "But remember what I told you."

They immediately gathered up their sweets and their brooms and headed for the door. "Wait a minute," Samara interrupted, suddenly nervous about the prospect of being left alone with this stranger who both excited and frightened her. "I didn't say I wanted to talk."

"We don't have to…talk," Draco said, spinning around and placing his hands on both sides of her. Samara realized that she was against the wall of the compartment with one of his hands playing with the edges of her hair and the other at her waist. She couldn't have gotten to her wand if she wanted to. Did she want to? His face was inches from hers, when suddenly there was an explosion. The train car lurched sideways, tried to right itself, and then fell hard and rolled. Sparks flew and the metal grated on metal as cars slid off the track and over the embankment. 

She felt Draco's left arm tighten around her. In his right was his wand. _"**Accio Nimbus!**"_ he called and a broom struggled to get itself beside him. _"**Alohomora!**"_ he said and the night wind billowed in upon them as the side of the compartment opened to him. In an instant, he was airborne on the broomstick with her held tightly in front of him. He let go of the broom, guiding with his legs, she surmised, and put his wand away.

Below them, the train was in flames. Several more explosions rent the air and Samara gasped. People were crawling out of the train from the rear compartments, but several in the front were in flames and still sealed. "We have to help those people," Samara said. 

"Do you think so?" Malfoy drawled. 

"They're trapped!" Samara could almost feel their panic.

Goyle flew up beside them. "First years," he said. "They don't know how to get the compartments open."

"Draco!"

Draco sucked in his breath sharply between his teeth and the broom dropped several feet suddenly. 

Although Draco still had his arm around her, Samara did not feel safe. She clenched the broomstick with her legs and grabbed with both hands. Immediately the broomstick halted mid-air in response to her movements. Draco collided with her and nearly pushed her off the front of the broomstick.

"Sit still," he hissed, but he flew in a more sedate path to the ground. "Maybe you should get off," he said as he hovered a few feet from the ground. She slipped her leg over the broom and before she could turn to speak to him, he was gone, darting upwards, presumably to open the front compartments to let the trapped children out.

===****

"Look. We're almost at Hogwarts," Harry said softly and Beatrice pushed her nose against the window to catch the first glimpse of the place she dreamed about. The sudden jolt, the explosion and the piercing pain in his head happened simultaneously. The group felt their car uncouple and start to roll downhill on the track as a second explosion wracked the train. 

"Broomsticks," shouted Harry. The first years have no way to escape. _"**Alohomora!**"_ For the second time in a few hours the window was opened. 

As they started to scramble to get their brooms out of trunks or from under the seats, they heard several of the upperclassmen coming through the train yelling: "Open all the doors. Turn loose your pets or put them in your pockets. Owls fly to Hogwarts. Everyone with a broom take someone with you."

Harry and Ron were already out of the door and airborne. Beatrice, with a bloody nose from where it had hit the window, stood shock still looking terrified. She hadn't even tried to stop the blood from running out of her nose. Instead she was wrinkling and un-wrinkling it as if that would slow the blood flow. "It's ok, Beatrice," said Hermione. "We aren't that far from Hogwarts. You can ride with me." Then she thought for a second and frowned. "Oh Crookshanks," she moaned, "I don't think I can levitate you and fly a broom double." Hermione looked around for some help. "Lavender! Parvati!"

Parvati hadn't moved. Lavender was shaking her. "Hermione, I think Parvati's in a trance," she called, terrified. 

"Get her on your broom with you," demanded Hermione. She turned to Beatrice and held out Parvati's broom. "Can you fly?" she asked.

Beatrice choked. "No."

Hermione stepped into the hallway and grabbed the first little person to pass her. He looked about eleven. "Can you fly a broom?" she asked.

"Yes, but..."

"Good," said Hermione. She handed him Parvati's broom. "Take someone with you and get off the train. Help's coming."

Flying wasn't her favorite subject, but she could do it. Although she had never flown with another person on the broom with her, she had no choice. Hermione looked at the billowing smoke around her. She had to hurry. She opened the owl cages and told Hedwig and Pigwidgeon to fly to Hogwarts.

Suddenly, Harry was there on his broom narrowly missing the owls that had immediately taken flight. A soot covered first year boy sat in front of him. "Hermione!" he yelled. "Get out of there!" 

"Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned. 

Harry swooped in and grabbed the handle of the cage and looped it over the front of his broom as he whisked back upwards. "Get out now!" he shouted, as he raced forward to add another passenger to his already crowded broomstick.

Hermione settled Beatrice behind her. "Don't touch the broom," she warned as she shot upwards. "Keep your hands on my waist." She took a deep breath and kicked off. Once Hermione was airborne she looked around. She saw one of the Weasley twins with a hysterical first year on his broom. He was using both hands to restrain her from jumping off. Cho Chang had her little sister in front of her and another girl behind her. She flew nearer to Cho and saw Lavender and Parvati at last leaving the train. The other Weasley twin had also just left the train with two passengers. He flew towards them. "Roger Davies went for Dumbledore," he shouted. "He was going to Apparate closer to Hogwarts."

"Good," said Cho. "If anyone can manage the Apparition, Roger can."

"Should we put our passengers down and see if anyone else needs help?" asked Hermione.

"I think we got them all," said whichever Weasley she was talking to. "Did you see Ron or Ginny?"

"I saw Ron leave the train," said Hermione, "but not Ginny. I thought she was with you."

The Weasley immediately headed for the ground, where he dropped off his passengers. Cho called after him. "Fred! It's Dumbledore!" She pointed into the distance. Sure enough, Dumbledore, followed by what looked like the entire staff of teachers, were flying towards the train.

"We think everyone is off the train, Sir," called Cho. "Just the animals now."

Flitwick immediately began raising the abandoned animals with a levitation charm. He had at least a dozen up and in front of his broomstick within a few seconds. Some were still in cages; others were prowling along the ground looking forlorn and frightened until he caught them. Then they just looked frightened. 

McGonagall circled the students like a shepherd dog gathering a flock. "All students follow me," she ordered as she flew several loops around them and then gathered up other airborne students. "We're going back to Hogwarts."

"My brother!" howled the first year on George Weasley's broom.

"I think Susan Bones took him back to Hogwarts, Professor," Fred told McGonagall. "He looked like his arm was broken and needed Madam Pomfrey. He couldn't fly his broom." 

McGonagall nodded and turned back towards Hogwarts. Just as they turned a burst of green light filled the sky and then sizzled darkening and forming. Hermione looked back towards the train and clenched her broom, which ground to a sharp halt. There, in the sky right above the Hogwarts Express, was a huge skull with a snake crawling out of the mouth: the Dark Mark. She heard McGonagall suck in her breath. "Ignore it," she said. "Hogwarts, now." She turned her broom and hastened into the night. The students followed her.

===


	3. CH2: Sorted Sort of mostly HarryPOV

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 2

Sorted: Sort of

DISCLAIMER: This fanfiction is written for fun and no money is made from it. The characters from Harry Potter are the creation of JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

As Harry and Ron landed the last of the first years at the threshold of Hogwarts, they looked around in stunned silence. Some of the students were huddled together crying. Others were being taken to the hospital wing. They had no idea where Hermione was and both Ron and the twins were frantic about the whereabouts of Ginny. No one had seen her since they got on the train.

"Gryffindors!" McGonagall was speaking to them and a group of upperclassmen who had just returned from the crash site. "Get yourselves cleaned up and get back here for the Sorting."

"Sorting?" Ron squeaked. "We're still doing the Sorting tonight?"

"Of course we are," Mr. Weasley. "The wards on the Hogwarts Express minimized the damage. Of course,

the protection of the Hogwart's students is the primary function of all the charms and wards. Luckily, they were working as they should, and no one was killed. Everyone is accounted for, aside from some minor injuries which will not interfere with the Sorting--"

"Everyone?" Ron asked. "Ginny is alright."

"Yes, Mr. Weasley. I believe she is in the hospital wing with some burns, but she will be down for the Sorting. Now, go."

Ron and Harry sprinted to the nearest men's bathroom, washed their faces and observed the effects of a cleansing charm on their filthy smoke- stained robes. 

"I've got a rip," Ron lamented as he noticed the tear in the arm of his robe. He mended it, with "repairo", but it still looked sloppy and frayed. Clothes never really were his best charms.

"Let's go," Harry urged.

As they came back to the Great Hall, Harry heard the familiar voice of Professor McGonagall instructing the first years. "First years, please come this way…" and then Samara's voice above the whispering and sniffling. "Excuse me, Professor, my trunk…"

"Professor Dumbledore gave the House Elves permission to use magic." Said McGonagall. Your belongings will be delivered…"  


But my trunk's not in a compartment. It's stuck to the side of the train outside of compartment 4C with an adhesive charm—I hope."

  
"Indeed." said McGonagall, eyeing Samara's jeans and tee shirt upon which was printed 'Dancing is an Out of Body Experience'. That explains your inappropriate attire, I suppose."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And this is not a portent of things to come from you, is it, Miss Donnally?"

"No, ma'am."

McGonagall smiled. "In the aftermath of this disaster, I suppose clean robes is the least thing to worry about. Your trunk will be attended to, Miss Donnally. Let's just hope it is still there. If not, you can see me later about appropriate clothes for you. In the meantime, please follow Professor Sprout to your preparation and then you will come into the Great Hall to be sorted. WELCOME TO HOGWARTS."

Professor Sprout was leading the first years instead of Hagrid. That reminded Harry of all the changes that would be forthcoming this year. Hagrid was on a mission to the giants with Madam Maxim and if he were successful, giants would be guarding Azkaban instead of the dementors. Lupin and Sirius were scouring the countryside for wizards and witches who otherwise may not have known about Voldemort's return 

The ministry's official answer was still ambiguous about what had happened that terrible night that Diggory died and he lost part of himself to Voldemort. Harry didn't think he was quite the same wizard that he was at this same time last year. Part of it was the loss of his blood "unwillingly taken" to feed Voldemort's rebirth, but that wasn't all. 

Over and over, he looked at the choices he and Diggory made not just in that crucial moment, but throughout the game. If he had taken the cup alone, Diggory would not be dead, but if he had not accepted the cheats given him by Hagrid, and Diggory and Dobby, he would have lost, and Voldemort would not have regained a body. 

Not for the first time, he remembered Dumbledore telling him in his second year, how important his choices were. It was his choice that put him in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. It was his mother's choice that protected him and now, his choices had helped to bring Voldemort back. They seemed to be such little choices, but they grew such terrible results. He was as responsible for Voldemort's return as any Death Eater. That also made him responsible for the attack on the Hogwarts Express, and the Dark Mark in the sky tonight. The thought repelled him and fascinated him at the same time, and he came back to the same thought that had tortured him all summer: If only, he had made different choices. At least Dumbledore was here at Hogwarts.

That reassured Harry immensely. He would talk to Dumbledore. . . if he had any idea what to say to him.

Worried about the OWLS this year?" asked Hermione at his shoulder.

"Hermione!" Harry threw his arms around her and hugged her. "We were so worried…

and not about the OWLS."

"For Gosh sakes, Hermione, they're a whole year away!" said Ron.

At that moment a small squeaky voice broke in on their conversation.

"Please Miss Granger, Winky is so sorry. Miss Granger, Winky did not mean to let him go."

"Let who go?"

"The cat, Miss Granger. Winky is so sorry, Miss Granger. Winky is a good house elf. Winky is taking Miss Granger's belongings up to Miss Granger's room. Winky is seeing the cat, but the cat is not good, Miss Granger. He's a climbing the curtains and knocking over shelf. Winky is trying to catch him, Miss Granger. Winky's a trying to stop him from ruining room, but Blinky and Dobby are bringing Miss Brown's trunk. They are opening the door. They do, Miss Granger and cat is running. The cat is not liking the room, Miss Granger. The cat is getting out. Winky is so sorry, Miss Granger."

"Where's Crookshanks?"

"Winky does not know, Miss Granger." The crying house elf suddenly threw herself at Hermione's feet.

Hermione sighed. "It's OK, Winky. He'll come back. Get up, now and you don't have to shut your ears in the oven door."

"Miss Granger is most kind. The most kind, most smart and most thoughtful person there ever was." Winky threw her arms around Hermione's waist and stuck there like a burr. I knows Winky is lucky to know you when—when—She choked, unable to get the words out. Then she began again as if she suddenly had an idea. Thank you, Miss Granger. Winky a fix your room, Miss Granger. Winky a fix it really really nice. Then Winky is wishing she will find the cat, Miss Granger."

With that, she went out to finish unloading trunks. Hermione stood frowning after her.

"Don't worry Hermione," Harry said. "Remember he roamed all over the Hogwarts grounds with Snuffles. He is probably just excited to visit his old hiding spots, and try to find some gnomes."

"Either that or he hates me for sending him flying with you," Hermione said. "But he's usually such a good cat. I can't understand him climbing the curtains or tearing around my room."

"Oh right. He's a good cat," Ron mouthed behind Hermione's head. Even though Ron's rat Scabbers turned out to be an animagi and the one who caused Voldemort to find Harry's parents, it was hard to forget Crookshanks trying to catch his pet rat and Ron didn't like Crookshanks very much. Ron looked at the ceiling as if in chagrin, but the fact that the ceiling wasn't there spoiled the effect. The ceiling was a multitude of stars that looked like a beautiful night sky. It wasn't, of course. It was the ceiling of the Great Hall. "I hope the sorting goes quickly," said Ron. "I'm starved!"

"I wouldn't count on it," Harry said. "It looks like only half of the students are here. I wonder how many are really in the hospital wing.

"Do you think we have time to go see Ginny?" asked Ron.

Harry settled himself at the Gryffindor table between Ron and Hermione, just as Neville was sliding into the seat opposite him.

"Here comes Ginny, now" said Hermione. They looked up to see Ginny coming into the Great Hall with several other students, followed by Madam Pomfrey. Most were bandaged or covered with orange goo apparently for the burns. They went to their respective tables and both Ron and the twins stood to hug Ginny. 

"How was your summer, Harry?" Neville asked.

"OK. I guess," said Harry, "Let's just say uneventful, but considering the last hour, uneventful sounds awfully good." Harry adjusted the ornate centerpiece so he could see Neville's face between the revolving planets and glittering lights, which were supposed to be comets or meteors. Somehow, the dainty centerpieces and the tablecloths seemed out of place when he knew there was a Dark Mark hovering over the wrecked Hogwarts Express." 

"My summer was smashing!"

"Did you fly here?" Harry asked Neville suddenly.

"Yes. I can fly, Harry even if I'm not good enough for the Quiddich team." Neville seemed hurt by Harry's question. 

"Sorry, Neville" he said quickly. "Tell me about your summer." He hoped it would take his mind off of the sight of the terrified first years trapped in the flaming train car.

"Well," Neville continued proudly, "My grandmother got me a Quick Quotes Quill to take notes in class.

"Quick Quotes!" said Ron, turning to Hermione. "That reminds me, whatever did you do with Rita Skeeter? Hermione?"

Hermione was sitting with both hands over her mouth. She was staring at the front of the room. "Oh, Crookshanks!" she murmured through her fingers.

Crookshanks, meowing repeatedly, was walking around and around the Sorting Hat. Several times his intense rubbing against the stool almost knocked it over. Occasionally, he would extend a paw up to the stool where the Sorting Hat was sitting and poke at it. Most of the Slytherin Table had already noticed and were sniggering loudly. Others around the Great Hall were either laughing or throwing worried glances at the head table.

"Stupid cat," said Ron.

"You have to go and get him!" Harry whispered to Hermione.

"Miss Granger." It was Snape speaking and the hall grew quiet. "I believe that animal belongs to you."

"Yes, sir."

"Then kindly remove it."

Hermione moved forward, getting redder and redder as she past rows and rows of tables to the head table. The Sorting Hat was sitting on the stool, just a few feet from all of the professors. Harry noticed that Dumbledore did not look angry and McGonagall had a slight smile on her lips. She understood cats even if Snape apparently did not. Just as Hermione gathered a reluctant Crookshanks in her arms, a house elf entered through a side door that Harry never knew existed.

We is so sorry, Miss Granger. Winky just found out that he was in here, Miss Granger. Winky is a bad elf for letting him escape. Winky is so sorry Miss Granger"

"Oh no, you --" In attempting to transfer the big cat to the house elf's arms, Crookshanks escaped, raking a claw over the house elf's outstretched arm and drawing blood.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Crookshanks froze and dropped with a clatter of that sounded like stone against stone. Several of the new students screamed.

Snape stood with his wand outstretched. "I trust you can manage him now," Snape said to the house elf who was hurriedly picking up the large, statue-like Crookshanks in her arms. "You, Miss Granger, may return to your seat."

Dumbledore stood and calmed the first years by telling them that Crookshanks was not harmed and would recover shortly. He also noted that a number of wizards were not present this year owing to the fact that some of the sixth and seventh year wizards had already pledged allegiance to Voldemort and some parents were just frightened to send their children away from home at this turbulent time. "However," continued Dumbledore, "It has been my experience that those who need to be here, are here. And so, Let us proceed with the sorting." He turned to McGonagall. "Minerva."

Professor McGonagall stood and explained how the Sorting Hat was fashioned by the Four Founding wizards of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Ravenna Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin.

She told the students that they would be called in alphabetical order and the hat would be placed upon their head. After sorting, they were to sit with the appropriate table. During McGonagall's speech that stressed that although their house would certainly be like their family while they were at Hogwarts, the whole of the wizarding community needed to befriend one another regardless of house, Ron leaned over to Harry, and whispered: "2 galleons says Beatrice is a Hufflepuff."

"You don't have 2 galleons," Harry answered. "But you're probably right. I'd guess Samara's a Ravenclaw—all that studying she did."

"Sh-h-h. The Sorting is about to begin," said Hermione.

"Yeah," said Ron, "But look at Hermione. Samara could be a Gryffindor. I hope she's a Gryffindor."

"Will you two shut up!" snapped Hermione.

The Sorting Hat had been introduced by McGonagall and was singing its song.

The great wizards Four, a gift gave to me,

To now ascertain, where you each should be.

I'll check in your heart, and I'll check in your head.

Come forward all. You have nothing to dread.

Fear not. Never yet have I made the mistake

Of sending a badger to live with a snake.

In Gryffindor House so brave and so true

Family and friendships are precious to you.

Hufflepuff House! Oh the just and the fair!

I will see now, should I put you there?

Though Slythern House the Dark Lord did shake;

Here rises the power and wit of the snake.

For I tell you now, no house will be slighted.

A wrong neglected tonight will be righted.

Under the Eagle eye of intellect,

The finest minds Ravenclaw does select

To tell you all brothers and sisters to be

If ever my powers should fail to sort thee.

Professor McGonagall, stood and announced the first name.

Stuart Anton: 

Stuart was a tall thin boy who wore glasses. He had pale blond hair and a quiet demeanor that reminded Harry vaguely of Cedric Diggory. He looked older than eleven to Harry. He sat tensely on the edge of the stool and McGonagall put the hat on his head.

"Hmmmm," hummed the Sorting Hat. "I see intelligence here. Yes. Witty and clever."

Ron leaned close to Harry. "The Sorting Hat didn't talk out loud when we were sorted."

Harry shuddered, but he didn't answer. He was remembering what the Sorting Hat had said to him.

Images flew into his mind and in a moment were gone:

"Plenty of courage…not a bad mind…" 

That would have been embarrassing enough without the rest.

"talent…" 

Harry felt his hands begin to sweat just thinking of what the Sorting Hat saw there. Of course, Harry now knew what talent the Sorting Hat had seen. He didn't even know it himself then. 

That followed by "thirst to prove yourself…" 

And then Harry's plea: "Not Slytherin."

"You could be great, you know…Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness…"

It would have been so easy to say, "yes," at that point, but Harry Potter had said "no," and that had made all the difference. "Choices," he thought. 

.

"And from an old wizarding family," continued the Hat. " I remember your father well. So, I shall put you in-- SLYTHERIN!"

Slytherin broke into vigorous applause. The other houses joined in politely.

Calvin Anthony:

"Oh Calvin. The soul of a poet—"

"Do you know if there are any good prospects for Alicia Spinet's chaser position this year?" Ron asked Harry quietly.

"Donno. There's still Wood's position too, and his is a hard act to follow. I don't even know who the Captain will be this year. Maybe one of the twins."

"Be serious, Harry. I can't imagine either of them as Captain of anything. You would be a logical choice."

"Me? No. I don't think so. Maybe Angelinaa. Looks like it might be a rough year for us, especially with Slytherin having a good team and Nimbus 2001's"

"SLYTHERIN! " shouted the Sorting Hat.

Ming Chang," Called McGonagall.

"Sh-h. That's Cho's little sister," said Harry.

"Ming Chang. Oh yes, I remember your sister, and so I shall put you in SLYTHERIN.

Harry glanced over at Cho. She looked horrified. She buried her face in her hands and Harry could see one of the Ravenclaw girls put a supporting arm around her as she started to sob. Harry noticed Ming was also crying.

"How many is that for Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"All of them," replied Hermione.

"That's impossible." Harry said.

"The Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes."

Samara Donnally:

"SLYTHERIN!" Shouted the Hat.

"That's a new record," said Ron. "It didn't decide that fast for Malfoy." 

"She's not a Slytherin," said Harry. "Why haven't the professors seen that the Hat is mistaken?"

Beatrice Ellis:

As she walked to the stool, she stopped and took two long breaths of her puffer. She was visibly shaking.

"There's another mudblood for Hufflepuff," whispered Malfoy to Goyle in a voice that carried easily across the room.

When Beatrice was seated on the sorting stool, McGonagall patted her shoulder and waited for her to take yet another breath from her puffer, before putting the hat on her head.

"Beatrice, my dear you have some spirit in you; but such a sweet little girl—never spoke a harsh word to anyone: a talent not many have. You are a very talented person, Beatrice. Yes, your talent should be put to good use; therefore I shall put you in a house where people can understand you: SLYTHERIN!" 

The entire Slytherin table seemed to erupt in disbelief.

"What!" Harry, Hermione, and Ron jumped to their feet in unison, but no one noticed

Minerva McGonagall snatched the hat off Beatrice's head. "Stop. These students are NOT all Slytherins."

"I tend to agree with you, Minerva," Snape said. "That last one is definitely not a Slytherin."

Dumbledore raised his hands for quiet and the students grew still. "What do you suggest we do?" Dumbledore softly asked the teachers.

Without speaking, Professor McGonagall quickly sat down on the stool, closed her eyes and jammed the hat on her head, crumpling the brim in the process.

"OHH!" said the Hat in surprise. "Such Anger, my little Minnie. And Courage too, considering what I said to you the last time you sat in this chair. Do you remember?"

"Yes," said McGonagall in a small voice that sounded strangely pathetic. 

"Then I won't tell you again," said the Hat kindly.

"Thank you."

"And so, my dear, since you wish to be resorted, I shall put you in SLYTHERIN"

Dumbledore stood and clapped his hands. "New students, who have been sorted, go back with the other first years." There was a shuffle as the students all began to move. Several of them mumbled under their breath that they WERE Slytherin. "Now, Teachers," Dumbledore continued. "I am open to suggestions."

"This will take too bloody long!" Complained Ron. "It's been at least six hours since we ate this morning. I'm starved."

"How many chocolate frogs did you eat on the train?" Asked Hermione.

"Those don't count."

The teachers were talking quietly among themselves and the students began to get restless. There was much shuffling in their seats and whispering. Dumbledore clapped his hands for quiet.

"Obviously, the Sorting Hat has been tampered with. We don't know how and we don't know why. In these dark days, we need the help of the Four Great Wizards that founded Hogwarts, but it seems that we will have to find new great wizards among this company, and to find new ways of doing things, not the least of which is sorting you into your proper houses. The heads of the houses suggest that they are relatively adept at sensing which of the students belong in their own house—or at the very least—they can tell which students do NOT belong in their houses. 

Professor Snape assures me that several of you are definitely NOT Slytherins. 

Professor Sprout reminds us that the Sorting Hat spoke to us in the song about its accuracy so far and was perhaps warning us that it was tampered with. So, the first order of business is to get you sorted into a house, even if it is not your permanent placement. 

Minerva McGonagall suggests that we not consider this sorting as permanent as if the Hat had sorted. Dumbledore paused and looked at Professor McGonagall. She nodded. "Professor McGonagall consented to my telling you that as an eleven year old, the Hat considered sorting her into Hufflepuff, but it took into consideration her desire to be a Gryffindor." 

There was a slight stir at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables as they considered McGonagall as a Hufflepuff. It seemed unbelievable.

"Therefore,' Dumbledore continued, "If after one week in the house you are given tonight, you wish to change houses, we will review each case on an individual basis. As Professor McGonagall reminds us and many of you can attest to this yourself, the Sorting Hat does take into consideration the wishes of the student, so I ask each of you to please remember that the wishes of the students are important and part of the sorting process. 

Finally, Professor Flitwick offers the way that we will monitor the sorting process this year, which again was suggested by the Sorting Hat. By assigning an older BROTHER or SISTER to each of the new first years, we can monitor the progress. It will be your responsibility as an older student to use all of the abilities available to you to determine if the first year student is in the right house. To do this, first years will have to take all classes with their mentors: at least temporarily. We will adjust the classes accordingly. At this turbulent time, it may not be a bad thing for a wizard to learn as quickly as possible. In any case, many of the things you will be learning this year will be new to all of you. I had already decided that we would not follow the regular OWL schedule." 

"No OWLS?" There was shuffling and whispering at Dumbledore's news.

"I did not say there would be no OWLS," Dumbledore repeated. "What I said, was that we would not follow the regular OWL schedule. I believe there are topics that should be covered that are not usually on the OWLS. With He Who Must Not be Named's return it is imperative that we defend ourselves and defend one another. 

Now on with the business of sorting: Sixth and Seventh Years, there will be special assignments for you this year which I will explain shortly. Therefore, you will not have the time to mentor a first year student."

There was a small outcry from the Ravenclaw table, and Harry glanced at Cho who was now whispering hurriedly to the forth and fifth year girls at her table.

Dumbledore paused and looked over his glasses at Cho. As soon as she felt his eyes on her, she sank into her seat. "Sorry," she murmured, and Dumbledore continued.

"Forth and Fifth years who gain first year students to mentor, if for any reason, you have doubts about the correctness of the sorting of your charge, you must immediately see the head of your house. If you cannot do this, do not volunteer to be a mentor to the new students. In the meantime, we, your teachers will try to determine what happened to the Sorting Hat. Now, we will begin.

Dumbledore raised his hands and slowly lowered them, lowering the light level in the room. As if on cue, Professor Trelawney walked slowly down the center aisle of the Great Hall.

"I have sensed a great disturbance in the peace of the castle," intoned Trelawney. "There is confusion, pain and fear. There is much darkness, even death…"

"Sybil, " said Dumbledore. "We require your assistance. Please come and sit here near the Sorting Stool."

"It is the Hat!" cried Trelawney.

"Ha!" Ron blurted. "What a pity she didn't notice the train wreck."

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "The Hat has failed and we must do the sorting ourselves. The other teachers have reminded me that they usually can tell which students would do well in their own houses, so we were going to assign a student mentor to each new student according to the teacher's suggestions."

"If I may make a suggestion…" 

"Of course, Sybil."

"Obviously, the teachers can feel the harmonic vibrations in their own house, but so can the students," she said.

"I don't exactly feel harmonious right now," whispered Harry to Ron

"If it gets us something to eat, I could probably force it," said Ron. "I feel—chicken—roast beef—"

Harry hid his laugh behind his hand.

"Some students are very adept," Trelawney continued. "I'd like to suggest that we block the entire front of the Great Hall from the view of the older students. Then as each new student sits on the stool, ask for those who volunteer to be the student's mentor to stand. The teachers can choose from the standing students. I venture to guess they will all be from the same house."

Very well, said Dumbledore. "First years, make a cue behind the front table. We will choose you in no particular order so that the older students cannot make assumptions from what the Sorting Hat said about the previously sorted students."

Once the first years were hidden from sight behind Dumbledore's magic screen, he motioned to one of the teacher's to begin. 

"If it helps you to concentrate, close your eyes," whispered Trelawney. She began to hum softly in a monotone voice. To Harry's chagrin, Parvati and Lavender began to hum with her. "Just what his aching head needed," he thought.

"Who will mentor this student?" Asked Dumbledore.

Immediately three Slytherin girls stood up. Dumbledore waited a moment, but no one else stood. He walked behind the screen, presumably to confer with Snape about which of the girls to choose.

"Gloria Snood," he announced "Slytherin. Mentor: Lauren Avery"

"Who will mentor this student?" asked Dumbledore.

Terry Boot rose and then slowly, Alvin Nott of Slytherin then another Ravenclaw, Patama Patil and finally a third Ravenclaw, Justin Finch-Fetchley. Again Dumbledore conferred briefly with the teachers and announced:

"Stuart Anton; Ravenclaw. Mentor Terry Boot."

"Who will mentor this student?" asked Dumbledore.

Hermione stood immediately. After a long pause and a bit of whispering at the Hufflepuff table, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot stood. With hands joined and still humming, Parvati and Lavender rose in exact symmetry. Dumbledore waited but no one else stood. Dumbledore disappeared behind the shield. After a moment he returned and announced:

Beatrice Ellis: Gryffindor. Mentor: Hermione Granger

Who will mentor this student?" asked Dumbledore.

Malfoy stood immediately followed quickly by Crabbe and Goyle. Harry wasn't sure if they felt vibrations or Malfoy's foot kicking them. There was a long pause and a bit of shuffling, then Ginny Weasley stood up. She hadn't even looked at the people who were standing. She had her eyes closed.

"Sit down, Ginny. It's a Slytherin." Ron hissed.

Still Dumbledore hesitated. He went behind the screen as Malfoy looked around the hall and tried to pull Pansy to her feet. She punched him.

Dumbledore returned. 

Samara Donnally; Gryffindor. Mentor: Ginny Weasley.

"Way to go, Ginny," cheered Ron.

"Who will mentor this—"

Cho Chang had already stood up before Dumbledore finished his sentence. As if remembering that she wasn't allowed to mentor a first year, she quickly sat down again. The entire group of forth and fifth year Ravenclaw girls stood.

Ming Chang; Ravenclaw; Mentor: Lisa Turpin

"Are we ever going to get to eat?" moaned Ron.

Two more Hufflepuff's were sorted and another Slytherin. Harry rubbed both hands over his face. Although it was a little slower than the Sorting Hat, Harry thought that it was working out well. He had already decided that he was not going to volunteer. He had too much on his mind with Voldemort's return. The last thing he needed to do was baby-sit. Too bad Hermione decided to take on Beatrice. Oh well, at least he still had Ron…He looked around for his friend and realized that Ron was standing.

So was Goyle.

"Who will mentor this student?"

"Stand up, Harry, "hissed Ron. "I'm sure it's a Gryffindor"

"No. Tell Neville to stand up"

Neville stood.

Crabbe stood.

"Might be a good Quittich player," teased Ron.

Harry stood.

Joseph Foresman; Gryffindor; Ron Weasley Mentor

Who will mentor this student?

Three Hufflepuffs boys stood, followed a moment later by a third Hufflepuff, a girl.

Calvin Anthony; Hufflepuff; Justin Finch-Fetchley, Mentor

"Who will mentor this student?"

Harry's scar pulsed with a dull ache, but that

Didn't mean anything anymore, it had been hurting 

All summer, and more this night since the Dark Mark.

"We need a new keeper and a chaser," said Ron.

"No," Harry hissed, rubbing his scar. Absolutely not.

Malfoy stood. 

"Are you going to let Slytherin have him?"

Lavender and Parvati stood.

"Harry!" 

"No Ron." He said, but even as he spoke, he found himself on his feet.

Edward Lestrange: Gryffindor; Harry Potter, Mentor

"Bloody hell," thought Harry as the new student strode quickly forward to the Gryffindor table and Ron moved over to let him sit by Harry. He shook hands firmly with Harry and smiled. 

"I'm So-o glad to be in Gryffindor," he said. He turned to Ron. " I think I already met your sister," he said as he shook Ron's hand. "Same red hair. Although I'd have to say, she's considerably better looking than you." Edward's grin was open and infectious. Harry noted that even Lavender and Parvati had stopped humming long enough to size up the new Gryffindor.

Edward turned around and met her eye even though she was seated several feet away. "Virginia, right?"

Ginny blushed furiously. "Just Ginny," she murmured.

"Yes," Ron said carefully, "Ginny's my sister. How did you meet her?"

"Oh I was just her transportation. When the car next to us exploded, my first thought was for my broom. Then, she was hurt—so I gave her a ride to safety"

Ron had gone ghost white thinking of Ginny that close to the explosion. "Thanks," Ron whispered.

"No more than anyone would have done. I was just at the right place at the right time."

"You're a first year." Ron whispered. "First years don't have brooms at Hogwarts," 

"Well, I'm not strictly a first year. I'm 13. My Granny wanted us to stay home and learn the basics with some family friends. Then she considered Drumstrang, but I really didn't want to go there." Edward seemed to just notice Neville. "Hey, Hi. I saw you too, but I don't think we were introduced." Edward extended his hand toward Neville.

"Neville Longbottom." 

"Who will mentor this student?"

Pain shot suddenly through Harry's head and he grabbed his scar.

Malfoy stood.

No one else did 

Harry stared at the magic screen as if he could see what

Was behind it. He couldn't.

.

Ethan Lestrange: Slytherin: Draco Malfoy Mentor

Harry looked hard at the boy sitting next to him. He and the boy sitting with Draco Malfoy were identical down to the last dark hair.

Edward smiled thinly. That's my brother—twin actually. I always thought we would be in

the same house. He shrugged.

"You any good at Quiddich,"asked Harry

"Hate the game. But my brother's a decent chaser"

"Terrific…"Harry said dryly.

Not knowing how many more students were sitting behind the screen to be sorted, made many of the students start to get restless. Dumbledore seemed to recognize this and occasionally told them how many students were left to be sorted. "14 more now…" and later, "8 more students." Everyone was so tired. This was much more exhausting than just waiting for the Sorting Hat to decide. Harry couldn't understand why that was so, but everyone seemed to feel it. 

Applause was getting sparser and usually only attempted by the house that won the new person. By now, many of the people Harry knew had first years to mentor. Neither Parvati nor Lavender had anyone, but that could be because they constantly stood up together with their arms locked together. Perhaps Dumbledore thought they were already matched with each other. 

Neville didn't have anyone, but he had only stood up once on his own and that was for a Hufflepuff girl, Justin Fitch-Fently's little sister—and she was little. She didn't look like she could be eleven. She was a thin, frail child who looked as if she might burst into tears any moment. In fact, her face was blotchy and her eyes were red as if she had been crying. 

Maybe Neville didn't trust his Seeing powers. Ha! Not that Harry had any aptitude for divination. He was hoping for a good Quiddich player, but he got the wrong twin. He could wish that they both turned out to be Gryffindors, but they probably weren't. He sighed. He could hope, after all. The Weasley twins were both Gryffindors, but Parvati and her twin sorted into different houses and without the Sorting Hat to be sure. . . 

"And now," Dumbledore interrupted his thoughts, "The final student to be sorted."

The hall broke into weak applause, which died down almost immediately.

"Who will mentor this student?"

No one moved. It could have been that everyone who wanted a little brother or sister already had one, or it could have been that everyone was tired and hungry and no longer 'focusing' as Professor Trelawney kept telling them to do, but for whatever reason, there was a long and agonizing pause. Harry felt sorry for the person who was being sorted. What if no one stood up? If he didn't already have a first year, he would have stood up now. 

There was a sharp 'klunk' as Neville's head slipped from the arm it was resting on and knocked over the table decoration. One of the little spheres that depicted planets fell off and rolled under the table.

Neville stood up and then crawled under the table to fetch it. As soon as Neville was in a standing position again, Dumbledore spoke.

"Llywelyn Styvesant; Gryffindor. Neville Longbottom: Mentor."

Most of the Gryffindor table, who saw what had happened, were laughing, but Dumbledore began the applause and then raised his hands. "I have only two words to say: Let's eat."

The table filled with all sorts of delicious food. 

"At last," sighed Ron and for a while all conversation was centered on the food and the train wreck.

The obvious conclusion was that there was a Death Eater on the train. It had to be a student. Only students were on the train. 

"Malfoy?" Suggested Harry. 

Edward snorted. "Him?" There was a moment of silence as they all considered the possibilities. 

"I know Malfoy's father's a Death Eater," said Harry.

"How on earth would you know that?" interrupted Neville's first year, Lou.

"Long story," said Harry shortly. He had no intention of explaining. "We'll just have to keep our eyes open. There's no way of knowing if Draco took the Dark Mark this summer, short of asking him to see his arm."

"Why would it have to be a student?" asked Hermione. "The Death Eaters could have apparated onto the train."

"No," said Harry. "I don't think you were with us when McGonagall said there were wards on the Hogwart's Express. That's what kept students from getting killed. Of course, I just assumed that they were similar to Hogwart's protections. Maybe the Death Eaters could apparate onto the train." 

"The cars that were burned were cars with the first years," said Lou. "Do you think someone wanted to kill one of the first year students?"

"Hey, Harry," said Ron. "That would be a switch, wouldn't it? Voldemort preoccupied with someone besides yourself."

Neville had started to gather up his plate and utensils. "What's the matter," asked Hermione. "You don't look too well."

"I was just going to sit by Ginny," said Neville. "I can't….I can't…. I just don't want to talk about this.

I'll see you after dinner, alright, Lou?"

"Sure."

"Neville we can talk about something else," suggested Hermione. "You don't have to leave." But Neville had already moved.

"So much for Gryffindor bravado," said Edward.

Harry grabbed the front of Edward's robes. "Don't you ever say that about Neville. You have no idea what he went through. What his parents went through. His dad was an Auror and…" Harry suddenly became aware of what he was about to say. Neville had never told him this story. He had seen it in Dumbledore's pensive and he had no right to tell it to anyone, especially not Edward, who he hardly knew. 

"Never mind," Harry said abruptly releasing Edward's robes. "It's for Neville to tell you, not me." Harry rubbed his hands across his forehead again, and made a conscious effort to get himself under control. 

Edward dragged his hooded eyes from Harry and looked across the table to where Ginny and Neville were talking animatedly to Samara. "Are Ginny and Neville a couple," he inquired softly.

"Would be news to me," said Ron.

"Good." Edward suddenly turned back to Harry with a smile on his face. "So, Harry," he asked, "Have you decided what classes we are taking this year?" 

"Same as Ron, I guess," said Harry. "I still don't really know what wizarding skills are important.

How about you, Hermione? You aren't using a time-turner or anything this year for classes, are you?"

"Not this year," Hermione said. "The Ravenclaws had them all signed out by the time I decided."

"You are hopeless," Ron said while stuffing a piece of chicken into his mouth. "Why would you want to torture yourself?"

"I just think I should try to learn everything I can while I am here. You grew up in a wizarding family. Many of the things you take for granted, I don't even know."

"But you're not taking Divination are you?" Ron questioned.

"No. In my opinion, that is a complete waste of time. If I need to find out the future, I can do just fine with Arithmancy. Trelawney is a complete fraud."

"So—"Interrupted Harry "You're taking Arithmancy again this year…"

"And we'll have Potions together, and Defense and Transfiguration. What are you doing for your Herbology elective?" asked Ron. "Plants that poison or Healing Herbs?"

"Healing Herbs. I thought there would be less likelihood of the class being overrun with Slytherins, " said Hermione.

"I wonder who the new Care of Magical Creatures Prof will be," said Harry.

"Forget Care of Magical Creatures. I wonder who the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be," countered Ron.

Just then, Dumbledore clapped his hands for quiet. "I seems as if most of you are finished with the main course of your dinner. If you are still working on dessert, just go ahead and eat while you listen. I don't mind your chewing, and we took so long with the Sorting, I thought we'd better go ahead with this year's announcements. First of all, The Forbidden Forest is still forbidden. Also, there will be no Care of Magical Creatures Class until later this year since Hagrid is gathering the Giants to help us in our cause. And now, I'd like to introduce an old friend and a new teacher this year, Mrs. Arabella Figg. We are very lucky to have Mrs. Figg with us. She is an excellent witch and I'm sure you will learn a lot from her—"

"Didn't you study with her, Beatrice?" Harry asked leaning across Hermione. "What is she like?"

"Is she a Gryffindor?" Ron interrupted.

Beatrice started to answer, but the room erupted into applause led by Dumbledore when they looked up, Mrs. Figg was standing and smiling. Snape was smiling too.

"Oh-oh. Snape smiling. That means trouble," said Ron.

"Will you two shut up?" said Hermione. "I didn't hear what Mrs. Figg is going to teach."

"They didn't announce it," piped in Lavender.

"Well it's obvious, isn't it? There's only one opening isn't there? Defense," said Ron, but he quieted down so that they could listen to Dumbledore's speech.

"And so," Dumbledore continued. The sixth and seventh years will be doing quite a lot of fieldwork with selected wizards, including Professor Snape, Professor Lupin."

"Lupin, the werewolf?" Came a loud whisper from the Hufflepuff table.

Dumbledore ignored the shuffling, and continued. "Arthur Weasley, Percy Weasley, and others. Some of your classes will be combined, because as I'm sure you've noticed, there is less than 50% of the wizards here who are eligible to be here. I can only assume that some of them, have already sided with Voldemort, and will not return to us. Others decided to support the Ministry of Magic and Cornelius Fudge, which I understand they may think, is neutral territory. However, in this fight, there will be no shades of gray. Wizards will either be with Voldemort or against him. I'm not sure what that will do to the wizards who try to side with the Ministry. I'm afraid they will have too little defense and be too late to stop Voldemort. That is the reason for the field works at the Ministry, which will be headed by the Weasley's. We must allow those who side with the Ministry now a chance to oppose Voldemort whole-heartedly if they wish to do so at a later date.

When the sixths and seventh years are absent, that will mean that the fifth years have seniority. Fifth years, I expect you to act accordingly. I'm afraid you will have to grow up rather quickly. Which brings me to the schedule changes, most notably, Apparition for fifth years, taught by Professor Sinistra. It will be a small class and give each of you a chance to mingle with the other houses. Learn the names of your fellow wizards, and of equal importance, learn to whom they give their allegiance. That fact may save your life or the life of someone you care about in the times to come.

A murmuring and stir of movement at the Ravenclaw table, caused Dumbledore to pause. "Did you have a question, Miss Chang?"

"Yes, sir. If the sixth and seventh years are going to be traveling, what will happen to the Quiddich Teams?"

"I'm afraid, Miss Chang that we may have a very different Quiddich season, this year. For those of you who will be graduating, I know that your last year of Quiddich is very special to you, but we all must be prepared to make sacrifices. I don't want to cancel Quiddich at this time…"

"Cancel Quiddich!" The murmuring turned to a low roar and Dumbledore raised his hands, but the murmuring didn't cease and he was forced to clap several times, the last time obviously magically enhanced, before the hall quieted.

"As I was saying, I don't want to cancel Quiddich. Voldemort wants to put us all in a panic. To change our day to day routines and let him control our lives by succumbing to fear. We need to be prepared, but not panicked. Even after the attack on the Hogwarts Express, we must not panic. Let's all remember that the protections and wards around the Hogwarts Express, obviously kept our students from being killed. Even the injuries were primarily minor. It is the fear that paralyses us which could cause our downfall. We will not succumb to that fear." 

There was a pause and then Roger Davies began slowly applauding, followed by a few other Ravenclaws and older Gryffindors. Harry and Ron joined in as the entire Gryffindor table broke into applause, followed by the Hufflepuffs. Harry noted that the Slytherins were applauding sparingly and looking around their table as if to try to discern which of the Slytherins really agreed with him and which were playing the role of good student to hide their Death Eater reality. Surely, the teachers had already figured out that at least one of the students had to be able to conjure the Dark Mark, unless it was Snape. The explosion happened close to the school. Harry glanced at the head table, but Snape was also applauding with the other teachers,

not that his applauding made Harry trust him. The applause died down, and those students who had stood, sat back down. 

"Thank you for your show of support," Dumbledore said. "I wish I had such support from the Ministry, but perhaps this attack on the Hogwarts Express will open their eyes." He took a deep breath and continued. "So, as I started to explain, we will continue to have Quiddich as always, but I suggest that each of the teams practice with substitute players because you never know when one of your key players will not be available to play—especially if those players are sixth and seventh years. I will not compromise our protection and our intelligence network because of a school Quiddich game. Surely you see that."

The hall fell into embarrassed silence. Of course, defeating Voldemort was more important than Quiddich, but it was a blow, especially to the graduating students to learn that Quiddich would play such a small part in their lives this year.

"Continuing with schedule changes, first years as stated before, will take classes with their mentors, unless they are one of the many wizards found by our search teams. You may have more advanced skills and have to be scheduled differently, but you will begin classes tomorrow with your mentors, except for first period, which will be beginning flying. Madam Hooch wants to test each of you and decide whether or not you need a flying class. If you do not, you will be free to choose another elective class. By the end of the week, you will all have met with the head of your house to discuss any difficulties with your class schedule or your house placement and corrections will be made. 

"I would like to honor the brave and quick thinking actions of the upperclassmen, who rescued the first years who were trapped. I applaud you now." Dumbledore brought his hands together and immediately, most of the Hall broke into applause. As soon as the noise died down, Dumbledore said, "Now, you may socialize here in the Great Hall or retire to your common rooms at your leisure. I remind you, classes begin tomorrow. And, I bid you all, Welcome to Hogwarts!"

The teachers began drifting around the hall to talk to each other and to the students. The Ravenclaw table cleared out almost immediately. Edward got up and excused himself. "I want to talk to my brother for a minute," he said and strode across the room to Draco and his gang. After a few moments, Hermione and Beatrice stood too. "We'll see you back in the common room," said Hermione. "If you aren't too late. I want to go to bed early tonight to be fresh for class tomorrow. I'm just going to show Beatrice around Gryffindor a little bit."

Harry nodded, his eyes still watching Edward, now talking animatedly with his twin brother and Draco Malfoy. 

"Wait, Hermione. Samara and I will come with you, " Ginny called. Then more softly, she continued, "Do you know that I'm the only Fourth year Gryffindor girl who has returned to Hogwarts this year? As a matter of fact, there's just Colin Creevey, Eloise Midgin and me from fourth year. None of the other Gryffindor's have returned. Professor McGonagall is trying to decide whether to put us with Gryffindor Fifth years or with the Ravenclaw fourth years. She said she'd work on it tonight and I should see her in the morning before class.

"Are you coming, Harry?" called Ron who was walking a little behind the girls with his first year, Joe.

Harry gestured toward Edward, who was now sitting at the Slytherin table. Hermione saw Harry's predicament and waited too.

Samara wasn't as subtle. "Hey, Eddie!" she yelled across the Great Hall. "Move your ass! Unless you're planning on sleeping with the Slytherins tonight!"

Ed looked up and then sauntered across the hall to them. The Slytherins were doubled over in bouts of laughter. "Past your bedtime, Eddie?" Malfoy called and Harry noticed that Ed's twin punched him hard enough to take the wind out of his insult. 

Snape moved to the Slytherin table, apparently taking care of his golden boy, Malfoy. 

Edward didn't turn around. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting," he apologized to Harry, but his eyes didn't meet Harry's. They were already fixed on Samara with a murderous stare, and he moved forward so angrily that Harry unconsciously reached for his wand, but instead of hurting her, Edward wrapped his arm around Samara's waist. Harry noticed she didn't protest as he leaned his head close and whispered something to her from between clenched teeth. She laughed aloud and tossed her glorious mane of black hair as she glanced back to the Slytherin table. Harry felt a knot tighten in his stomach as Edward reached out his other arm and wrapped it around Ginny.

"Ginny and I are going to take our first years on a tour of Gryffindor," Hermione said. "Neville and Lou are coming. Are you and Ron bringing your first years too?" she asked Harry.

"Ron can do what he likes." said Harry. "I'm going to bed."

"What about Edward?" asked Hermione. 

"He looks like he's doing fine without me," said Harry. "Good night."


	4. CH 3: Tricks, Treats and Lack of Sleep

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Tricks, Treats and Lack of Sleep 

****

Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER:

I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

Hogwarts and all of the characters belong to JK Rowlings, except for:

Lorissa Cantsay

Samara Donnally

Beatrice Ellis

Llywelyn Styvesant

Joseph Foresman

Stuart Anton

Calvin Anthony

Gloria Snood

Lyle Applegate

Christi Prentice

Josie Perkins

and the Halston boy

so far...I still need a Chaser...

Since Rowlings mentions a few last names, I can't take credit for them. 

They are JKR's; but I made up first names to go with them.

Edward

Ethan

Valerianna

Desmond

Marshall

Lauren

Laural

Alvin

Ming

Hey, It's a big school!

****

Chapter 4

Tricks, Treats and Lack of Sleep

Ginny awoke from the Dream with a start. It was the first time she'd had the Dream for more than 3 years. She was in a cold sweat. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't help herself. She checked her feet and robe for dirt. She checked the bed for rooster feathers. She got up out of bed, flinging the covers on the floor. There were no feathers. There was no blood. Her wand was right by her bed on the nightstand where she had left it. For a crazy moment, she thought she should hide it in her trunk, like she did that first year: hide it from Tom_. _

"You can't hide anything from me, Virginia. Even the memory of him terrified her, but that was all he was, even from the beginning, he was only a memory. _"I'm your best friend. Your secret friend. You can tell me everything."_

She had told him everything that first year. She told him about her secret feelings for Harry. Tom never laughed at her, but then he was good at being everything she wanted, as long as she was everything he wanted. 

_"You're perfect Virginia." _After her stay at St. Mongo's in the summer after her first year, she thought Tom was gone for good. The doctors had told her that she might have flashbacks to her first year's terror, but it had not happened. Not until now.

"Ginny?" Parvati, who was usually a light sleeper, awoke. "Ginny what are you doing?"

"Nothing. I just had a nightmare."

"Oh. Well, go back to sleep," Parvati grumbled, rolling over and facing the wall.

Sleep? That was impossible, just now. Ginny sat wide-eyed on the edge of her bed for a moment, telling herself that she was Ginny. Virginia Weasley. She wouldn't let him take her name away from her. She could be Ginny or even Virginia if she wanted to because Tom Riddle was no longer a part of her. The diary was destroyed and he couldn't hurt her. He was gone. GONE. Only, he wasn't gone, because he was Lord Voldemort and he was very much alive. Ginny stuck her fist in her mouth, to keep from crying.

Suddenly, Parvati turned back to Ginny. "Was it a Seeing?" She asked groggily. 

"Huh? Oh. No," said Ginny. "It wasn't."

"You should write it down," she mumbled. "Show it to Professor Trelawney."

Gawd. That was all she needed. "No," Ginny said more firmly. "It wasn't a Seeing. Go back to sleep Parvati. Thanks." 

Ginny sat perfectly still. She wanted to stand and pace. She needed to try to shake off the feeling that Tom was looking over her shoulder. She knew what she would see if she closed her eyes and she didn't want to see it. If she were back at the burrow, she would go down to the kitchen and make some hot chocolate. Here at Hogwarts, that wasn't an option, or was it?

Ginny waited until Parvati snuggled back down under the covers, and her breathing was even and steady. Then Ginny picked up her night robe from the bottom of the bed and slid her feet into her slippers. Maybe she couldn't go to the kitchen, but she couldn't stay in bed either. The house elves would be asleep. It was after midnight: how long after, she wasn't sure. She had forgotten to look at the clock on her night stand when she picked up her wand. As she headed out of the girl's dormitory, she wondered how late Fred and George nicked food from the kitchens. She would just go down to the common room. It would be empty by now. 

Ginny wandered into the common room and headed for the big overstuffed rocking chairs by the fireplace. The fire of course, was not lit. It was too warm for a fire, but that part of the common room always felt the coziest to Ginny. She remembered sitting there by Ron and Harry after Hermione was petrified that first year. 

She had wanted to tell them about Tom then, but he wouldn't let her. _"You can't do anything without me, Ginny. You are mine. Take me with you. Take me with you everywhere." _

Unconsciously, Ginny felt for the diary in her robes, but it wasn't there of course. She didn't even have a pocket on the left side in her night robe, just the pocket on the right. There was no diary. It was only her imagination that made her so nervous. Ginny heard the portrait hole open with a click behind her, and the Fat Lady saying good night to whomever was coming in at this late hour. Ginny froze. If she stayed just where she was, she was hidden behind the tall back of the chair, but what if they weren't alone. She didn't want to eavesdrop on some lover's tryst. It was better if she made herself known right away. 

She swiveled the rocker to meet the late comer.

"Bloody Hell!" He jumped into a fighting stance and Ginny found herself facing the business end of his wand.

"Edward?" His hair was wet and tousled as if he'd been running his fingers through it—or maybe someone else was—

"Virginia. I'm so sorry. I didn't know anyone else was here." He said, lowering his wand. "That was stupid. I'm just a little jumpy that's all."

"No one can blame you," said Ginny. "Train wreck. Dark Mark in the sky. You've had quite a first day at Hogwarts. I guess you've found—" She hesitated, hating to say it. Here she was, thinking that maybe she could put Harry out of her mind at last, but the first guy she was interested in probably had a girlfriend. "A friend." She finished. "You've found a friend already though. That's a good thing, right?" 

"Yeah." Edward paced to the fireplace and lit a fire with his wand. It looked a little silly. He didn't conjure any logs: just flames. Maybe he didn't know how, and Ginny wasn't going to point out his shortcomings.

"Is it raining?" Ginny asked.

"I—I don't think so, why?"

"Your hair is wet."

There was an uncomfortable silence. "I guess, I'll go back to bed, now" said Ginny standing.

"No. I mean, don't go. You were here first" Silence again stretched before them.

"I'll tell you," said Edward after a moment. He turned to face the fire.

"Tell me what?"

"How my hair got wet."

"I don't want to know. It's none of my business how your hair got wet." 

"Did you know the prefects have private bathrooms?" asked Edward softly.

"I've heard they're supposed to be," said Ginny, 

"They haven't changed the password since my grandmother was here" he said. "Pine fresh."

Ginny started to laugh. She knew that was true, but she still felt he was holding something back from his explanation. Perhaps it was whom he was sharing the private bathroom with.

"Ok, so my secret's out, now." Said Edward. "What about you? Why are you sitting in the common room all alone so late at night? Are you feeling all right? Burns hurting."

"No. Madam Pomfrey took care of that. I just couldn't sleep," said Ginny. She didn't want to mention her nightmares. It made her seem weak or crazy or both. "I was thinking about raiding the kitchen."

"You know where it is?" Said Edward excitedly. 

" She nodded." 

"Well, let's go. I'll come with you."

"Sh-h. You have to be quiet," she said, as she led the way. "We don't want Filch to catch us."

"Who's Filch?"

"Caretaker, and then there's his evil cat, Mrs. Norris."

"Who would name a cat Mrs. Norris?"

"Well, I sometimes wonder if it's just a cat," said Ginny.

Ginny knew there was a tunnel passage that would put them nearer to the kitchen, but after her dream she had no intention of going that way. She would rather take the main hall and brave the possibility of meeting Filch. It was quiet as they worked their way down the hall, but as they reached the area near the Great Hall, Ginny heard whispered voices. She ducked back into an alcove as two other sleepless students strolled down the hall as if they owned the place. She didn't know them and they swept by without noticing anyone else in the hall. They didn't see her or Edward. Ginny let out her breath in a long sigh. "Come on," she whispered. Turning the other way, toward the kitchen.

The howl of a cat froze her on the spot, but Mrs. Norris was no where in sight. "Cat," Edward whispered, and catching his hand, Ginny sprinted silently down the hall, then she realized that it was the other students that Mrs. Norris had caught. In a moment, Filtch would be along, but the kitchen was only a few more steps away. 

"Here," she whispered, while reaching up to tickle the pear. It laughed and if Ginny could have made it laugh more quietly she would have. In a moment the pear turned into a doorknob and still holding hands, they hurried into the kitchen.

"Ms. Weasley," said Winky. "You are hungry for snacks like your brothers?"

Ginny's mouth fell open. "Brothers."

"We have many snacks made now," Winky continued. "Cheese or cookies. Maybe you want some potatoes and meat pie from dinner? Sit. . ."

"Virginia Weasley! What are you doing here?" demanded a familiar voice. It almost sounded almost like Percy—no, it was Fred.

She gasped as she saw the twins sitting at a table, which held such a variety of foods that rivaled the great hall dining table. "I could ask you the same question," she snapped.

"What does it look like we're doing?" said George as he stuck a whole cracker piled high with cheese and meat into his mouth. "We're ea'ing." 

Fred just noticed Edward standing with his arm draped carelessly over Ginny's shoulder. "And who are you?" he growled. 

"And what are you doing with our sister in the middle of the night?" George added, eyeing her night robe and slippers.

"Oh, this is Edward," said Ginny. "Edward, my over protective brothers, Fred and George," she introduced. "Edward was the one who got me off the train," Ginny explained.

Edward extended his hand to the twin in front of him.

"Honestly, Ginny. I'm George. He's Fred."

"No you're not," said Ginny. "You can pull that with Mom, but not with me. So what do you have good, here." She pulled up a chair next to Fred and took the last orange from the dish and started to peel it. "No hot chocolate?" she asked.

"Winky will be getting you some right away." Said the house elf. My master loved hot chocolate too.

He said it—" Winky covered her mouth in horror. She hurried to get the hot chocolate and some more fruit in case they wanted it. 

Fred wiped his hand and extended it to Edward. "Welcome to the kitchen," he said. "Just remember this is our domain, and Ginny is our sister. You treat her right or we'll hex you."

"Quit it, guys," said Ginny as her ears started to get red.

"Fred's right," said George matter of factly, as he shook hands with Edward. "If you hurt our baby sister, we'll just poison you."

"Stop the teasing," said Ginny sharply. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions. Anyway, we just met in the common room, and were hungry. Nothing's going on."

"Umm. These are good," said Fred. "Cream tarts." He was holding one out to Edward.

"No!" said Ginny recognizing it as a Canary Cream and knocked it out of his hand.

"Ah, Ginny, I wasn't going to poison him."

Edward's eyes narrowed, trying to decide whether Fred was teasing or not. 

"Just turn him into a canary."

"I thought you said your brothers were all in Gryffindor," said Edward.

"It's just a temporary canary," said Ginny.

"Oh well, that makes a difference," said Edward.

"Fred's the one you have to watch out for," said Ginny.

"So how do I tell you two apart," said Edward, as he started to make himself a sandwich from the food on the table.

"I'm the smart one," they both said together. 

Edward laughed. "No kidding," he said. "That's how you tell me apart from my twin too."

"Well, that and the color of the crest on your robes," said Ginny. As soon as she said it she knew she shouldn't have.

"Couldn't imagine not having George in my house," said Fred.

"What do you mean your house, it's my house," said George.

"So what house is your brother in, Edward?" Asked Fred still munching crackers.

"Well, with the Sorting Hat messing up…" interrupted Ginny.

"Slytherin," said Edward.

There was a long silence and then Fred piped up, "In that case, here's a Canary Cream for your brother."

Edward smiled a slow sly smile and took the candy. "That would be really fun," he said, "After all the times he's gotten me in trouble… Could I have a few of them?"

The twins didn't tease Ginny any more, but they waited until Ginny and Edward were done eating and walked them back to the common room. Ginny noticed that they didn't use the secret tunnel either and they didn't leave until she was safely in the girl's dormitory. At least, she felt sleepy now—sleepy and happy. She was hoping for good dreams.

Ginny had been up late last night; thus she was running late for breakfast. Parvati was still sleeping and Lavender was trying to decide which clothes to wear under her robes. Not that it made much difference. No one saw them under the robes anyway. Neither of them usually made it to breakfast, preferring instead to take the extra time in getting ready for the day at a leisurely pace.

"Are you ready yet? Samara," Ginny called to Sam. I'm starved. I won't make it through class without breakfast especially with all the incense fumes, and you have to get all the way down to the Quiddich field for flying.

"Coming."

" Take your Herbology book, Sam. We'll meet there. We won't have time to come back to the room."

Samara still hadn't appeared.

"Samara!" Ginny was pacing at the door, when Samara finally emerged from the girl's bathroom while blowing on bright blue, wet fingernails.

"Oh shit." She stopped at her desk and looked for the Herbology book, which was wedged between two other books on the desk. "Ginny help me out here," she said, pointing to the book, while continuing to blow on the wet nail polish.

Ginny started back into the room but Lavender took out her wand. "Arefacio," she said and Samara felt a warm rush of air "Never trust Ginny to dry your nails. She's never even been close to a bottle of nail polish. She might use 'Exuro' and set your fingers on fire."

"I would not," said Ginny indignantly. She didn't want to argue her little bit of time away when she was already late, so she just shrugged and started down to the Great Hall with Samara following. "It looks like you do a better glamour charm than Lavender," Ginny commented. "She'll want to know what it is before the end of the week."

"It's not a glamour charm. It's muggle make up," said Samara. They continued their conversation about make up and various beauty aids until they got into the Great Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table. Ron and Harry ignored them. They were arguing with Fred and George about why they were too fragile to test the twins' newest candy: Dragon Breath Mints. That reminds me, Ginny announced to the nearby first years. She looked for Edward, but he was standing at the Slytherin table talking to his brother and Draco. "Never take candy from Fred and George," she said. They told the first years some of the funny stories from past years. Lou turned to George and tried to get him to divulge just a few secret recipes, but he was being closed mouthed.

So what's the dream team doing after classes today?" Fred asked Ron, Harry and Hermione. 

"Splitting up," answered Hermione. I'm going to the library to get on the tutor schedule. My parents are cutting my spending money this year. They said I had to contribute or cut the Hogsmeade weekend spending down."

"And I have Quiddich Practice. Well not strictly practice, said Harry as Edward returned to the Gryffindor table and sat beside Harry. " We're going to make some plans for the Quiddich Tryouts tomorrow, and just open flying. Why don't you at least try out? Harry asked Edward for the tenth time this morning."

"I don't like the game." Said Edward.

"Leave it, Harry," said Ron. "Maybe he can't fly a broom."

"Oh yes he can," said Ginny. "I mean, I was unconscious, but Madam Pomfrey was amazed he could handle the broom when I couldn't even sit up. It would have been—" Ginny broke off, turning red around the ears.

Edward glared at Ron and then brightened at Ginny's praise. "Ahh Ginny, don't share our secrets." 

She blushed even redder.

"I would love to try out for Quiddich," said Samara. "But I've never even been on a broom."

"Well," said Harry after a long pause. "Usually, first years don't get to be on the team unless they—" He paused. "Well usually they don't, but this isn't a usual year so who knows. You have to be pretty athletic. Not too much room for mistakes when you are 30 feet in the air."

"I am pretty athletic," Samara retorted. "I'm going to go crazy here. It seems Quiddich is the only form of real exercise or sport. There are no dance classes. No gymnastics. No softball. I have to do something so I guess it will have to be Quiddich."

"Ok, then let's meet back at the common room after classes," said Harry. Maybe we can switch around our first years," he said to Ginny. " I'll take Samara. You take Edward."

"I REALLY think I'll manage by myself for a few hours," Edward said. 

"Oh fine," said Ginny sharply. "If you don't come with me, because I had other things to do anyway." She was glaring at him.

Edward looked around, aware that he had made a mistake, but for the life of him, he couldn't see what it was.

"Well then. That's settled," he said. He paused and listened to the silence. Usually he liked silence, but there was tension in the air and he didn't know why or how to fix it. 

The tension was broken by a stir at the Slytherin table as Malfoy suddenly turned into a large yellow canary, followed immediately by both Crabbe and Goyle. 

"Do they always do everything Malfoy does?" said Edward in a disgusted voice. 

"I thought you wanted to get your brother," said George laughing.

"I just did," said Edward pointing at the Slytherin table as Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle all turned to Ethan with wands out. There was a snap as all three tried to hex him and Ethan retaliated. Snape was bearing down on the table with an ugly sneer, and Malfoy was whining something about "Those Damn Weasleys." 

Just then, the post owls fluttered into the Great Hall. A low flying Eagle Owl flew inches from Beatrice's head and she ducked and screeched. "I thought it was going to hit me," she explained, embarrassed.

The Daily Profit dropped in front of Hermione and Earl fluttered in and dropped on the table. One wing slapped into the marmalade, in front of Ginny and made a mess of orange on the table.

"Stupid bird," said Ron. 

"Well that's why Mom sends me owls instead of you," said Ginny calmly taking the letter from Earl's leg.

Samara started to wipe the sticky mess off of Earl's wing with a napkin.

"No," said Ron. "It's because you write back."

"I'll get it," said Ginny to Samara. "Purgo," she said and let Earl have a sip of orange juice. "I think he likes orange," Ginny confided. "He always lands in the marmalade or my orange juice, and personally, I'd rather do a cleaning spell on him, than a drying spell one me."

"Hey look at this," said Hermione. "On page 5. Can you believe it?_ Hogwarts Express Derailed_."

She showed them a tiny article:

The Hogwarts express was derailed on its journey to the famous Wizarding school last evening. The wreck, which is attributed to a mechanical error, occurred at 5:39 pm. Due to the quick thinking of the upperclassmen, all of the students were flown by broomstick from the train to Hogwarts. Even all pets were accounted for with the exception of a common brown barn owl, which officials believe may have mistakenly flown home instead of to Hogwarts. All parents were owled concerning the incident, but as no students were seriously injured, there will be no investigation.

"I can't believe it," said Harry. "What's wrong with the ministry? There was a Dark Mark, for gosh sakes!"

"That's Fudge for you," said Ron. "Who knows what Percy sees in him. The man is just plain crazy. I don't know how long he can hide his head and pretend that He who must not be named is not on the rise."

"Mom's asking for confirmation that nothing other than a simple mechanical failure happened to the Hogwarts Express," said Ginny. "What do you think I should tell her? She says Earl's to wait for a reply."

"The truth," said Ron. "No wait. I'll write to her." He began rummaging through his bag. "Ginny, he said, "Do you have a piece of parchment?"

She sighed and handed him one along with her quill. Then she and Samara began feeding Earl tidbits from their plates.

"We should be getting to class," Hermione said. "Arithmancy is just around the corner, but it's a long climb to Divination."

"Are you still taking the stairs?" Asked Fred 

"Why don't you take the lift?" Asked George in unison with his brother.

"There. Done." Said Ron. Tying the letter home to Earl's leg. 

"There's a lift?" said Harry. "We've been walking up all those stairs for three years…"

"Harry. Map." Said Fred.

"But now that you've told us about the shortcut," interrupted Ron, "You have to tell where the secret passages are."

"Not until you taste a Dragon Breath Mint," said George

"Are these going to set my mouth on fire?" 

"Of course not," said Fred. " We wouldn't hurt our little brother."

"Right." Said Ron sarcastically, holding the mint in his hand and examining it. He smelled it. It smelled like cinnamon. It definitely could have fooled anyone who thought it was a normal, muggle mint, but Ron knew better. "So what does it do?"

"Oh come on Ron, that takes all the fun out of it." Said George.

"Does it explode?"

"Ron!" said Fred and George together. "Just taste it."

Harry looked at his watch. "We've wasted too much time already. We need the short cut now," he said. "So either take it, or we've got to run."  


"OK. It can't be worse than running up 12 flights of stairs, can it?" Said Ron.

Harry had his doubts about that, but Ron had already popped the mint into his mouth. Immediately he opened his mouth again.

"Ha! Hot!" He said, and a large spout of blue flame erupted from his mouth.

Everyone started to laugh including Ron. Tiny puffs of smoke came out of his mouth.

He sucked on the mint for another minute. 

"Good. Cinnamon." More smoke billowed out.

I still wish we could have managed the red flame, said George. "But we thought we'd have to save those for the Slytherins. It wouldn't just taste hot; it would fry the roof of your mouth."

"We can't figure out how to make it red and harmless at the same time." Said Fred.

At least they don't taste nasty," said Ron, "and after the first blast of flame, that's it right?" Several more large puffs of smoke came out of his mouth. "I guess I'll have to keep my mouth shut."

"Won't help." Said Fred.

"It will come out your nose," said George.

Samara was laughing so hard she had to lean on Ginny for support.

"Oh Great, for how long?" Ron complained.

"About a half hour."

"Don't worry about it, said Harry. It's Divination. No one will notice a little extra smoke with all the incense. Let's go. Be glad it's not Snape's class. He'd take 10 points from Gryffindor every time you breathed. "

"I usually feel that way even without smoke," said Neville

Still giggling, Hermione asked. " OK, where's the shortcut? Do you think you can find Herbology OK, Beatrice?"

"Yes," she said. "You can see the greenhouse from the Quiddich Field, can't you,"

"You can," said Harry. " See you at Herbology, then." 

The first years were leaving breakfast in a little group. It reminded Harry of how he felt good about his new friends when he had first come to Hogwarts, five years ago. Fred and George had started to leave the table.

"Fred and George," puffed Ron. "Shortcut."

"Oh right. Do you know the secret passage by the red tapestry?" asked Fred.

"No…" Said Ron with still more smoke

"OK. Do you see the red tapestry?" George pointed.

"Way down at the end of the hall?" Finished Fred.

"I think so," said Ginny. 

"When you get to the tapestry, face it, and count to the third knight on the right. Behind him is a secret passage, which will lead you down a level. You will come out behind the blue tapestry by the entrance to Snape's Dungeon. Do you know it?"

Ginny shook her head. " Is this one of those tunnel secret passages? I hate those."

"Honestly, Ginny, Quit whining. I don't know how you can be our sister. You must be adopted."

"Don't tease her." Said Hermione. You know why she hates those tunnels," 

Ginny turned a bright red. "OK, red tapestry, third knight on the- the-.."

"Right. Red. Right.. Blue Left. So when you get out of the blue tapestry turn left. That takes you to the picture of the fruit. Do you know it?"

"The one that leads to the kitchen?" asked Harry. 

"The very one. Tickle the pear."

"I remember, but that goes down," Harry said 

"It does, but only down another flight to the kitchen. 

"It was only 12 flights before," said Ron, among clouds of smoke. "Now you are making it 14. Are you sure this is a short cut?"

"Look, " said George, "Once you are in the kitchen ask one of the house elves to show you the elevator "They take to the tower to give Trelawney her food." Said Fred. "It saves about 14 stories of walking."

"Ok. We've got it." Said Hermione. . "Come on. We'd better run." She waved at Fred and George. "Thanks guys."

They hurried down the hall and sure enough, the passage behind the knight was a tunnel. It was dim, dank and cramped. 

Harry held up his wand. "Lumos!" he said. 

Ron moved back to Ginny. "You ok?" he whispered. He had noticed that she was taking slow deep breaths and looked like she could have used a dose from Beatrice's puffer. She was muttering something under her breath.

Once they got out of the tunnel and headed for the kitchen, Hermione paused at an intersection of corridors.

"Don't believe any of Trelawney's death threats," said Hermione.

Before they could answer, Hermione had turned the corner and headed toward Arithmancy. "See you later." She called.

Once in the kitchens, it was difficult to get out. The house elves wanted to feed them even though they assured the elves that they had had a wonderful breakfast. They finally each took a piece of fruit and a cookie and a couple of mints which started them on gales of laughter again. Finally, Dobby told them where the lift was. The lift was small—only big enough for a house elf to take a tray of food to Trelawney so only two or maybe three students could be stuffed into it at a time. Neville went first with Ginny. Ron's billows of smoke clouded the whole interior of the lift. I hope we don't set off any fire alarms in here, said Harry.

"What?" More smoke billowed out.

"Never mind, just keep your mouth shut," said Harry. 

Once on the lift, it was only a moment until they were at the top of the tower where Trelawney held classes.

"Come in, my dears," said Trelawney "My favorite class."

"That's only because we predicted our own deaths so many times," said Ron.

"I hope we don't have to do that all this year," said Harry. "I've run out of catastrophes."

"Today, we have a treat." Said Trelawney. "Our own Miss Patil has had a vision—on the Hogsmeade Express. It's one of several visions actually. I haven't figured out exactly how they work together, but this one, I have no doubt about. It is spectacular."

"Probably killed off half of Hogsmeade," said Ron.

"Miss Patil's prediction is actually a twin prediction to my own. Of course, it would have been better if Lavender hadn't touched her," Trelawney said dreamily.

"Sure," muttered Ron sarcastically "Just let her burn in the car."

"Miss Patil's vision seems to over lap and then continue further into the future than my own prediction," said Trelawney. " So, as some background, let me tell you about my own prediction. I had this seeing when I was just 12 years old. It was one of my first true seeings." Trelawney sat down on her pouf and folded her bedangled hands in her lap.

" I hated potions," Trelawney continued. "So messy and nasty..."

"First true thing she's ever said." Whispered Ron.

Lavender hushed him.

"But I had a wonderful teacher. She was so patient with all of us. Tears welled up in Trelawny's eyes and she took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. She was one of the world's true heroes. It was at the height of Grindlewald's power. . . 

She tried to bring him down with a Clematis potion: disguised as a medicine. It would have worked, but he was warned, and she was forced to drink one of her own poisons."

"A wonderful teacher?" murmured Harry. "Sounds like she could have given Snape some competition if you ask me."

"Headmaster Dippit came to tell us," Trelawney Continued. "We were all upset, but I was distraught. That was when I saw the cauldron spilling out and then the words started to come: They were flowing right out of the cauldron, burning into the sky with a ghastly green light.

Dippit recognized my despair as a seeing right away. He charmed a quill to copy down my words. That is why it is so important to have someone who can write down a seeing as it is happening or at least immediately afterwards. That is what Parvati did. She immediately came to me and I wrote down her 

Seeing in the most meticulous detail. It's important to tell you that Parvati has had several Seeings. The question is how they are related to one another. 

Parvati, would you please read to the class, your summary of your seeing last night."

Parvati stood up. Harry wasn't sure if she was flushed from excitement or embarrassment.

"It's ok," Trelawney said softly. "You were on the train with your friends, correct."

Yes," Parvati said. "We were on the train. A lot of Gryffindors were crowded into the compartment. We were just talking when the first explosion hit. Harry and Ron went for their brooms. They said something

About saving the first years."

There was a little twitter of whispers, but Parvati continued.

"I saw the first years on the train, but it wasn't the train, it was the Sorting, but the Sorting was on the train. One of the first years had the hat on, but I couldn't see who it was. The Sorting Hat was pulled down over the face. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. 

Then, the founders were there in the compartment: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw. They were all there and they were arguing over the child: pulling the child. They were hurting the child: I heard the screams. I thought, if they don't stop, they will pull him or her apart. I knew if they destroyed the child, all would be lost. 

Then a phoenix flew in: It looked like Headmaster Dumbledore's bird, but that could be, because I haven't seen any other phoenixes. And when he flew over the child, the whole compartment burst into flames. It was in flames and they were in a panic. They were running around the compartment, but it didn't seem like a compartment. It seemed bigger--or they were smaller. They were jumping and scratching to get out. Some were flying, but not on brooms...just flying...Then they were gone.

They were sucked out of the car, by floo powder or a portkey or apparated. -- just gone and I was frantic to get to them...to find them At first I thought I was looking for all of them, but then I knew, it was just the one child I was looking for. Upon this one child rests the future of the wizarding world. I had to claim the child for the light. I got the car door open and there was nothing on the floor, except a book. . . . . It was

A diary...

Ron glanced at Ginny, who was silently biting her lip, and then back to Parvati who was now wringing her hands. She looked at Trelawney. "I don't like this part," she said.

"Me either," thought Ginny. She was breathing fast, and Ron stretched his fingers across the table to hold her hand.

"It will be alright," Trelawney assured Parvati. "We need to know. Something here in your vision will touch someone who will understand."

"I picked up the book." Her voice dropped to a horrified whisper. "There were snakes. One after the other they came out of the book. They were on my arms. Around my legs. My neck. . . " Parvati was starting to get hysterical.

Ginny, white faced, was on her feet.

Then Lavender came. I felt her hold me and they were gone."

There was a long silence before Parvati continued: " I guess that was when I was on the broom."

"Did you see anything else?" asked Trelawney

I didn't see anything else after that except a Dark Mark above Hogwarts 

But I could still hear them. They were talking in that snake language. I don't know if they were planning or arguing. I just could hear them hissing and hissing and seemed to go on forever…

Then far away, I heard the music. Music like I've never heard before--unearthly music drowning out the 

hissing. 

When I awoke I was here with Professor Trelawney.

"Professor," said Seamus, "There was a Dark Mark over the Hogwart's Express, last night." 

"What I saw was NOT over the train," Parvati said. "This was over Hogwarts. Directly over the castle."

"Professor," Ginny was already walking toward the door. "I feel sick. May I go to the Infirmary?"

"Ginny, is there something about Parvati's vision that has touched you?" Trelawney eyes were shining with excitement. "You felt something when you heard Parvati read this account, didn't you?"

"Yeah, sick."

"She was in the car next to the one that exploded," interrupted Ron. "I'll take Ginny down to Madam Pomfrey."

They hesitated, and Professor Trelawney nodded, but Harry got the feeling that Ron was going to get his sister out of here, whether Trelawney gave them permission or not.

"Now," said Trelawney. "I'd like you to consider possible interpretations of Parvati's prediction. I'm quite sure this is a true prediction and I would have liked to have shared my own so we could compare them, but Headmaster Dumbledore doesn't want my prediction released to you do to the fact that some parts set in motion could still be stopped . . . "

Her voice dwindled off as if she forgot what she was going to say, or perhaps thought better of saying it aloud.

For the remainder of class, Harry thought about Parvati's prediction. For once, he had no doubt that this was a true prediction. He wished there were some way that he could have heard the Parseltongue. If he could have heard what they were saying, maybe it would help him to figure it out. He wondered if Ginny had ever told Parvati about the diary. He didn't think so, and that was part of what convinced him that the prediction was true. According to Ron, Ginny didn't tell anyone what had happened to her in her first year at Hogwarts. She still felt guilty and embarrassed by the whole incident...Perhaps she felt more than that. 

Harry knew that she had spent some time the summer after her first year at St. Mongo's trying to sort out what were her thoughts and what were residual suggestions from the diary. Apparently, they had it all sorted out, because Ginny seemed fine now. 

His own thoughts about the diary weren't very pleasant either. Three years ago, didn't he ask the diary who had opened the Chamber of Secrets? Didn't he believe it when it implicated his friend, Hagrid? Looking back, Harry always wondered how he could have taken the word of the diary when Hagrid was his friend. Harry decided to write a letter to Hagrid. In fact, he would start on it right now. After all, it was just Divination class. He needed to think about Parvati's prediction when he was alone and quiet and the smell of incense didn't give him a headache. He rubbed his head as if unconsciously trying once again to wipe away the influence of Volemort from his brain. He brought his thought back to the present. If he couldn't figure out Parvati's prediction in time for homework tomorrow, there was still the old Divination standby: make it up. 

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO GET THIS UP.

CHECK BACK SOON. MORE CHAPTERS COMINGS SHORTLY.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. 

--Lady Lestrange

ANSWERS TO REVIEWS:

To Serpintina:

Thanks for the kudos. About Tom's POV. I don't think I can answer your question because I meant it to be a little ambiguous. I'm sure you'll figure it out as some to the other characters starts sharing some insights. In fact, I picture readers going back to that first chapter at some point in the story—I've done that myself with "prologues" Since this is a "vision" there will be chances to re-visit Parvati's understanding of this vision in a pensive.

Glad you liked the train and sorting. About McGonagall. I always thought she was a little too perfect and needed to be taken down a peg. I also wanted to show that a shy, insecure little girl could grow up to be a very powerful witch. This seemed like the spot. I think the similarity between McGonagall and --well, I can't tell.

]

Draco. I love Draco, He will play a part later. Pivotal, but not big. But who knows. Draco has a habit of taking over—although not as badly as Snape. And no, it wasn't Draco, obviously who did the explosion. But the students were not just working on a prank. They had specific instructions from the Dark Lord. Unfortunately, for Volde it wasn't that simple. And fortunately for the rest of the story it wasn't over on the train.

So glad you like Beatrice. It's easy to like Samara, but Beatrice takes some getting used to. More good stuff with Beatrice to come and for those of you who were offended by the "puffer" Handicapped bashing is not what I was about. It's about overcoming handicaps and we all have them in one way or another. Some are visible, like Beatrice's and some are invisible like Ginny's, but they are still there.

Silverfox: Right no one was missing, but did they need to be missing to be found by the Death Eaters?

More confusion to come. Stay posted.

THANKS FOR YOUR REVIEWS. PLEASE EMAIL A FRIEND AND TELL THEM ABOUT 

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth by Lady Lestrange


	5. CH 4: Crucio, For Instance

****

Crucio for Instance

Chapter 4

By Lady Lestrange

Answers to Reviews:

First of all thanks to all who reviewed. I really don't have that many people reading this and I appreciate you GREATLY. If you like the story and would like to point some others to it, I'd appreciate it. LL

About Ginny putting the Dark Mark in the sky and wrecking the Hogwarts Express. HMMMMMM. What a thought! Unfortunately, the sixteen-year-old Tom that she knew, hadn't made the Dark Mark yet, much less the spell, so how would she know it? Oh well, to learn more about Ginny, though, read on.

A BIG THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO REVIEWED. IF YOU LIKE THE STORY, PLEASE PASS ALONG THE LINK TO THIS SITE. LL

NOTE:

I hope the point of view in this chapter isn't confusing. I've tried to get italics, but can't seem to do it. I gave up and just used and for thoughts.

****

Crucio for Instance

By Lady Lestrange

After Herbology, Harry traveled with the Gryffindors to transfiguration. It was a small class and all forth and fifth year Gryffindor's along with their first years. McGonagall was curled up on her desk in her cat form, seemingly asleep. Those who were in her classes before knew better. A note was posted asking the class to read the Introduction to Transfiguration. It was old stuff that they had learned in first, second, or third year condensed into a few summary paragraphs.

Most of the class read, but a few of the first years started to talk and pretend to transfigure each other.

Immediately McGonagall jumped to one of the desks, then stood, and changed into her human form. She was frowning. I asked you to do a simple assignment. Need I take points away from my own house?

The display quieted the class down immediately

.

She began by reminding the forth and fifth years of the transfigurations they had already done. 

You have changed inanimate objects into other inanimate objects of similar shape, size and color.

"How many first years have done that?"

Beatrice and Samara raised their hands.

"Very good. Let's see it." She put match sticks in front of both of them and

asked them to change them into needles.

Both changed relatively quickly, but Beatrice actually had it before Sam.

McGonagall asked the rest of the first years, Lou and Joe, to just watch right now.

You have turned animals into inanimate objects; She removed several white mice from a cage. "I'll make it easy for you," she said as she put the struggling creatures on the table, took out her wand and said: "Stupefy." The animals dropped still and quiet on the table. "Do you think you can change these mice into clear glass water goblets?"

Only Beatrice managed the feat correctly. Sam's still had a tail and was a misty gray color.

"Good," said McGonagall. "You will need a little practice with your mentor, but you have the idea. If I remember correctly most of the people in this room had water goblets with whiskers or tails. The hedgehog into a pincushion is easier. Can anyone tell me why?".

Hermione answered. "Because they are the same size, shape and color. All you have to effect is the life force."

"Correct," said McGonagall

"You have turned inanimate objects into animals." She said to the forth and fifth years. She asked Sam and Beatrice to change a rock into a beetle. Both of their rocks turned into beetles but Sam's just sat there. Beatrice's immediately scuttled off of the table and into a crack in the stone wall.

"Not bad," she said, "but Samara, and the rest of you, need to remember an important point is that inanimate objects have no minds of their own. The first and most often forgotten step is that a rock doesn't have a mind to control automatic responses and you must set that up first. Then, you must think for them. You forgot to do that," Samara."

McGonagall touched the beetle, which was still lying on the desk. "That is why your beetle is dead. Don't take it too harshly though, I think Beatrice is the only student I've ever had that let her beetle get away on the first try. If there were more like her, I'd have to have you change rocks into butterflies and have the windows open, otherwise, I'd be over-run with beetles in here."

About this time, Ginny and Ron appeared at the door of the classroom and explained their

short trip down to Madam Pomfrey's. McGonagall frowned, but Harry was quite sure that the

frown was more for Professor Trelawney than for Ron and Ginny. However, she asked Ginny

to remain at the front table. 

"Now we get to some of the more interesting transformations. Last year in fifth year we did similar animals cross species switches. We did not do this in forth year, but I think Ginny and Colin can handle it." McGonagall called them up to the front with Samara and Beatrice. "Samara and Beatrice, you tell me if you want to sit with Ron and Joe or if you want to stay here."

"I'll stay," said Samara

"Very well then, 4 guinea pigs about to become 4 guinea fowl." She brought the animals out and

placed them in front of the 4 students. Ginny and Colin transfigured their plain brown guinea pigs into plain brown guinea fowl. Beatrice however, transformed her brown guinea pig into a beautiful guinea fowl with splotches of white on brown feathers and a bit of black around its face. Samara's guinea fowl had two round white featherless splotches on the sides of its head."

"I forgot to take off the external ears of the guinea pig until the last minute," said Samara. 

"Very nice, all of you. Thank you for the demonstration. Please sit down." Said McGonagall. "Now, I want to tell you a little about the plans for this year. This year we will be working on transforming completely different animals including different species, different size, and different color.

For those of you who are considering advanced Transfig.

We will be working on human transformations, which aside from the ethical considerations. Is the most difficult to do to an unwilling host.

BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE; IS IT MY LITTLE VIRGINIA?

_Ginny sucked in her breath. Tom wasn't here anymore. The Diary was destroyed. She was only letting her imagination run. It was no wonder she was remembering him so vividly after Parvati's prediction. She tried to pay attention to transfiguration._

McGonagall was speaking: The host is thinking and therefore, when he realizes that he has been changed into an animal, he may use any means inherent within that animal to defeat the wizard changing him. Also, his fighting the spell at this stage can cause undesired results, 

SO DON'T FIGHT ME, VIRGINIA. WE BOTH KNOW WHO WILL WIN.

Those results can be seen both in the person being transfigured and the wizard doing the transfiguring. It is just simpler to ask permission... If the human I am transforming is willing, 

YOU'RE WILLING AREN'T YOU GINNY? IT WILL BE SO MUCH BETTER IF YOU'RE WILLING.

THE MAGIC IS SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL AND IT WILL BE SO MUCH EASIER ON YOUR BROTHERS. THEY WON'T HAVE TO DIE.

__

Ginny stifled a sob and tried to concentrate. It was just a flash back, she reminded herself. They told her at St. Mongo's that they could come at any time. They were surprised that she had gone the last two years without them. It would pass. After all, she got through the worst of it when the Diary was intact. Now, it was only a memory. . .Only a memory. . . She focused intently on McGonagall.

McGonagall was speaking: "It is not much harder than transforming one animal to another except that some people find it distasteful. Also, even if the person is a wizard, he will not be able to reverse the transformation himself and will have to wait on a qualified wizard to reverse the spell, preferably the one who cast the spell. . .

DID I EVER SAY YOU WERE FREE? DID I REVERSE THE SPELL?

YOU ARE MINE. STILL MINE. FOREVER MINE.

Changing the spell order can cause harmful effects. A person left in a transformed body may eventually begin to exhibit the attitudes of the animal form, but this is generally not a problem, and as soon as the original form is returned, the cravings go away. For example, as lunchtime draws near, I might start thinking about a nice salad. If I were in my animagus form, I'm quite sure I would be thinking of tuna or mouse.

Some of the students smiled or chuckled softly.

__

Laughter seemed totally foreign to Ginny. Who could ever laugh again? Why were they laughing? 

Ginny pulled her attention back to Professor McGonagall.

If you turn an animal into a different animal, the tendency is for it to act like the original animal. If you need to change its feeding habits, you must set up in the same way you would set it up for an inanimate object. The animal's body will get sick if it is fed inappropriate food. You must fill its needs.

I FILLED YOUR NEEDS VIRGINIA. YOU WANTED HARRY POTTER. I GAVE HIM TO YOU. I GAVE YOU FANTASIES YOU COULD HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OF. I GAVE YOU MORE THAN HE EVER WAS. DO YOU REMEMBER? DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU IMAGINED HIS FIRST CHASTE KISS? DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT CAME NEXT? DO YOU—

__

Ginny felt herself blushing. I don't want to think of this.

YES YOU DO VIRGINIA. IT'S ALL YOU EVER WANT TO THINK OF. I KNOW YOU TOO WELL.

"If you do not know what a certain animal needs, you probably should not try to transfigure the object into that animal unless it is for a very short period of time. 

JUST GIVE IN, VIRGINIA. YOU ARE MINE.

__

I won't

You almost never alter the brain of the animal completely and that is the hardest to do. It takes constant control.

THEN YOUR BROTHERS WILL DIE.

__

no

It takes a master, to change the attitude and will be quite beyond most of you

DIE HORRIBLY.

DO YOU WANT TO SEE HOW?

__

no

in fact—such advanced studies is beyond most wizards. The problem is, it is very draining.

DO YOU WANT TO FEEL IT?

__

no. please.

—Also, if you lose concentration, it will still look like the animal it was transformed into, but it will immediately begin to act like the original animal. This could be disastrous

GIVE IN TO ME.

if you transformed a Mouse into a Lion and then it tried to hide in a hole in the wall when your enemy came instead of attacking. This is best as a short term diversionary tactic, or your mouse may be better suited to become a snake, since it would not be out of ordinary for it to slither into a hole in the wall if you tire..

AREN'T YOU TIRED, VIRGINIA?

Remember, it is your will that keeps it acting like the animal you have transformed it into.

YOU ARE MINE. SAY IT.

__

I am yours. She had said it.

again

Ginny bit her lip in desperation until she tasted blood. She couldn't cry out. If she cried, they would know and they would take her back to St. Mongo's and there was nothing they could do. They told her they couldn't cure her. They would never let her go. So she couldn't cry. She couldn't tell. She had to be silent. Be Silent.

And then she couldn't speak, 

just as she couldn't speak in the last moments in the Chamber, 

because Tom had taken even that 

to silence her crying..

MY DEAR VIRGINIA. YOUR CONSENT MAKES THE MAGIC SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL.

I WILL REWARD YOU FOR YOUR OBEDIENCE. I WON'T LET YOU SUFFER. I WILL BE SO GENTLE THAT YOU WILL DIE IN ECSTASY. YOU WILL DIE IN HARRY POTTER'S ARMS 

AND YOUR BROTHERS WILL NEVER KNOW THE SACRIFICE YOU MADE TO SAVE THEM. THEY WILL NEVER KNOW THE PAIN YOU SAVED THEM FROM. CURSES VIRGINIA THAT YOU COULDN'T EVEN IMAGINE.

CRUCIO, FOR INSTANCE. SUCH A USEFUL LITTLE CURSE. . . 

__

no.

STOP IT VIRGINIA

__

please no

DON'T BEG VIRGINIA. IT'S SO UNBECOMING.

__

no

DON'T FIGHT ME. YOU ARE INTERFERING WITH THE MAGIC.

__

I will 

YOU GAVE UP YOUR RIGHT TO FIGHT ME LONG AGO. DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN? DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU INVITED ME? BEGGED ME TO LISTEN? TOLD ME ABOUT YOUR PITIFUL LOVE FOR POTTER.

__

Don't hurt Harry

ALL I ASK IS THAT YOU GIVE IN TO ME.

__

no

ALL THAT I EVER ASKED. 

__

please

YOU KNEW IT WOULD TAKE MORE THAN A KISS.

__

I didn't

TO SET ME FREE.

__

I hate you

NO YOU DON'T. YOU LOVE ME.

__

no

BUT IT WON'T TAKE MUCH, VIRGINIA.

__

no

JUST ALL THAT YOU HAVE 

__

no

IT IS DONE.

****

"NO!" Virginia Weasley sobbed aloud and then fainted. 

The class erupted into Chaos. Ron rushed to his sister's side and shook her gently.

"Miss Weasley!" McGonagall was also at her side in a moment.

"What happened to her?" wondered Neville aloud.

"A vision," surmised Parvati.

When McGonagall couldn't rouse Ginny immediately, she looked for help. "Hermione," she said. "Go quickly and bring Madam Pomfrey. Use the floo next door in Professor Flitwick's office. Mine is not operating correctly."

By the time Madam Pomfrey arrived, Ginny was awake, but not speaking. She wouldn't let go of Ron's hand. 

"What happened?" asked Madam Pomfrey. 

"She just cried out and fainted," said Ron. "She was upset by a prediction earlier today at Divination. I think it reminded her of –um—her first year."

"Madam Pomfrey nodded."

"Well, let's get her up the infirmary."

After Ginny left, McGonagall attempted to resume class, but it was almost impossible for Harry to concentrate, he glanced at Ron, who looked devastated.

"Let's say, I have a black post owl." Said McGonagall. " I change her into a green beetle so she can hide in some leaves. Then, if the worst happens and I do not come back to her, the beetle may begin to turn black in time, but it is impossible for her to transform herself back into an owl without a wizard's help. However, if a green and black beetle flew to me everyday at post time and landed on my letters, I may be tempted to try to see if the original shape of the animal was an owl, especially if every time I saw it, the beetle had less green and more black."

"Who cares," thought Harry vehemently. "Who care if some owl gets stuck like a beetle? When will I ever need to know this stuff. It's stupid. And all I can think of right now is Ginny."

"Yes, Miss Granger"

"How long will the animal hold the shape you give it?"

"Indefinitely. Usually it will hold the shape given it until you or another wizard transforms it back to its'

original shape. I only say indefinately, because there is theory about certain magical animals who were

left for long periods of time in foreign shapes, eventually beginning to change back. There is no proof and I personally have never seen such a thing."

Professor McGonagall sat down at her desk.

"Now, I would like you to open your books and begin reading the section on Animal transformation, Animagi and Human transformation while I work with the new students. I expect you to work with your first years until they can turn a matchstick into a needle and back again. If they get that, work on getting a rock to be either a bug or a mouse. Be sure they are close to the same size, shape and color. 

Forth and Fifth years, be prepared to discuss the ethics of animal transfiguration tomorrow. For those of you with a first year that doesn't catch on too quickly, this can be a difficult time. Don't be afraid to come to me if you need help. And help one another. Remember, this class situation may change and I will be able to separate those of you who need advanced work from those of you who need help with the simple spells. You may start reading now.

Harry felt like McGonagall had just rammed 3 years of Transfiguration into a single class. His head was

Pounding and he was worried about Ginny. He wondered how the first years felt. He glanced over at Beatrice who was happily turning her rock into a mouse and then a white mouse, and then a brown and white guinea pig. He wondered if she was going to change it to a guinea fowl. It looked like she wasn't having any trouble with transfig. Lou was doing all right too, but Joe was lost. He managed to get the matchstick into a needle, but it still had the sulfur tip instead of an eye. Edward, on the other hand couldn't get the matchstick into a needle at all, but was doing fine with the rock. He turned it into an enormous spider, which scuttled across the table in front of Ron. Ron, in a panic, stupefied it and it immediately turned back into a rock. That elicited a whole new branch of questions from Samara, Hermione and some of the other students. What would happen if you had turned an inanimate object into an animal and the animal was hit with some sort of spell? 

"It depends upon the spell, and the control of the wizard who make the transformation." said McGonagall, but it's a little complicated to get into now. We will come back to that question in more depth in a few weeks after we actually have several animals to test."

"I would imagine the spell would make a difference too, wouldn't it?" asked Edward. "I mean a spell like

'stupefy' certainly wouldn't have the same effect as, for instance, the 'crucio curse' would it?"

"Of course not," said McGonagall slowly. "I do hope; however , you realize that the spells such as the crucious curse are illegal, not just for performance on humans, but also on animals."

"Oh, professor," said Samara appalled.

"It was just an example," said Edward in defense. "I wasn't going to do any curses. I just meant some spells are more powerful than others are. I don't know a lot of powerful ones…Crucio was just…just a word" his voice drifted off.

"I should hope so," said McGonagall softly. "However, you are right in one respect, a more complicated spell has more change of harming a wizard within an animagus than a simple spell, regardless of whether it is a curse or not. Any curse, even a simple one, holds the chance of imprisoning the wizard within his animagus form."

When class was over, Harry asked to talk to McGonagall "Professor, I would like to talk to you for a minute."

"Of course, Mr. Potter. How can I help you?"

"How can you be sure your first year is in the right house?" he asked.

"Are you concerned that Edward is not a Gryffindor?" she asked in return. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, crucio, for instance," said Harry.

"I see. Has he DONE anything that makes you doubt he's in Gryffindor?"

"Well. No. It' just that," Harry paused. "Sometimes he says things like that crucio curse and I think he has to be a Slytherin, but sometimes he acts very much like a Gryffindor. Like when he rescued Ginny Weasley from the burning car…"

"He rescued Miss Weasley?"

"Yes, Ma'am. And he's been very nice, but last night and again this morning, he went over to the Slytherin table…"

"If I remember, he has a brother in Slytherin."

"Yes, but."

"Do you ever notice how many times Parvati Patil goes to the Ravenclaw table, and vice versa."

"I've never noticed." 

"Perhaps you should notice."

"Yes, professor."

"Anything else?" 

"No ma'am."

"Mr. Potter," said McGonagall, "I'll be talking to Edward soon. I have all of the students scheduled after classes this week, so I will see how Edward feels about Gryffindor. In the meantime, if you notice him exhibiting any Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw traits, please let me know at once." McGonagall paused and looked at her watch. "You will need a note for Professor Binns, I believe. You are late for History of Magic."

History of Magic dragged on as usual. Probably he didn't help matters by presenting Binns with his note from McGonagall. Binns hated not being in control and and being a ghost, did not allow Binns to actually take the note. Although Harry just showed it to him politely, and threw it away, Binns frowned at him. "Very well, Potter," he said. "Don't be late again."

Harry sank in his chair and waited to lunch. When class was over, Ron sprinted out of the room.

Harry was worried about Ginny. He considered stopping by the Infirmary, but decided to talk to Ron first. Dumbledore caught him at the door to the Great Hall. "I wish to speak with you, Harry. Come to my office please after lunch." 

"Certainly, Sir."

When he got to the Gryffindor table, Hermione was seated between Edward and Neville. Beatrice was on the other side of Ron and Samara was across from them. Instead of choosing the seat next to Edward, Harry sat next to Samara.

"How's Ginny?" Harry asked Ron.

"They wouldn't let me in." He said. "Madam Pomfrey gave her a calming potion and she fell asleep. She should be awake in an hour or less."

"Did she do this at home?" asked Hermione.

"No, but at—" Ron hesitated and looked around the table at the new first years who were strangers to them. "I'll talk to you later about it," he said. "She'll be alright." Ron managed a weak smile.

They talked briefly about her flying lesson and the train wreck and the sorting hat, but as soon as Harry saw Dumbledore leave, he excused himself to go to Dumbledore's office.

As he approached the Gargoyle, he realized he didn't know the password. He guessed a few times: "Lemon drop" ; "sherbet lemon"; "Bott's every flavor beans"; "toffee"; This was ridiculous. 

"Harry Potter to see Professor Dumbledore." He said, and the door swung open. Apparently, Dumbledore had changed it just for him or the gargoyle was smarter than he looked. 

"Sir, you wanted to see me," said Harry. 

Fawkes was flying about the room. He looked bad. Apparently it was a burning day. 

"Yes, Harry. Have a seat," he motioned to one of the chairs, and Harry sat.

Fawkes flew above his head and circled again and again. "Oh," said Dumbledore. Fawkes is actually the one that wanted this meeting right now. "

"Fawkes?"

"Yes. Would you take out your wand?"

Harry stayed seated, but took out his wand. Harry pointed it away from Dumbledore, but Fawkes seemed determined to be right in front of it. He flew around it several times and then landed on it.

The sudden weight of the bird nearly pulled his arm out of its socket. He didn't think Fawkes was that heavy. Then he realized it wasn't just the weight of the bird. Fawkes was trying to pull the wand from his hand. Instinctively, he tightened his fist. 

Fawkes burst into flame. The fire, directly in front of his face, seemed to ignite his hand and with a shout, he opened it to let go of the wand, but it stuck on his palm. Abruptly he realized he felt no pain, only a gentle warmth. Ashes fell over his hand and wand and settled in his lap. Still his wand stayed in his open palm, although gravity should have pulled it to his lap with the ashes, magic kept it in his hand. 

He didn't know what to do. The ashes—ashes that were Fawkes were burning into his wand, fluttering to his lap and the floor. A thick blanket of ashes covered his hand. 

"Sir?"

Headmaster Dumbledore, put a finger to his lips and they just stood in wonder as the tiny baby phoenix was reborn in Harry's lap.

At last, in a hushed whisper, Harry spoke, "Is this what you wanted me to come for?"

"No," said Dumbledore. "That is what Fawkes wanted you to come for. Me. I have a prediction to show you. A prediction that was made long ago." Dumbledore moved Fawkes gently to his perch. All of the ashes not used up in the transformation, had vanished. "You heard Parvati's prediction this morning didn't you?" 

Harry nodded. He still felt somewhat in a haze with the magical phoenix ashes over him.

"Parvati's predicition seems to be a twin prediction or at least a continuation of a prediction made long ago by Professor Trelawney. I have here a copy of that prediction. I'm sure you will see yourself in several lines, and that will assure you of the prediction's validity. Do not show this to anyone except perhaps those who already have taken part in the third stanza of the prediction. Be careful. I do not want to put Sirius at risk and I know you don't either." Dumbledore strode away again and gently stroked Fawkes' tiny head.

"There is another reason I didn't give this to you at the end of last year. The prediction warns of 'losing your childhood too soon.' I've thought and thought, but Harry I think you lost your childhood when Voldemort put that scar on your head. I'm quite certain you have lost it by now. Perhaps it is because of the events at the end of last school year, perhaps it is something else, but childhood is no longer in your eyes. It is better if you are prepared."

Dumbledore returned to him and held out a small parchment. Harry didn't take it right away. His hand was still holding his wand outstretched, as if reluctant to put it away. At last, he put it into his pocket, and took the parchment. He didn't look at it yet. He just stood uncertainly in front of Dumbledore.

"Sir, what did Fawkes just do to my wand?" asked Harry.

"I think you know."

"He somehow put some of himself—more than the phoenix feather into my wand—with the ashes."

Dumbledore nodded. "Once, wands had to be found. They had to come from a tree that was nearby when a great magical event took place. Then the wood would be infused with magic. The very dust from the magic entered the wand: not as a core, but as part of the wood itself. This is an old magic, Harry. Wizards 

of old searched for years for a wand such as the one which had been freely given to you today." 

"But why?" Harry asked.

"Fawkes generally knows about these sorts of things," said Dumbledore.

Harry was torn between the wonder of what had just happened and the fear of whatever Fawkes thought would happen. 

Harry left Dumbledore's office in a daze. He wandered up to his room, which was quiet and empty and spread the prediction on the bed. 

The parchment was not old, so Harry knew that Dumbledore had recopied it for him.

At the height of the Dark Lord's Power

A Babe will lay him low.

Yet he will arise through his flower

Essences of friend, father and foe.

==

For within have snake and phoenix warred

But Phoenix must surely rule

For this bird rises again and again

And Eating Death is the fuel.

==

Will he Riddle the past with pain

Or Riddle the future with glory?

Five lives or deaths hang in time by three

Brave children who'll mend the story.

==

Yet there will come to Hogwart's school

A year from Hufflepuff's loss

A housemate to thwart the rule of him

Unnamed and ne'er count the cost.

==

Fate put Gryffindor bravery in one heart

And Ravenclaw brains in one head

And Slytherin cunning, ambition and guile

Yet Hufflepuff's love is his dread.

==

The hat's confusion will mark you as true

Though tears may make you swoon

Your choices are hard. Your choices are few.

'Ware of losing your childhood soon.

==

Eat Death and be Dead. Eat life and live on.

Don't sacrifice children or truth.

Bring rue to your heart or rue to your hand

Or savor Old Love for a youth.

==

The moment of truth will come in a flash

The night sky will glow with gloom

A friend's flight--A friend's mad dash

May halt the moment of doom.

++

Then he took out his wand and just held it in his hand to get used to the new weight. It felt warm. Alive. "Hello Fawkes," he whispered. 

The temperature of his wand increased a few degrees startling him and he almost dropped the wand. 

He thought about trying one of the charms that he was having particular trouble with—Charms! He had forgotten and missed the whole class. It was nearly time for defense now. He folded the parchment carefully and put it in his Quiddich Through the Ages Book. With it safely hidden, he hurried to find his friends and his next class.

Harry met Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Neville and all the first years near the charms classroom.

"Where were you?" Hermione asked Harry.

"Dumbledore's office," said Harry. "Ginny are you alright?"

"Yeah. I feel stupid."

"So what happened to you?"

"I guess all the Divination and then McGonagall talking about transfiguring humans, made me think of first year. For a moment, it was all back. I couldn't handle it."

"Everything OK now?" asked Hermione. 

Ginny looked from Ron to Hermione to Harry. "Actually, I don't know. It was too real." 

"Great," said Harry sarcastically. "So why did Madam Pomfrey let you out of the Infirmary?"

"I wanted out," said Ginny.

"Madam Pomfrey didn't want to release her," said Ron "And you know, It's going to be a very long term if you don't get out of this lousy mood, Harry. You should be a little more sympathetic of Ginny."

"Sure, Ron," said Harry. "I am sympathetic. I have every reason to be sympathetic." He knew he was letting his fear of why Fawkes had reinforced his wand get the better of him, but he couldn't seem to help himself. "Let's see:" Harry continued. "Dark Mark above the Hogwart's Express, The train in flames, The Sorting Hat putting everyone in Slytherin and guess who's at fault. Who do you think triggered Ginny's remembering?"

Apparently Harry's outburst made some of the first years feel uncomfortable. They started walking a little ahead. Only Ron, Hermione and Ginny stayed close by. Edward was walking a little behind Ginny, obviously curious.

"What do you mean? He who must not be named is at fault, of course," said Hermione.

"Right," shot Harry. "And whose blood runs through his veins? If I hadn't cheated, he'd still be a slug dependent upon Wormtail for sustenance." 

Harry put both hands over his forehead, trying to shut out the headache. What could be worse than facing Voldemort last year. What could be worse than crucio? Why had Fawkes --

"Harry, you didn't really cheat," said Hermione. "It wasn't your fault Hagrid showed you the dragons. Anyway, all the champions knew about them. And then Cedric and Dobby ….Well, Moody said that 'cheating' at the Tri-Wizard's Tournament had a long tradition."

"Moody!" Harry shouted at her. "Moody wasn't here, Hermione. Moody was NEVER here. It was Crouch, for gosh sakes. I might as well take advice from Voldemort himself. I feel so stupid. I keep thinking why didn't I just sit down in the maze and let someone else win. I knew my name wasn't supposed to be in the cup in the first place. I knew someone was trying to kill me."

"But Cedric Diggory would still be dead," said Neville softly.

"Yes, but Voldemort wouldn't have a body. My body." Said Harry rubbing his scar.

Ginny moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. She didn't say anything, but there was understanding in her gaze.

"Is your scar hurting you again?" asked Ron.

"Again?" croaked Harry. "No. It's not hurting AGAIN_._ It's hurting STILL. It's never stopped hurting since the day Voldemort touched me." Harry dropped his voice to a whisper. "He can touch me. The protection my mother gave me is gone. I don't think you understand, the protection is gone."

"Some of us never had protection in the first place," said Ginny.

Her soft voice seemed to snap him out of it. 

Harry slipped between Edward and Ginny, and leaned close to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "To many memories today?" he whispered. 

She looked at him sharply. Her eyes were liquid and bright.

"Me too." Said Harry. "We could talk , you know."

She nodded eagerly.

"We're friends." 

Some of the light died out of her eyes, but Harry didn't notice.

"Come on," said Hermione. "Maybe learning something in Defense Against the Dark Arts will help you. At least, if it's a good class, you'll feel like you are doing something to fight against He who must not be named."

"I guess," said Harry.

"Did you see where it is?" Hermione asked Ron softly.

"No. Where?" said Harry pulling out his schedule. He looked at the writing, just as Hermione spoke.

"The third floor corridor."

++


	6. CH 5: The Third Floor Corridor

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

THE THIRD FLOOR CORRIDOR

Chapter 5

By Lady Lestrange

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

Hogwarts and all of the characters belong to JK Rowlings, except for:

Lorissa Cantsay

Samara Donnally

Beatrice Ellis

Llywelyn Styvesant

Joseph Foresman

Stuart Anton

Calvin Anthony

Gloria Snood

Lyle Applegate

Christi Prentice

Josie Perkins

and the Halston boy

so far...I still need a Chaser...

Since Rowlings mentions a few last names, I can't take credit for them. 

They are JKR's; but I made up first names to go with them.

Edward

Ethan

Valerianna

Desmond

Marshall

Lauren

Laural

Alvin

Ming

Hey, It's a big school!

==

My dear reviewers: thanks for your comments. I always appreciate them. 

Thank you,

Lady Lestrange

As for McGonagall's reaction to Ginny's fainting in her class—I know you heard all that Tom stuff—but all the class heard was "no." If you fainted in school, you would be sent to the school nurse and the class wouldn't stop for you. In this respect, I think Hogwarts is like Muggle school. Perhaps that's the only way it's like Muggle school though. 

In other respects, it is very different from Muggle schools. The professors have to sort out who are the powerful wizards and the ones who can't defend themselves. They can't spend a month on 'swish and flick' when war is breaking out. Dumbledore isn't looking for perfection. He's looking for competence first.

Numbers of students currently in the school: Harry has said 'less than half of the students' are here. They talked about how empty the Hall felt at the sorting. In JK's Third Book PoA, she says at the Quiddich final, there were 200 people wearing Green. I assume that since it was the Quiddich final, about 100 of those 200 were parents, friends, alumni, etc. The other 100 were Slytherin students. Meaning there are ususally about 400 students in the school. Which means about 14 people are sorted into each house each year. I know she only mentions 6-7 new Gryffindors, etc., but she drops names throughout the book that weren't mentioned at the sorting, like Ernie McMallkin and Eloise Midgin, so we know there are more than 6-7. This year, In my version, there REALLY are only 6-7 in each house. In Ginny's case there are only 2 in her year for Gryffindor, her and Colin Creevy. The rest are staying home because of the Dark Lord. Some to study in safety and some to join the Dark Lord.

One other comment. Most of the first years aren't 11. If you were a parent, would you send your 11 year old across the country to a boarding school during a war when last year a student was killed under the Headmaster's nose? 

McGonagall and the other teachers will need to see what level the students are on and classes will be changed accordingly. However this class is all Gryffindors. There are only 15 children in the class. Some of them won't be separated neatly into Slytherin/Gryffindor anymore because of the talents, size of class, and sorting hat problems.

McGonagall and the other teachers know about the prediction. As for whether she believes in it, in JK's book, McGonagall said "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic." And "True seers are very rare." And refering to professor Trelawney, she says:--If it weren't for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues." So yes, we know that she doesn't think Trelawney is good at it, but she doesn't entirely discount it, she's just skeptical. Plus, she may not have only "read" the prediction. She may have "heard" it. We don't know exact ages of the teachers.

If you think McGonagall---well, wait till you see Snape--

THE THIRD FLOOR CORRIDOR

Ron stopped and Edward almost ran into him. "Harry," he said, "Do you know if Hagrid took Fluffy with him?"

"Fluffy?" Asked Edward.

"Oh, a three headed dog," said Hermione matter of factly. "He was in that corridor last time we were there."

Edward blanched.

"I don't know," said Harry. "Maybe we should see who has the best singing voice."

Ron laughed a little nervously.

"Oh, they wouldn't leave anything that dangerous there," said Hermione. "We're going to a class! What I don't understand is how we are going to have class in a corridor."

"Maybe we're just meeting there, to go somewhere else," suggested Lou to Neville.

Neville shrugged. "That sounds logical."

When they reached the door that looked so familiar, they all hesitated. Harry took out his wand and put his left hand up to try the door. It was unlocked.

"Wait," said Ron. He put his ear against the door to listen. He heard some whispering and then they all heard laughter coming from behind the door. Feeling a little silly, Harry put his wand away and they entered the corridor. It was filled with students, but no teacher. 

Although they didn't have time to look carefully at the corridor the last time they were there, it was considerably brighter and more cheerful looking now. A large oriental carpet was over the trap door and students were milling around idly. After waiting for a few minutes, Hermione checked her watch. "Class should have started," she said.

"Leave it to Hermione to be disappointed we have a few minutes less class time," groaned Ron.

"It's not that," said Hermione. "I just wonder why class is here. Do you think we are the only ones who know about the trapdoor?"

"Probably," said Harry.

"There's a trapdoor?" said Edward. "Where?"

After Hermione, Ron and Harry moved the students off the middle of the corridor, they pulled up the oriental carpet. Sure enough, there was the large ring in the center of a well-polished wooden trap door. As soon as they pulled up the ring, a picture of Dumbledore's head appeared on the underside of the door

"Welcome to class, you enterprising students. Congratulations you have found the first clue and you are only 8 minutes behind schedule. As you know, this class is Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

The first rule of Defense is to know your allies. There are five that you will need to find today. They are: myself, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, and Rowena Ravenclaw. By our successes and mistakes, you will learn. Speed is of paramount importance, so don't dally. Also, you will need judicious use of your powers of observation.

Begin by finding my picture." 

When Dumbledore had finished speaking, he left with a pop.

For a few minutes, everyone just stood there in amazement, especially the first years. They began talking with one another about where the pictures were, as well as what a strange class this seemed to be.

"Well," explained Hermione in a superior tone. "You can't expect learning magic to be like muggle studies."

"This isn't like any class we've ever had," said Harry.

Dumbledore reappeared. "Are you still here?" he asked. "Go quickly! Time is running out. And don't forget to shut the trapdoor."

The class hurried out to the adjacent corridor. Ron turned to Harry. "Do you think the Slytherins know where the pictures of Dumbledore and Gryffindor are?"

"I don't know, but I'm not going to tell them," said Harry.

"Tell what?" drawled Malfoy.

"Where Dumbledore's picture is," said Hermione. "That would be cheating."

"Like I need to find Dumbledore. Ha!"

The class split up in different directions. Most of the Gryffindor's stuck together, but the Slytherins went off into different corridors on their own.

When they got to the picture of Dumbledore in battle with Grindelwald, the Gryffindors paused.

"Do you think he's supposed to tell us something about where the next picture is?" Asked Ron, "Or maybe it opens like the Fat Lady."

"I don't know." Harry moved closer to the picture and touched Dumbledore on the shoulder.

"I'm a little busy right now, Harry," said Dumbledore as he dodged an attack from Grindewald. Harry ran his hand around the frame, but nothing happened.

They stood watching Dumbledore erect a defensive shield around himself and then send a beam of crimson light from his wand. The soundless battle looked eerily real. Dumbledore's robes were scorched and torn. Blood was running from a cut on his cheek. Suddenly, Grindelwald was down. Harry watched as Dumbledore pressed his advantage. Another beam of light struck Grindelwald and he crumpled. Dumbledore spoke to him, but of course, they couldn't hear the words. For a moment, Grindelwald 's eyes implored his audience to help him. 

Hermione stepped toward the picture. A small cry caught in her throat.

Then, Grindelwald turned all of his murderous power on the unsuspecting Dumbledore. The entire picture flashed green as Grindelwald put forth his final effort. Green and Red flashed in quick succession and when the picture cleared, Dumbledore was alone and lying still and quiet on the center of the picture. Blood and scorch marks covered the ground. 

"Professor!" Harry called, but already other wizards were apparating into the picture beside him to take him to a hospital somewhere. Dumbledore would answer none of the their questions.

Hermione stepped forward. "The first picture did say use our powers of observation not our powers of speech."

"So does anyone know where the pictures of the founders are?" asked Neville.

"Well, Godric Gryffindor is near Gryffindor Tower," said Hermione.

"I know where Rowena Ravenclaw is," said Parvati. "I've seen it on my way to visit my sister."

"Why don't we just go to the library and find out about them," suggested Samara.

"That might be faster," agreed Hermione.

"Maybe, but then how will we find the class," said Ron.

"Marauder's Map?" suggested Harry.

"That's cheating," cried Hermione.

"OK," said Ron, "Where's Ravenna Ravenclaw's picture, Parvati?"

She told them and as they started off, Samara asked, "Doesn't anyone know where Salazar Slytherin's and Helga Hufflepuff's pictures are? If we don't have them all, we should just go to the library, shouldn't we?"

"Maybe someone will think of where they saw it," said Hermione, but after they looked at the pictures, they still couldn't think of where Helga Hufflepuff or Salazar Slytherin was. 

"Wouldn't Salazar Slytherin be in the dungeon and Helga Hufflepuff near Hufflepuff?" suggested Edward. 

"Perhaps," said Lou, "But I think it's time for the library. We could be looking around the hall forever, if we don't know where it is."

After that, everyone agreed that it was time to go to the library. "Should have went to the library in the first place," mumbled Samara. 

"We've only used up a third of the class time," said Edward sarcastically. "Don't worry."

"Who's worried," Samara shot.

"How about if I go to my room and get the map," said Harry, "While you start in the library. It will save time."

"Good idea," said Ron. "Hurry."

By the time Harry got back to the library, the group had split into 2. The girls were looking for Helga Hufflepuff and the boys were looking for Salazar Slytherin. 

"What does this little R mean?" asked Edward as he leafed through the card catalogue.

"Restricted Section," said Ron. "How many did you find on Salazar?" 

"I don't know, about 20. Can we get the restricted books?"

"Only with a professor's note," said Harry. 

"O- oh, We're in trouble then," said Edward. 

"Let me see," said Lou. After a few minutes of searching, Lou said. "There are 2 books about Salazar Slytherin that are not in the restricted section."

He wrote the titles and catalogue numbers and Harry and Ron, who were more familiar with the library shelves, found them. They flipped them open on the table and all crowded around and began to read silently over each other's shoulders. The first part was just a history of Salazar's childhood. 

An account of his lonely and turbulent studies of the Dark Arts and Old Magic followed. Always, he was alone except in the sections about the basillists and how to care for them. There were several pictures of Salazar cradling eggs and then the small snakes. There were no pictures of fully-grown basillists. Harry was glad. He had seen one of those, and one was enough. 

Several pages were given over to the argument about whether or not muggle-born wizards should be in Hogwarts School and then the rest of the book was about Hogwarts itself, including several pages refuting the existence of a Chamber of Secrets.

"Well, that makes me trust this book," said Harry sarcastically. Harry and the others exchanged glances. 

"It doesn't look like he killed any monsters," said Lou.

"He made a few though, didn't he," said Neville.

"Can we try to get to the restricted section?" asked Edward.

"No," said Harry. "Not now. Let's see how the girls are doing with Helga."

Hermione, Samara, Beatrice and Ginny had Hufflepuff books stacked up in front of them. They had at least six books each. Hermione had eight, but two of them were quite small.

"I don't know what this is," said Beatrice. She was pointing to a page in one of the obscure little books.

Hermione moved over to assist her. 

"This might be important," Hermione read from the olde English text and mentally translated before saying: "Helga Hufflepuff was rumored to be the only wizard in over three centuries who was adept at the three part copulare."

"So what's that?" asked Harry.

"I don't know," said Hermione. "But Copulare is definitely some sort of bonding."

"Sounds obscene if you ask me," said Ron.

The boys, with the exception of Lou, started to snigger. 

"Well the three parts," said Hermione taking notes as she read, "Are: purcurare copulare, validiere copulare and salium copulare.

"They all mean healing or healthy," said Lou. But I don't think they do the same thing. They have to each be different. Are they spells we could try?"

Hermione shrugged. "We could try them, but I doubt if they would work. It looks like they are talents of some kind. No one but Helga seems to be able to do them even among the four founders."

"Look at these potions!" exclaimed Samara. "This one is seven pages long."

"What's it supposed to do?" asked Harry.

"Cure the Black Death." Samara turned it over to look for a copyright on the book. 1440. "Oh well," she said flippantly, "Too late for most of England."

"Soap and water would cure the Black Death too," said Hermione. "We don't have time to waste on useless potions."

"Well, if we had come straight to the library instead of wondering around the halls," snapped Samara.

"Girls," said Beatrice softly. "We definitely don't have time to argue. I think I've found something--"

Looking at the book Beatrice showed them, they finally decided that healing, especially with potions was Helga's strong suit. She had dozens of recipes for minor remedies and some that looked strong enough to bring someone back from the brink of death. Few of the books had actual recipes although some had long lists of ingredients and were cross-referenced with some ancient potions books. One of the recipes, Samara noted, was a potion to be fed to a weasel before it attacked a basillist. It was supposed to enable the weasel to kill the basillist.

"I'll bet that pissed off Salad Bar Slytherin no end," Samara said.

"Salad!" Hermione, burst into laughter. She put both hand over her mouth as the librarian, Madam Pince glared at them, but she couldn't seem to stop laughing. Harry and Ginny started to chuckle too

"What's so funny?" Asked Ron.

"Muggle joke. Salad Bar," Hermione squeaked. "Let's go, before Madam Pince throws us out."

Madam Pince was heading their direction looking like she was planning to do just that. They hurried out of the library, but everytime Samara and Hermione looked at each other, they started laughing again. 

"So where is Mrs. Figg?" whispered Ron as he looked over Harry's shoulder. 

"Greenhouse," said Harry as he looked discreetly at the map, but I don't see any of our class. They seem to be spread out. Most of the Slytherins are in the dungeon."

"Who cares where the Slytherins are?" said Ron. "Let's go."

"Mischief managed," said Harry and stuffed the map in his pocket before any of his classmates could get a good look at it.

"Hey," said Samara. "I didn't see the map. And how do you know Mrs. Figg is in the greenhouse?"

"It's a charmed map," said Harry, not taking it out again.

"Can I see it?" asked Edward.

"We're late," said Hermione.

When they got to the greenhouse, Mrs. Figg looked surprised to see them. She was helping Professor Sprout grind asphodel root into a powder.

"I'm not your Defense teacher," she said, as she put down the mortar and pestle. A worried look was on her face. "Professor Snape is, but you've missed over half of your class. Doesn't the schedule tell you where the class is?"

"Snape," squeaked Ron. "We're dead." 

"It does," said Hermione, "But we had sort of a scavenger hunt."

The group turned around. "We need to run," said Harry.

"He can't take points away from us," Samara argued. "We were doing what we were supposed to do. We were looking up the founders…"

"Save your breath for running," said Harry. 

"He loves these little riddles, doesn't he?" said Hermione. "Remember the potions poem in the Third Floor Corridor?"

"That—corridor—is—cursed," panted Ron.

At least, it was all down hill and down stairs. Once they got to the dungeons, Harry had planned on opening the Marauder's Map again, but he didn't need it. The doorway diagonally across the hall from their old potion classroom was open and Snape was standing at it. The classroom was so silent, that Harry thought they must have finished before the Slytherins, but he was wrong. The Slytherins were all silently working, frowns furrowed most of their brows, which did not bode well. Snape handed a parchment to each of the Gryffindors as they entered. "I trust you took your time looking at the pictures. You have less than 15 minutes to finish this quiz."

"Quiz?" Ron breathed, holding the stitch in his side. It's the first day. We can't have a quiz." 

Beatrice brought up the rear, holding her books in one arm and her puffer in the other. She stopped just a few feet from the door and took a deep breath of the puffer. Snape scowled. "Don't waste any more of my time," snapped Snape. "Get in this classroom."

"Yes, Sir," she said meekly. She took the parchment in her hand and tried to duck out of his sight in the back of the room. Harry could see that she failed to do that. Snape was looking at her with an expression of utter disgust, but at least he didn't take any points away for their lateness. 

Harry applied himself to the work, which was impossibly hard. Questions like, what spells did Dumbledore use on Grindelwald and how do you know? Harry wracked his brain. How could you tell what spell was used, when you couldn't hear a picture; you could only see it? At least he thought he got some of the Slytherin questions right. He remembered quite well the strengths of the basillist, including their most dangerous feature, their eyes. The test asked: If you could choose one animal to be with you to fight the basillist what would you choose? Harry remembered reading something about a weasel, but he knew he wanted a phoenix with him. Even as he wrote it, he felt Snape would probably mark it wrong.

Questions about the weight and jewels and magics of Godric Gryffindors sword seemed trivial and yet, Harry knew if there was one thing about Snape, he never asked trivial questions. He was sure that Snape would have a lot to say about how little the Gryffindors knew about Godric Gryffindor's sword. He hoped at least Hermione got that right. 

The first questions on Helga Hufflepuff, were in French, and the rest read like Snape's potions final. Harry remembered that he didn't have to take that final and therefore, didn't study for it, due to his being a champion in the Tri-wizard cup. To top it all off, he didn't have time to finish. He didn't answer a single question about Ravena Ravenclaw.

Snape collected the papers and glanced at them, no doubt noting the number of blank spaces. He shook his head at the class in general. "I had hoped that some of you would have learned something over the summer. If you continue to waste your time on pointless pursuits, you will be dead before next summer—or worse—" He paused. 

His voice dropping to a brittle whisper. "I know some of you dislike me. Some of you perhaps hate me." His fathomless black eyes were on Harry. "And I promise you, that those of you who think you like me," his eyes glanced over at Malfoy. "Will hate me before the end of the week. Probably you will want to kill me. Definitely you will want to curse me. This will be your hardest class. Guaranteed. But when the day comes, and you are facing a werewolf, or a giant or…" he took a deep breath…"Some other monster, you may be glad of something you learned here."

"Read the next lesson on wards and protections before the next class—not that I expect any of you to be able to effect them." He paused and stared off into space for a moment, before continuing. " I'd assume that if you knew your life depended upon being prepared, you would make a little more effort at it. Class begins in this classroom tomorrow. Be on time. That is all."

Snape ignored the silent class as they filed out. 

"I can't believe Gryffindor didn't lose a single point," Hermione crowed.

"My grade on that test was worse than a hundred points. I failed it miserably. I'll probably get a howler from Mom," Ron moaned.

"I didn't do very well either," said Ginny. "What was with the French questions? How can we be expected to answer if we don't even know the language?"

"Oh I knew that," said Hermione. 

"Well, you went to France," interrupted Ron.

"No. I didn't learn them in France," said Hermione. "It was ballet terms."

"Did you take ballet?" asked Samara. "So did I—" 

"When I was 6," said Hermione. 

"Ballet," said Ron. "From Snape? What's wrong with him?"

"Snape looks really bad, doesn't he?" said Ginny

"I don't remember him ever looking anything but bad," said Harry.

"No, I mean he looks sick or cursed," said Ginny.

"I didn't do it," laughed Ron, and they all joined in.

They headed across the hall to potions.

==


	7. CH 6: Polyjuice Peril

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

POLYJUICE PERIL

Chapter 6

Disclaimer : I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

Hogwarts and all of the characters belong to JK Rowlings, except for:

Lorissa Cantsay

Samara Donnally

Beatrice Ellis

Llywelyn Styvesant

Joseph Foresman

Stuart Anton

Calvin Anthony

Gloria Snood

Lyle Applegate

Christi Prentice

Josie Perkins

and the Halston boy

so far...I still need a Chaser...

Since Rowlings mentions a few last names, I can't take credit for them. 

They are JKR's; but I made up first names to go with them.

Edward

Ethan

Valerianna

Desmond

Marshall

Lauren

Laural

Alvin

Ming

Hey, It's a big school!

POLYJUICE PERIL

Neville and his new _brother, Llewellen_ were discussing how herbology complemented potions when Ron, Hermione, and Harry and their first years caught up to them.

"I am so glad we no longer have Professor Snape for potions," Neville was confiding to Lou. "Mrs. Figg will be so much better."

"How do you know?" Lou asked.

"Anyone would be better than Snape," said Neville. "You saw him last class."

"Didn't you learn the potions that you were supposed to…"

"Oh, we learned them," Harry interrupted. "It wasn't that he was a bad teacher, it was that he favored the Slytherins so shamelessly. We were constantly having points taken away for nothing."

"He didn't seem like he would do that," Lou said.

" Think what you like," said Ron. "You'll see. Snape a Bastard with a capital B."

They slipped into potions, still chatting with one another and Mrs. Figg didn't reprimand them. She didn't even seem to notice. She was writing on a parchment with a quill that was nearly devoid of feathers.

She stuck the end of the quill in her mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully before continuing her writing. Mrs. Figg was a tiny woman with long white hair, oval wire rimmed spectacles and a cheery smile. She looked like somebody's grandmother instead of a witch.

The dungeon itself was transformed. Colorful tapestries hung on the dark stone walls and several large cheery pictures of outdoor ocean scenes decorated the back of the room. Seagulls were flying over the billowing waves in one and another had a school of dolphins playing along a white sand beach. In both, the sun was gleaming and reflecting on the water. There were three smaller pictures taken at sunset from the beach. One had a sailboat on it and the others just had seashells in the sand and a large expanse of ocean. They looked warm and inviting, like some beach resort.

As the students were being seated, she spoke. "I apologize for the dark dreariness of the room, but I understand you had potions in the classroom last year. It is, unfortunately, the most suited to the noxious fumes or sudden explosions we sometimes experience with potions. It is also the only room with adequate storage for the herbs and other ingredients—not to mention cauldrons. You would want to have to lug those to class each day, would you?"

The class chuckled nervously. NO one was used to smiling in Snape's dungeon.

Now then, Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to begin this year with a very advanced potion called polyjuice potion."

"Oh this is going to be a good year," Ron, whispered to Harry. "Another class I can sleep through"

"I think not, " Mr. Weasley.

Ron's mouth fell open and he mouthed, almost silently, "She couldn't have heard—

"But I did hear," Mr. Weasley, and if I hear anything more, there will be points taken from Gryffindor."

Ron sat up a little straighter and the rest of the class got very quiet. The only sound beside Mrs. Figgs voice was the scratch, scratch of Neville's QQQ taking notes, and somewhere, faraway water was dripping.

"As I was saying, PJP is a very advanced potion not because of what you must do, but because of what you must not do. All of this week, we will be scrubbing the cauldrons with Mrs. Skower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover. They must be scrupulously clean. Then we will fill the cauldron with Mrs. Skower's Double Bubbling Disinfect to insure that nothing is still in the cauldron other than the ingredients we choose to put in it. Any minute particle can yield disastrous and often permanent results. For this reason, I was hesitant when Dumbledore suggested I start the year with the potion; but I also understood why he wanted you to know how to make it. Almost any wizard who survived the last dark times owes his life to polyjuice potion. It is of tremendous benefit to be able to walk unrecognized in the enemies camp, and to reassure me, Dumbledore tells me that Madam Pomfrey is one of the only living wizards who is experienced in successfully reversing a polyjuice mistake.

Harry glanced over at Hermione who was a deathly white. Beatrice had already used her puffer several times and didn't look well either.

"There are several stipulations that I asked for and Dumbledore agreed: Anyone tampering with another person's cauldron will be expelled." She paused allowing that to sink in. The following infractions will earn detention or loss of house points or both. Number 1: Anyone taking the lid off of their cauldron for any reason other than to add ingredients or to stir. Number 2: Anyone not magically sealing the lid of their cauldron before leaving the classroom. And Three: If you have dirty hands when you come to this class and that includes fingernails."

Animagi are forbidden by law to make polyjuice potion. The animagus spell causes certain innate changes in the skin which means that your touching the ingredients could alter the potion itself. If you have ever officially or unofficially attempted the animagus spell, you need to see Madam Pomfrey to be sure the changes are not present in you skin.

At this time, you may get your cauldrons and begin scrubbing them. When you have finished, trade with a partner and scrub again. Continue cleaning through out the second period. You may talk quietly among yourselves." She paused, and then addressed Beatrice. "Beatrice, please come here. I have an errand for you to do."

Harry couldn't wait to get to Hermione's table. "Did you hear her?"

"Did we even rinse the cauldron?" squeaked Ron.

"We were very, very lucky," said Hermione.

"Lucky. This, from the woman with a tail!" said Ron.

"I didn't STAY that way!" said Hermione, "I never knew that Madam Pomfrey knew what we had done. She never took house points or even reprimanded me."

"She must have told Dumbledore, though," said Harry.

"Am I to understand that you have already MADE polyjuice potion?" asked Ron's little brother Joe

"Yes," said Ron. "We were second years and the Heir of Slytherin was petrifying people."

"Ron," Ginny said softly, but Ron ignored her and pressed on. 

We thought the only way to find out who the Heir was would be to get into The Slytherin Common room. We figured that Malfoy would know, so Harry was."

Harry kicked him sharply. "I was supposed to be a Slytherin and so was Hermione, but as you know, it's a very tricky potion and we botched it. "

"And so, did you find out who the Heir of Slytherin was?" asked Edward.

"Ron, Please," Ginny hissed from the table behind them.

Mrs. Figg was rearranging the seating and moved Samara pairing her with Pansy Parkinson. Hermione and Ginny were also moved forward and paired with the Slytherins first years.

Ginny turned around and put a finger to her lips, but Ron was busily scrubbing his cauldron. He didn't even look at her.

"So," Mrs. Figg was saying, "In keeping with what the Headmaster Dumbledore's wishes, you will share a cauldron with a member of a different house. Before you get any ideas, I attended Hogwarts many years ago, and understand the ancient rivalries between the houses. I will see anyone who tampers with another's cauldron expelled, and it is wise to keep in mind that you will be drinking from the same cauldron has your partner. It benefits you to work together even though you are from different houses."

"She's pairing us with those Death Eaters!" said Harry. "Is she nutters?"

"Well at least that should keep Ron awake," said Hermione.

Ron glared at her and then continued to talk to Edward. "Actually," Ron said. "We DID find the Heir of Slytherin. It was He who must not be named. Also, called Tom Riddle. He left an enchanted diary of himself when he was 16 and my little sister was stupid enough to write in the diary. He was acting through her all year."

"Is she still—um—your sister?" asked Edward.

"Yes!" Ron shouted, and Mrs. Figg looked up from her work. "Mr. Weasley, I don't believe you have taken me seriously. Five points from Gryffindor for your disturbance and you may move over here at a table alone, since you cannot seem to control yourself.

Harry glared at Edward. "How could you say that to Ron," he spat.

"Well, I wouldn't think ANYONE would come away from something like a--possession without—residual damage."

"Ginny's fine," said Harry.

"If you say so."

"Draco," Mrs. Figg continued, " I think you might find it interesting to work with the opposite twin, so Ethan and Edward, please change seats. Llewellen and Joe, please take your seats by Vincent and Greg.

The next few minutes of potions was passed in sullen silence. Harry wasn't going to talk to Ed's Slytherin brother, but after a while, his curiosity got the better of him. It was going to be a long two-hour class doing nothing but scrubbing, if they didn't talk to each other. Finally, Harry broke the silence. "So you were raised by your grandmother," Harry asked.

"Ha! Don't get any grandmotherly pictures, Gryffindor. She's a Dragon-lady." He didn't speak with disgust. He spoke with pride.

"I didn't get that impression from your brother," said Harry. "He called her Granny."

"Not to her face, he didn't. She'd have locked him in the closet with the rats—or worse," Said Ethan. Draco tells me you and my brother should have a lot in common. You can discuss the dimensions of your closets."

Harry said nothing. He wondered how Ethan knew about the Durley's cupboard. For that matter, how did Draco know? Harry sighed. He thought, that it was going to be a long two months brewing this potion. 

"Didn't hurt your feelings, did I, Gryff? I forgot Gryffindor's are pretty thin-skinned. I've learned that from my brother. Thick skulled and thin-skinned. Always whining about something."

"You forgot quick tempered," Harry said lowly. "Didn't Snape just say, we Gryffindor's rush into action without preparation." Harry almost could have wished he were paired with Malfoy. At least he would have been a familiar foe. He felt the beginnings of a headache.

As if Ethan could read his mind, he asked, "So tell me, is Draco the most cowardly git imaginable, or is he just plain stupid?"

Harry concentrated on cleaning the cauldron. There was no way he was going to touch that statement.

"I mean, look at him: reasonably attractive, above average intelligence, a good family, and he surrounds himself with those morons and calls them friends. Why? Certainly not for their intelligence, more than likely their stupidity would get him into trouble. Does he need their brawn to protect him? Ethan's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Maybe he's afraid. Of course he would have reason to be, wouldn't he?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Of course you know," said Ethan. "You feel The Dark Lord's power. Perhaps you feel it more than any of us."

"You have no idea what I feel," Harry said coldly.

"Well, that's true," Ethan retorted. "Feelings are for the weak."

Mrs. Figg was telling them to clean up their area and put their cauldrons away. "Be sure to fill it with Mrs. Skower's Double Bubbling Disinfect to soak before you leave and seal the cauldron," she said.

Hurriedly Harry finished with his cauldron. He couldn't wait to get away from Ethan. His head was pounding. Perhaps some cool water and fresh air would make him feel better.

"Hey Griff," Ethan called after Harry. Harry turned. Ethan was holding the lid of Harry's cauldron in his hand. "Forget something?" he asked.

"Bloody hell," Harry rubbed his scar. He had forgotten to magic his cauldron closed. "Thanks, Ethan," he said as he came back and performed the charm.

"It's ok partner. We have to look out for each other."

"Sure," said Harry, trying very hard to mean it.

The Slytherins slipped back to their friends and Harry joined Ron and Hermione and their first years. Edward took a few extra moments laughing at something Malfoy had said, and then hurried to meet the other Gryffindor's. Crabbe and Goyle stalked up to either side of Malfoy and Harry noted that they did seem like large, stupid bodyguards. Ethan had already left the potions room.

"That was fun, wasn't it," said Samara.

"Oh, yeah, loads," retorted Ron sarcastically.

"Well, what I meant was we got to talk instead of just silently cleaning. Pansy seems kind of shy though."

"A shy Slytherin? I don't think so," said Harry.

"Well, I was probably running on at the mouth again," said Samara, but Pansy seemed like a good listener.

"Probably had lots of practice listening to Draco," said Hermione. "They were definitely a couple last year, but I haven't seen them together this year. Maybe they broke up. Remember he took her to the Yule Ball last year?" 

"I wish they'd have a Yule Ball this year," said Ginny dreamily.

Harry shuddered. "Not me. I'm not much for dancing."

"Oh, dancing's fun," said Samara. "Maybe you just didn't have the right partner." Her dark eyes caught his. "I miss dancing."

"That's because you haven't tried flying," said Harry. "Which reminds me, who's trying out for the Quiddich Team tomorrow?"

"I'd like to," said Samara. "And I didn't do too badly for my first time on a broom today."

"Oh, Right," said Harry. "First years had flying this morning didn't they? How did you do?"

Samara grinned widely. "It was so exciting. I loved it. I'm not very good though. A lot of the first years had been on brooms when they were 3 or 4 years old. They didn't need the flying lessons and Madam Hooch said they could choose one of the regular electives. She was undecided about me, but I thought I'd rather stay with flying than go into a stuffy classroom."

"You lucky thing," said Ron.

"Why don't we go down to the Quiddich Field," said Harry. "It's open flying now. I'll give you some pointers. Ron, are you and Ginny coming?"

"Well, if I want to get on the Quiddich team this year I can't pass up tips from Gryffindor 's best seeker, can I," said Ginny.

Harry completely missed Ginny's complement. Ed didn't. 

"Anyone else coming?" Harry looked around. "How about you Edward?"

"No," said Ed, "I don't think so. We have homework."

Ron shuddered. "You sound like Hermione."

"That's not a bad thing," said Hermione. "And we do have homework. I thought we were going to see what we could find out about the Sorting Hat."

"We'll meet you in the common room later." Said Harry. "I don't know about everyone else, but I need the fresh air after DADA and Double Potions. Three hours of Slytherins. Ugh. I definitely need to fly and clear my head."

"Come on, Ed," Samara urged. "You were awesome this morning. Even Madam Hooch commented about your quick turns."

Edward looked at the ground. His brow furrowed in thought. "No," He said. "I can't play Quiddich. My brother is the Quiddich player."

"You know Ed," said Harry gently, "You might surprise yourself. You aren't in competition with your brother here. You are in Gryffindor. He's in Slytherin. Wouldn't it feel good to beat his ass for once."

Ed looked up, a light in his eyes, but it immediately died. "No," he said again. "I can't. If you don't mind, I'd like to go and watch you practice though."

Ed, Ginny, Sam, Harry and Ron headed for the Quiddich field.

==


	8. CH7:Flying Follies and Feathered Friends

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

FLYING FOLLIES AND FEATHERED FRIENDS

Chapter 7

BY Lady Lestrange

DISCLAIMER: It's all JK Rowlings. Don't sue me.

Open flying seemed to be a free for all to Samara. The Quiddich pitch was crowded with a lot of people who were only marginally in control of their brooms. Sam recognized several of the first years from her flying lesson this morning. Of course anyone could fly over the countryside, but if they fell off of their broom, no one would know where they were. The downside to flying within the Quiddich pitch was, it was more likely that you would fall of your broom when you were crashed into by incompetent flyers. 

After a few minutes, Samara took her broom to the ground. She was sweating profusely not from the strain of flying, but because she was nervous. She watched Ron, Ginny and Harry fly expertly around each other and the crowd. There was no way Samara could do that. Ron swooped down and picked up an abandoned ball from the ground. Ginny flew a little behind him. Within moments, they were passing the ball quickly back and forth and weaving among the other fliers. 

Harry, who was several yards above Ron, Ginny and most of the other flyers, did a sharp dive, turning his broom practically vertical and then braking quickly. His feet were just above the ground and the edges of his robe whipped forward coming to rest not more than an inch from her knee. Seeing Harry out of the corner of her eye and expecting one of the out of control first years, Samara flinched. 

"Sorry," Harry said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's ok," said Samara. "I just needed a break. There's too much traffic, for me to feel comfortable."

"It's good practice for dodging bludgers," said Harry.

"Bludgers?" said Samara. Harry started to explain the fine points of Quiddich to Samara. She seemed to catch on pretty quickly, at least in theory. 

"You could fly higher," suggested Harry.

"No, I don't think so," said Samara. "I'm as high as I want to go right now."

"See Ron and Ginny? They are practicing passing the Quaffle. Want to try it?" 

"And let go of the broom?" asked Samara. "Not today. I need to get my balance on this skinny little thing first."

Harry smiled. "We could go outside the Quiddich pitch. It's fun to see some of the grounds. We aren't allowed to fly over the Forbidden Forest though. We could fly up to the owlry. I have a letter I want to post, anyway. Then I'll have to get back for the Quiddich meeting after free flying."

"Fly up to the owlry?" questioned Samara. "What do the owls think of that?"

"I haven't asked them," Harry laughed. "Technically I don't think we're supposed to fly up there, but no one's told me not to yet and it's so many stairs, and really it's the roof. The actual owlry is the shelter beneath it."

"OK," Samara said, getting back on her broom. "Lead the way, but not too fast. This is comet 260 school broom don't forget, not a lightening bolt like yours."

"Firebolt," Harry corrected, and he kicked off with her right behind him.

When they got to the owlry, Samara had a moment of panic as a dozen owls took off around her, but it made room for her to land the broom. 

"Watch your step," said Harry remembering the mess of owl droppings on the roof. It wasn't as bad as in the actual owlry though and the breeze was blowing away the stink. He wondered why he had brought Samara here. She probably would hate it.

Hedgewig was already flying to Harry's hand. He stroked her feathers for a few moments and talked to 

her. "Hi girl. I have a letter to send to Hagrid." Hedgewig had already stuck out her leg when Samara came over to them. 

"Oh, she is beautiful," said Samara, reaching up to touch her. Hedgewig immediately hopped from Harry's hand to Samara's shoulder and began preening Samara's hair. "What is she doing?" Samara giggled.

"I think she likes you," said Harry. Why was it that Samara's giggling didn't grate on this nerves like most girl's. Maybe it was because she didn't giggle constantly. He was still holding the letter to Hagrid.

He had told Hagrid about the attack on the Hogwart's Express and the Sorting Hat failing. He wished him luck with finding the giants and with Madam Maxim. He wondered when his friend would be coming back. He missed him.

Harry glanced over at Samara. She stood with her head bowed and was talking softly to Hedgewig. Wisps of Sam's hair had come loose from its tie and Hedgewig was enjoying bits of cookies, which Samara was feeding her. Occasionally, Hedgewig would reach up and catch a bit of Samara's hair in his beak. Hedgewig usually didn't take so well to strangers. Of course, the cookies could have something to do with Hedgewig's attitude.

"Where did you get the cookies?" Harry asked as he came over beside Sam.

"Oh! Don't tell anyone, OK" said Samara with a wry smile. I've had them in my pocket since breakfast." She insided out the pocket of her robe and shook the crumbs out.

Harry laughed. "Good thing you don't keep your wand in your pocket. It would be all sticky."

Hedgewig attacked the cookies like she was starving. A few other owls crowded over to try to snatch a few crumbs. Samara tried in vain to get them to share. After a few minutes Hedgewig hopped back to Sam's shoulder. Samara smoothed Hedgewig's feathers. "I think she's the most beautiful bird I've ever seen."

"Thanks," said Harry. "She was a birthday gift from Hagrid. Come on Hedgewig. Time to go to work."

Hedgewig hopped over to Harry and Harry tied the letter to her leg. After he released her, Hedgewig flew a circle over their heads and then took off to deliver the letter. Once Hedgewig left, the silence between Harry and Samara lengthened. She's the talkative one, thought Harry. Why doesn't she say something, but she just smiled at him. The long silence didn't seem to bother her. She looked out across the grounds, apparently deep in thought.

"Oh Harry!" Said Samara. "What happened to that owl?" She was pointing to a large brown barn owl that was covered with some sort of sticky orange goo. He looked sick or—"

Harry examined the bird closer. It tried to bite him. "He's been burned," said Harry. "That's a healing balm. He'll be alright."

"Poor thing," commented Samara. I wish I had some more cookies."

"He'd probably like some meat better," said Harry. 

She reached out to stroke him.

"Careful," said Harry. "He might bite you."

But the bird didn't. It let her stroke his feathers gently although his sharp yellow eyes never seemed to relax.

Let's go back down," said Harry after a few minutes. "I have a Quiddich meeting shortly."

"Ok," said Samara. "Thanks for showing me the owlry."

"Sure." Harry stepped to the edge of the roof, through a leg over his broom and took off. The broom dropped a couple of feet causing Harry to disappear beneath the edge of the roof.

Samara gasped, and then shook off her fear as Harry made a circle and came back up where she could see him.

"Coming?" he called.

Not one to be outdone, Samara also mounted her broom from the edge of the roof instead of taking off from the middle of the floor where she would have been more comfortable. It took her a little longer than Harry to get her broom under control though, and she dropped several yards. Harry rocketed after her, as if she were a diving snitch, but just as he was about to grab her, she gained control of her broom and soared upwards. 

"You're right, you know," she called over her shoulder.

"Right about what?"

"Flying could replace dancing as my new love."

When they returned to the Quiddich pitch, they found Ron was still doggedly trying to get just a little better at his flying. Harry knew he was determined to get on the starting line of the Quiddich team. 

Ginny had given up flying and was happily snuggling in the stands with Edward. Harry didn't think a moment about heading down to Ron; instead he flew around the upraised stands. "Hey Ginny," he called.

"I thought you wanted to practice some Quiddich moves." He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"Well, I was," Ginny replied just as shortly. "But my teacher disappeared." 

Harry wheeled his broom and headed to the ground where the Quiddich team was starting to assemble. Why hadn't he thought of Ginny before he took off to the owlry with Samara? He was just trying to be nice to Samara and make her feel at home. She looked so uncomfortable with everyone zooming around her on broomsticks. He hadn't meant to make Ginny angry with him. He couldn't think about Ginny now. He needed to think about the plans for the next Quiddich season. He glanced up in the stands to see Ginny and Edward leaving together. He followed their flight line until they touched down, and laughing together, they walked out of sight.

== == == ==

After the Quiddich meeting, Harry flew furiously around the field. He dove and turned and chased an imaginary snitch until Ron became dizzy. "Hey, Harry," he called at last. "It's almost time for supper. Let's go get washed."

Harry glided his broom to a stop in front of Ron. "Go ahead," he said. "I just want to try a few more moves. I'll be there shortly."

Ron shrugged. "Ok. Don't take too long, you'll miss supper."

Harry kicked off and zoomed back into the air. He began making wider and wider circles.

The clear air, 30 feet above the Quiddich pitch seemed to help him think. If he was worried about Ginny and Edward, he had to tell her. It wasn't like he didn't know her. He stayed had overnight at the burrow, for goodness sakes. They could talk. Couldn't they? He tried to remember when they had spoken a half dozen words without Ron there with them. He couldn't. The question was; he really didn't know if he was worried about her or jealous. He always thought of Ginny as Ron's sister and yet, this year she had grown into a very attractive young woman. Still, Samara was more his type. Ginny was way too shy. They'd sit and stare at each other and blush instead of talking. Not that he really wanted to just talk to Ginny. . . He thought about what it would be like to kiss her, but the thought couldn't quite get past the realization that she was Ron's little sister. Maybe Ron should protect her from him, he thought with a wry smile. Well, that really was the problem wasn't it? If he explored these feelings for Ginny, and it didn't work out, what would happen to his and Ron's friendship? He just wasn't sure he was ready to risk that. He still hadn't come to a decision, when he finally coasted lightly to the ground and headed for the Gryffindor common room to get ready for supper. 

Edward and Ginny were sitting side by side doing homework at one of the tables in the Gryffindor common room. They certainly weren't alone, but no one was sitting next to them either. The others had afforded them the sort of wide berth that was usually given to couples in the common room. Parvati and Dean and Lavender were reading by the fireplace and Seamus and, playing chess against Neville's little brother, Llwellen. But seemed like it was taking all of them to give Lou a challenge. Parvati, Dean and Lavender were continually putting the books aside to give Seamus advice.

Harry frowned and headed for his room. Ron and Joe were also playing chess, but they were both so engrossed in the game that neither moved when Harry came in. He looked over Ron's shoulder at the condition of the game. Joe had taken Ron's queen, but Ron had rallied and it looked like he could checkmate him in a few more moves even without the queen. Harry could never remember taking Ron's queen. Either Ron was distracted or Joe was a pretty good player. 

Harry was going to go into the bathroom, but the door was locked. Instead he readied his books for a trip to the library after supper. 

When he reached to open his trunk, he discovered it was unlocked. He knew he had locked it this morning before he went to class, but what about when he came back for the map for Defense class? With a knot of fear in his chest, he dug through it looking for the Marauder's Map. His heart was thumping wildly as he thought about Edward's curiosity about the map, and then he remembered, he had not returned the Marauder's map to its hiding place. It was still in his inner robe pocket. He breathed a sigh of relief, and just for good measure, laid his hand on the liquidy material of the Invisibility Cloak, before returning the Marauder's Map to the trunk with the cloak, and locking it both with a spell and his muggle lock. His treasures were safe for now, but he must have left the trunk unlocked this morning in his rush to get to the library. He had done that often enough last year, but this year with new students in his room, he resolved to be more careful. 

Just then, Edward came out of the bathroom. "Are you ready to go down to supper?" he asked no one in particular. Neither Ron nor Joe answered him.

"In a minute," said Harry, going into the bathroom. He left the door cracked open so he could talk to Ron while getting washed before going down to supper. "Better hurry up with your game," he called out to Ron and Joe. "You'll miss supper."

When Harry was ready to go, Edward had already left the dorm. Ron and Joe were still battling the last few moves. Joe had anticipated the attack that Harry saw earlier and now had Ron's king on the run. Expertly, Ron moved his king into a strategic position across the board from his rook. Joe moved his queen quickly into its path. "Rook takes queen," said Ron. Joe smacked his fist of the desk. "That was stupid," he said. 

"Yes, it was," agreed Ron. "You're rushing. We should call it a draw, and go down to supper." 

"I guess so." Said Joe. "As long as I get a rematch."

"Of course," Ron agreed as the two of them began gathering up the chess pieces.


	9. CH 8: Bugging the Slytherins

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

A BIG THANK YOU to my reviewers. LL

Chapter 8

Bugging the Slytherins

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

Hogwarts and all of the characters belong to JK Rowlings, except for:

Lorissa Cantsay

Samara Donnally

Beatrice Ellis

Llywelyn Styvesant

Joseph Foresman

Stuart Anton

Calvin Anthony

Gloria Snood

Lyle Applegate

Christi Prentice

Josie Perkins

and the Halston boy

so far...I still need a Chaser..

.

Since Rowlings mentions a few last names, I can't take credit for them. 

They are JKR's; but I made up first names to go with them.

Edward

Ethan

Valerianna

Desmond

Marshall

Lauren

Laural

Alvin

Ming

Hey, It's a big school!

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

A BIG THANK YOU to my reviewers. LL

Bugging the Slytherins

As the Gryffindor boys were sitting down to supper, Hermione slid into the seat across from them and put a terrarium on the table in front of her. 

"Ugh," said Parvati. "Don't put that bug on the table."

"Well, it's not exactly a bug," said Hermione.

Parvati and Lavender were moving away. "Looks like a bug to me," Lavender said as they took seats closer to Dean and Seamus, leaving Harry, Joe, Ron, Beatrice and Hermione sitting across from Edward, Samara and Ginny. Several empty seats separated them. 

"Is that who I think it is?" asked Ron.

"You have to let her go, Hermione," said Beatrice as she filled her plate with salad.

"Yes," Hermione told Ron. "It's Rita Skeeter."

"The reporter from the Daily Prophet that disappeared this summer?" asked Edward.

"Oh, Dear, I didn't think of her being missed," said Herman worriedly.

Edward tapped on the terrarium and the bug scuttled under some foliage. "My granny said someone was going to get that woman," said Edward. 

"Yes, well, she didn't write very nice things about me and my friends." Said Hermione.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side," commented Samara as she started to cut her meat.

"You haven't kept her like this all summer, have you?" asked Harry. "I thought you would have owled Dumbledore."

"Well, I meant to," said Hermione, "But then I left for Bulgaria. I thought that would be a good place to turn her loose. She was in the bottom of my trunk when I got there. I told Viktor--Viktor thought it was hilarious."

Harry thought about that, trying to picture the dark, brooding, Viktor Krum laughing—

"Oh course, he and a few of his Drumstrang friends thought that I had transfigured her." Continued Hermione.

"You didn't?" asked Edward.

"No. Of course not. We haven't learned human transfiguration yet! Anyway, I wouldn't do that. She's an animagus. That's how she got all those awful stories."

"And then," Hermione shrugged miserably. "Well—I guess I just forgot. When I got back home, she was still in the bottom of my trunk."

"The Ministry's been looking for her," said Ron. "Percy said they thought she went the way of Bertha Jorkins."

"Oh no. Do you think I'm going to be in trouble? I mean, real trouble. This isn't just a childish joke." Said Hermione. "Should I take her to Dumbledore, or just let her go."

"You can't just let her go," said Harry. "She'd write more of those lies."

"Well, she can't keep a person in a terrarium!" interrupted Beatrice.

"I guess Rita has to go to Dumbledore then," said Hermoine miserably. "I'm going to be in so much trouble. Do you think I'll get expelled?"

  
"Not with your grade point average," said Ron while shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth. "Anyway, I don't remember any mention of her being an animagus, so she's probably not registered. You have that in your favor."

"She's not registered. I checked last year," said Hermione. "Don't you remember? There's only seven registered Anmagi this century."

"But keeping her all that time…" said Harry.

"Well, I didn't think the Ministry would be looking for her. It just never crossed my mind. I cancelled the Daily Prophet while I was in Bulgaria. It didn't seem worth the extra owl cost this summer." Said Hermoione. 

"But you are going to do what is right, now," said Beatrice as if asking for assurance.

"Of course, I am," said Hermione. "Didn't I tell you that I would, Beatrice?"

"Why does Dumbledore have to know it was you who caught her," said Edward. "You could slip her under the door to Dumbledore's office when he's reprimanding someone else or even just put the terrarium his office."

"We could blame it on the Slytherins," said Ron. Ron and Edward exchanged a glance that could only be construed as evil. 

"Let me think about it," said Edward. "I know I can come up with a good plan. She's been in that terrarium this long. Another day or so won't matter."

"Yes, it will," protested Beatrice. "She's a human being, not a bug."

"Just today," said Hermione. "If no one comes up with a plan by tomorrow, I'll just take her to Dumbledore."

"No," said Beatrice. "You told me how terrible you think it is that House Elves are enslaved and yet you want to keep this woman in a bug container. It's awful!" Beatrice was almost in tears. "Hermione, How could you?" 

"Oh, Ok," said Edward," opening the terrarium, and sticking is wand into it. "I can't stand---to see a girl cry. We'll do it right now."

"Are you sure?" whispered Hermione worriedly. 

"Stupefy," Edward said, and the beetle was still. 

"Edward—" Hermione began in a tight whisper.

"You get rid of the terrarium," he told Hermione. "On second thought, just put it by the entrance to the dungeons." He paused, and glanced at Parvati and Lavender. They won't tell on us, will they?" 

"Why would they?" said Ron. "They're Gryffindors."

Edward nodded. "Good," he said.

"You shouldn't have stupefied her," said Hermione worriedly. "Professor McGonagall said—"

"She'll be fine," Edward interrupted as he pocketed his wand and put the beetle in his left hand. He shot a quick conspiratorial smile at Ron before he stalked across the room to the Slytherin table. 

"You Slimeball!" he shouted at Malfoy. "What did you just put in my brother's food?" Edward's left hand whipped his brother's plate off of the table. It shattered on the floor, and food spilled across several people's dishes at the Slytherin table. 

The Slytherins erupted into complaints directed at Edward, but Edward ignored them. He withdrew his wand from his pocket, and trained it on Malfoy. The only other Slytherin that was looking at Draco was Ethan.

"This is over the Canary Creams, isn't it?" growled Ethan in a murderous tone, and he also took out his wand. 

"I didn't do anything!" Shouted Draco.

By now, Snape had risen. With a simple wave of his hand, he repaired the broken dinner plate. "Sit," he snapped at his house, and they sat like well-trained dogs, except for Ethan. "I'm not used to repeating my orders," Snape said softly, and something in Snape's voice or mannerism convinced Ethan to put his wand away and sit down. While Snape examined the food, he spoke. "Return to your table, Edward," he said.

Edward pocketed his wand. "Yes, sir," he said and walked back to Gryffindor table without looking back.

Once seated, he allowed himself a quick glance at Ron and Harry, but he did not even smile. 

Snape, meanwhile, had taken something from the food, presumably the beetle. "This would be no more than childish prank, Mr. Malfoy," he said. "If this beetle weren't rather rare. I presume that it was stolen from the potions stores."

"I didn't steal anything," Draco shouted. "I never saw that beetle…" Suddenly his face drained of every bit of color as he looked at the beetle. 

"You should have learned by now not to lie to me, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said coldly. 

"I didn't—"

The tension in the room was palpable. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath wondering which would happen first: would Malfoy crumble or would Snape have to resort to more drastic measures?

"Lying to me gets you—nothing pleasant." Snape threatened.

"It's Rita Skeeter," Malfoy whispered, his voice shaking. Harry couldn't remember Malfoy ever looking so terrified. Even during his visit to the Forbidden Forest in detention in their first year, he didn't look so panicked. 

"This—is--a---person?" Snape said slowly, obviously keeping his temper under tight wraps.

"Sir—I—" Draco looked from Snape to the head table and back to Snape as if weighing the possibility of running. "Uh--- I don't know, Sir."

"That's two lies," Snape pronounced.

Harry could almost hear Malfoy grinding his teeth. "Uh--Yes—Sir. I think it's a person."

Snape turned away from Malfoy and walked back to the head table

"Headmaster," Snape said formally, "If you will be kind enough to take care of Miss Skeeter, I will tend to Mr. Malfoy, unless you would prefer to simply expel him, now." 

Beatrice sucked in her breath.

"He's bluffing," said Ron. "Malfoy won't get expelled." 

Dumbledore said something softly to Snape, and he laid the beetle on the head table. Now starting to recover from the stupefy spell, It crawled slowly and laboriously toward the fern centerpiece. Snape turned back to Malfoy, who had picked up a piece of bread and was slowly pulling it to pieces. 

"Mr. Malfoy—You won't want to eat anything else."

If possible, Malfoy got even paler. "Yes, sir," he said as he put the bread down in a neat little pile, and Snape herded him out of the Great Hall.

After they left, the whole Hall seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. The Hufflepuff table burst into chatter, but the Ravenclaws and Gryffindor's were a little more subdued.

Beatrice took several puffs of her puffer and then started to cry. 

"It's ok Beatrice," said Hermione.

"Yeah, it's just Malfoy," shot Ron. "Can you believe that git knew the bug was Rita Skeeter? He probably was setting her on us all year, last year. He deserves whatever Snape can dish out."

"Do you think so?" said Beatrice between sobs.

"What do you think Snape will do to him?" whispered Neville.

"It can't be that bad," said Lou. "He's a teacher."

"He's Snape," said Harry, as if that was enough.

They sat for a few minutes, trying not to imagine what punishment Snape had in mind for Malfoy.

"I'm not very hungry, now," said Hermione.

"Oh come on, Hermione." Said Harry. "He's not going to get expelled. Dumbledore wouldn't do that. The worst that will happen is detention and points off of Slytherin."

"Yeah, Malfoy's Snape's golden boy," said Ron. " He'll probably slap his fingers and they'll both have a good laugh over Rita, the bug."

"Golden boy," snorted Edward. "Malfoy?" He shook his head as if in disbelief. "Well, let's go to the library and get some of our work done." 

"I should thank you," Hermione said to Edward. 

Rita chose that moment to re animate into her human form. She became a human, but was sitting on the floor sobbing. Her clothes looked like she wore them for the whole summer, which, Samara surmised, she did. Her hair was sticking up wildly. Her beautifully painted nails were ragged and broken. Dumbledore moved forward to address her. "Miss Skeeter. It is times like these when it becomes apparent why the Ministry insists upon registration of animus."

"Yes," she sobbed, clutching at Dumbledore's robes as if she wanted to crawl up them like a bug. 

"Do you realize there is a fine or jail term or both for withholding the information that you are an animagus?" Dumbledore continued.

"I know. Oh, thank you. Thank you." She dissolved into incoherent sobs again.

McGonagall stood up. "I'll take her to Madam Pomfrey," she said.

Slowly the Gryffindor table cleared out to go to the library or the common room.

A/N: Draco fans, you know he gets even, don't you?


	10. CH 9: Mismanaged Mischief

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 9

Mismanaged Mischief

By Lady Lestrange

DISCLAIMER:I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

Hogwarts and all of the characters belong to JK Rowlings, except for: 

Lorissa Cantsay

Samara Donnally

Beatrice Ellis

Llywelyn Styvesant

Joseph Foresman

Stuart Anton

Calvin Anthony

Gloria Snood

Lyle Applegate

Christi Prentice

Josie Perkins

and the Halston boy

so far...I still need a Chaser...

Since Rowlings mentions a few last names, I can't take credit for them. 

They are JKR's; but I made up first names to go with them.

Edward

Ethan

Valerianna

Desmond

Marshall

Lauren

Laural

Alvin

Ming

Hey, It's a big school!

THANK YOU TO MY REVIEWERS. I APPRECIATE YOUR TIME AND EFFORT. PLEASE PASS THE STORY ON TO YOUR FRIENDS IF YOU ARE ENJOYING IT.

CNJ: About Parvati's prediction—you read very carefully. The predictions will all become clear when the intrepid trio decide to put them into a pensieve. Besides, some have more than one meaning. Divination is a very imprecise branch of magic you know—

LL

Mismanaged Mischief

By Lady Lestrange

==

Harry slumped in the chair by the common room fireplace. "I really don't want to go to the library," he said. "Let's just stay here and study."

"Come on, Harry," said Hermione. "You missed Charms this morning. We have to go over the notes."

"It's not hard," Edward chimed in. 

"Not hard?" said Ron. "No, they're impossible. There are three or four parts to every one of them."

"It's just simple warding spells," said Edward. "Of course, you didn't have any brothers to keep out of 

your stuff. I know tons of warding spells. I used to sleep with my wand under my pillow." 

Ron laughed. "Perhaps my mum should have told me to do that. And I have 5 brothers. He told Edward the story of Fred's revenge after he had broken his toy broomstick." Ron shivered. "I still hate spiders. Imagine, if I had had a wand under my pillow. I was too young for a wand though." Ron reminisced. 

"Never too young," said Edward smiling. "But your brothers aren't in Slytherin, are they?" 

"No, Gryffindor," Ron answered. " And Mum was sure mad at my brother. Didn't your grandmother punish your brother when he picked on you?"

"My grandmother was a Slytherin too," Ed said. "She'd scold me and told me I had to learn to stick up for myself. I used to try to think of things to get even, but they always seemed so—" Edward broke off uncertainly.

"Mean," supplied Hermione. 

"Uh, I guess," said Edward. "One minute I wanted him to suffer and the next I'd remember he was my brother and everything would be ok. It wasn't like I could hurt my brother, could I?"

"Of course not," chimed in Ginny, poking Ron, who was sitting on the arm of her overstuffed chair, playfully in the stomach. Harry noticed that Ron pushed her away just as playfully. A while ago, Ron had confided to Harry that his and Ginny's relationship had changed since the first year when she came to Hogwarts. It wasn't Ron that had changed, it was Ginny. 

Ron had told Harry that before Hogwart's, Ginny used to scream at the top of her lungs how she hated him and all of her brothers when they played some trick on her—especially Fred and George. Sometimes when she was really mad, she'd threaten them with curses, not that she would ever do them, but after her first year and Hogwarts and her experience with Tom Riddle's diary, she never screamed hateful things at him or even at Fred and George. Perhaps, at St. Mongos, Ron surmised, they thought that all that anger belonged to Tom and they sucked it all out of her. Sometimes, Ron thought it made her less than the Ginny she was supposed to be. 

Harry saw Ron kiss her on the top of her head. "Love you, Sis," he whispered for her ears alone.

Edward was watching them, a strange look in his eyes. Well, Ron thought, It had to be hard to be in a different house than your brother. He couldn't imagine it.

"I can work a half hour on your charms, Harry," Hermione announced, "And then, I have to go to the library. I have some things I need to look up for Arthmancy. So, Harry, if you want to study with me, let's do it."

"OK," Harry said, dragging himself out of the chair. "Let's try to find an empty classroom. That way we won't bother anyone."

"No one's here but us," said Edward. 

"And I would like the extra practice too," said Neville, joining the small group of Gryffindors: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Samara, Beatrice and Ginny. 

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Ron," said Neville, "Lou and Joe already went to the library. Joe asked me to tell you."

With no further interruptions, the group began building a four step ward around various objects: their books, the common room chairs, each other…Finally everyone seemed to be able to do it. Edward and Hermione were the best at it. Neville and Beatrice still allowed the edges of the ward to unravel occasionally, and someone could break it down with a concentrated counter spell.

Dean came down from the dorm with his DADA book in his hand while they were practicing and threw himself into one of the chairs. He landed with a hard thump on the floor. "What the—"

"Sorry," Neville laughed. "I guess that one worked." He took the ward off of the chair so that Dean could sit in it.

"Well, I'm off to the library," announced Hermione. The group began to break up and head to their separate dorms to pick up what books they wanted. 

When Harry got to his room, he put the four step ward on his trunk in addition to its muggle lock. He felt like his possessions were a little safer that way. Then he gathered his books and turned toward Ron. "Coming?" he asked. 

"You go on ahead," said Ron, stretching out on his bunk. "I just think I'll study here for a while and then maybe give Joe that rematch when he gets back. I can't have it said that he can beat me in chess, can I?"

"I'd like to see what we can find out about the Sorting Hat," said Harry. "Why don't you come with us?"

Ron stifled an enormous yawn. "I just don't study well at the library. Too quiet. "

Harry nodded. "Well ok then, if you're sure."

"I'm sure," Ron grinned. "Just don't let this library study hour become a permanent thing, Harry. I'll think you're turning into a Ravenclaw."

"Never!" said Harry. "I'm Gryffindor, through and through."

"Absolutely," agreed Edward.

Harry shrugged and walked down to the common room with Edward where they met Ginny and Samara coming out of the girl's dorm. 

"Beatrice and Hermione already left. They said they will save room at the table," Samara told them.

"So are you on your way to the library, now?" asked Edward. 

"Eventually," Ginny answered her eyes sparkling mischievously. 

"Well, allow me to escort you," said Edward, wrapping his arm possessively around Ginny's waist.

He bent close and whispered something to her, as they started off in the general direction of the library or the lake. It was hard to tell. 

Harry did a slow burn. He stood helplessly watching them for a moment and then set off briskly in the direction of the library. He didn't care if Samara came along or not. But she followed. Silently at first, but then she spoke, her voice a whisper in the evening air.

"How long have you liked her?"

"I don't," he spat. "She's had a crush on me since her first year."

Harry walked a few more steps and then stopped sat on one of the many benches on the Hogwart's grounds and leaned his head against the cool bark of a tree. It felt rough and real against his scar, which had settled into a dull, ache this evening. He wondered not for the first time, what Voldemort was doing. What was the difference between the feelings his scar telegraphed: the dull ache, and the sharp pain; the constant throbbing or the grit my teeth and hold my scar pain; What about the one he had felt on the Hogwart's Express: the one that drove him to his knees? What did they mean? Only one living person had ever been with him when he fought Voldemort, and that person was Ginny, even if the image of Volemort was only a memory from a diary. He wanted to ask her what it felt like to have another person in your head: to have Tom Riddle or Voldemort invading your thoughts, and yet, he knew he would not ask her that. Nonetheless, the need to tell someone was almost overwhelming.

"So tense." Samara's hands rested on his shoulders and started to rub. "My mum used to do this when I had too much homework," Samara joked. "I used to cry and whine and kick and scream, and then she'd rub my back until I was all relaxed and it didn't seem so bad anymore."

Samara kept rubbing out the knots, up and down his back until Harry sighed. 

"What's it like?" He asked softly.

"What?"

He hesitated. Wondering what made him want to ask her—he'd never asked anyone—not even Ron—his best friend. He couldn't ask her. But he did. What's it like…"To have a mother." He remembered Mrs. Weasley hugging him after Voldemort's return and he felt all of his worries just sort of melt into her arms. It was like nothing he had ever felt before or since, and he wanted that feeling now. The picture in the Mirror of Erised came back to him suddenly. He could almost remember the feel of his mother's arms around him. Almost—

"I guess, mostly it's wonderful. It's knowing that whatever you have to do there's someone there to support you and help you and love you. It gives you courage, but it also can make you weak."

"How so?"

"My mother was always there to bail me out in Muggle School," said Samara. "Now, it's sink or swim. She couldn't help me with charms or transfiguration. Snape would scare the hell out of her."

Harry laughed.

"And Voldemort. She doesn't even know who Voldemort is. She doesn't know there's a war. I thought about sending her an owl, but I couldn't tell her that—anyway I don't have an owl."

"You could borrow Hedgewig."

"Thanks. I really don't want her to know. She would just worry and there's nothing she could do. It's not for her benefit, it's for mine." Samara shrugged. "I've come to depend upon her ability to get me out of scrapes, and now I don't have them: my mother or my father. I have to depend upon me. It feels very—alone all of the sudden"

"I understand."

He felt the warmth of her hands on his bare neck and shuddered with the sudden realization that not only was the knots and tension gone from his neck and shoulders, the pain in his head diminished to a bearable rate. He felt actually good. 

  
Harry turned and faced her. "That's what friends are for," he said. "You don't have to be alone. Remember McGonagall saying that your house is your family while you are here. That's what she meant--And whatever you did, I feel great. You must have magic in those fingers," he teased.

"Well I am a witch," Samara said. She paused, automatically rubbing her left hand over her right arm and then her right hand over her left arm, each time releasing the energy into the earth. "You look a lot brighter too. Almost all of the gray murkiness has left your aura--"

"My aura," Harry repeated. "You see auras?"

Samara froze. "Don't you?"

"No, only about 7 to 10 percent of witches and wizards see auras. Hermione could probably tell you the exact amount."

"Harry," said Samara softly. "Would you do me a favor? Please don't tell anyone else then that I see auras."

"Why? You aren't in the muggle world anymore, Samara. No one will tease you. They'll be excited for you."

"Please."

Harry remembered how people reacted to his speaking parseltongue. It was hard to be different. He understood that. "OK—but"

Samara put her finger to his lips. "No buts," she said. "I have to figure something out first. Do you know if any of the teachers see auras?"

"I don't know. Trelawney claims to, but she's a big fraud."

"Could you ask her?" Samara said excitedly. 

"Ask her what?"

"Ask her the colors of some of your classmates auras. I want to know if we see the same colors."

"I'd trust that your colors are right and hers are wrong if they are different," said Harry. "I told you she is a big fraud, but I'll ask."

"Thanks Harry. We'd better get to the library," said Samara. "Ginny and Edward will wonder where we went to—"

But when they entered the library, they saw Hermione and Beatrice working diligently. Ginny and Edward were no where in sight.

Harry worked with the girls on homework for a while and then switched over to trying to find out about the making of the Sorting Hat. Unfortunately spells as complicated and strong as those used to make the Sorting Hat were not just lying around in any book for curious students to find. They were in the Restricted Section. Harry looked longingly toward the gate that separated the Restricted books from the rest of the library. 

"When are you going?" Hermione asked.

"Tonight."

After a few minutes, Harry gathered up his books and said goodbye to the girls. He walked back to the common room, to find Ron in a foul mood. 

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Joe beat me at chess, and then Lou beat Joe in about 6 moves," Ron threw himself into a chair. "I'm losing my touch, Harry."

"It was just one game," said Harry.

"No it wasn't it was two."

"So do you want another game of chess," asked Harry.

"No. I know I can beat you."

"Exactly."

Ron started to laugh. 

==

Harry lay in bed that night waiting for the even breathing of his roommates. It was past midnight when it seemed like they were finally all asleep. Harry slipped out of bed and undid the wards on his trunk. He found his Invisibility cloak immediately. The Marauder's Map took a little longer. He was sure it was in the left rear corner, but it wasn't there. After a few moments of frantic searching, he located it in the left front corner. Maybe he had made a mistake when he hid it. Harry woke Ron, and Ron crawled sleepily out of bed. As they were tip toeing toward the door, they heard a voice behind them. "I want to come with you," Edward said. Although Harry really didn't want to take Edward on this adventure, he didn't know how to politely decline. 

"Alright," he said at last, and Edward slid out of bed. He was fully dressed, apparently, waiting for Harry to begin the midnight excursion. He wondered how Edward knew. Maybe Hermione and Beatrice told him if he and Ginny ever got to the library earlier this evening. 

"Be quiet," Harry warned "And watch out for Filch and his cat." Harry moved away from Edward to open the map, and Ron slipped in between them. Harry muttered under his breath, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," opened the Marauder's Map and looked for Filch. Unfortunately, he was right outside the Gryffindor common room, talking to McGonagall. He closed the map as Edward approached. "Mischief Managed."

They slipped back up to their dorms just in time to avoid McGonagall coming to check on the house. It was quiet, and no one was in the common room. Instead of just making her brief check, however, McGonagall seated herself by the fireplace and lit it. The three boys chanced a peek into the room. To Harry's surprise, Sirius' head popped into the fire almost immediately, and looked around. "Where's Albus?" Asked Sirius. "His fire was supposed to be lit."

"I know, he's with Severus in his office," said McGonagall. "We're not lighting any fires unless we have to. Somehow, several of our floos are directly connected to Death Eater houses. We don't know how they managed to do that with the wards in place and it doesn't make us very comfortable."

"Oh Dear," began Sirius.

"Never mind about that. Albus has it under control. We got your owl this morning. How's Lupin?"

Harry sucked in his breath and glanced at Edward. So that was what was wrong with McGonagall's floo. It made him feel sick. "We should go back," he whispered. Harry was dying to find out what had happened to Lupin and to learn more about the floo problems, but not with Edward at his shoulder. He knew it was a bad idea to allow Edward to come along. 

" Several problems. First Lupin got his arm broken. Now that isn't so much of a problem when you are walking on two legs, but when your walking on four—or maybe I should say running on four--and the real problem is that the Wolf's Bane potion bottle got broken in the fight."

Edward choked, next to Harry, and Ron tried to pull him back toward the Dorm room.

"We're only 3 days till the full moon. How did he get in a fight anyway?" asked Mcgonagall.

"Minerva," Sirius said patiently. "We aren't playing quiddich here. Some of the people Dumbledore asked us to seek out didn't want to be found. And when Lupin suggested that the bloke might have giant's blood, well, he wasn't pleased. He back handed Lupin and sent him flying right across the room—"

They finally got Edward back into the dorm room. "We could have waited until she left," Edward protested angrily. "I thought Gryffindor's were supposed to have courage. Where's your guts? Give me the cloak. I'll do it myself."

"Edward," said Harry "You don't know McGonagall. She would give us detention for the rest of the year, if she knew we eavesdropped on her private conversation."

"I still have scars from first year in the Forbidden Forest," moaned Ron, making it sound truly horrible.

"Let's just wait. It isn't worth the risk," said Harry. "In fact, we can just do it tomorrow or even the next day. It's not that important. After all, it's only the first day of school. We have lots of time."

Edward sat grudgingly on his bed and pulled off his shoes and socks. "Ok, so who was she talking about? Do you know? "

Harry considered saying "He didn't have a clue, but what if later, Edward found out that Lupin used to be their teacher—"

"Well, Lupin was our DADA teacher two years ago."

"Lupin, the werewolf?"

Ron launched in on a tirade about what a great Defense teacher Lupin was, but Edward wasn't letting the subject be changed. 

"And someone here is making this monstrosity Wolf's bane potion—Mrs. Figg?"

Harry shrugged.

"Is this Lupin and the other fellow—The one who was talking--you know I feel like I know him from somewhere—maybe the Daily Prophet—is he a singer or something?"

"Just Professor Lupin's friend," said Harry carefully. "I don't know what kind of job he has." Harry certainly didn't want Edward or any one else to know too much about Sirius' whereabouts. It was bad enough he recognized his face—probably from all the publicity two years ago when he escaped Azkaban."

"Well it looks right now like his job is finding out something for Dumbledore," said Edward. "In other words spying."

"Oh I wouldn't say that," said Harry. "They're the team that found Samara, you know. I think that Hogwarts is in trouble. You know financial trouble. Look around –well you don't have the comparison we have. There's less than half of the student body here. Most stayed home. They are afraid of Voldemort. I think they are looking for new students for Hogwarts. They couldn't look in the regular wizarding world. They have to look on the fringes: muggle borns and half giants."

Edward looked appalled. "Giants?" He said, but Harry could do no more. He finally lay down and hoped that Edward would go to sleep. He didn't. He kept talking about werewolves and giants and how they couldn't possibly come to Hogwarts. 

Eventually, Harry edged the tip of his wand out from under his pillow. "Somnus," he whispered, and Edward fell asleep. Harry lay awake for a long time worrying about the floo and hoping that Sirius and Lupin were safe.

"Harry?" Whispered Ron softly. "Are you awake?"

"Yes."

"Do you think that Snape and Slytherin House closed down their floos?"

Harry shivered. "I don't know," he said. Personally, he doubted it.


	11. CH 10: Fear Foretold

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

PLEASE REVIEW. I WILL RETURN THE FAVOR. All flames will magically elicit the aquatoris charm, thereby turning on magical sprinklers in your computer and flooding your hard drive.

Lady Lestrange

Hogwarts and all of the characters belong to JK Rowlings, except for:

Lorissa Cantsay

Samara Donnally

Beatrice Ellis

Llywelyn Styvesant

Joseph Foresman

Stuart Anton

Calvin Anthony

Gloria Snood

Lyle Applegate

Christi Prentice

Josie Perkins

and the Halston boy

so far...I still need a Chaser...

Since Rowlings mentions a few last names, I can't take credit for them. 

They are JKR's; but I made up first names to go with them.

Edward

Ethan

Valerianna

Desmond

Marshall

Lauren

Laural

Alvin

Ming

Hey, It's a big school!

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By 

Lady Lestrange

Chapter 10

Fear Foretold

Because there was no Care of Magical Creatures, due to Hagrid's absence, the next morning started with a study period in the library with Mrs. Pince. Harry would have rather slept in, but Hermione was excited about starting the day in the library. Only Samara and Ginny were missing. They had their appointment with McGonagall to discuss scheduling of classes and whether Samara belonged in Gryffindor.

"I have charms to finish," said Ron as he dropped his books on the table. The other students started opening books, including Hermione, who opened DADA. "I wish we had time to look up how the floo network could be compromised," she said.

"Oh right," Ron said sarcastically. "That should be in Standard Book of Spells, grade 5, shouldn't it?"

Hermione gave him an exasperated look. "Well, if the floo network was tampered with once, just keeping fireplaces unlit is not going to fix the problem."

Joe came in yawning. "When we had our first period free I thought it meant that we could sleep in, but Lou wouldn't let me."

"I know the feeling," said Harry.

"So did I miss anything at Breakfast? Any new curses from the Slytherins?"

"No said Harry. "But Professor Dumbledore made an announcement. Some of the Floos have been—Harry paused to make little quotation marks in the air: 'misconnected'. No one's allowed to light fires unless they have to and a teacher or in the case of the common room, the Prefect has to be present. No fire may be left unattended."

"Perfect," said Ron. "Put us all together in one room, then when the Death Eaters come in, we all die. They don't even have to search for us. One quick Avada Kedavra Curse and poof, we're all dead."

"Avada Kedavra has to be directed at one individual—I believe," said Edward. "One at a time, not mass murder."

"Oh that makes me feel so much better," said Ron. 

"We don't know it was Death Eaters," said Lou. "Maybe—"

"No, Lou," said Edward. "We heard McGonagall last night. She said it was Death Eaters."

"You were spying on a teacher!" said Lou.

"We just happened to be in the right place at the right time." Replied Edward. "She was using the Common Room fire."

"Or the wrong place," muttered Harry.

Ron glanced at both Edward's grin and Lou's astonished face. Then he looked at his Charms book and his face sobered. "Did someone finish this?" he asked. "I'm never going to have time to do all this—"

Edward pulled a roll of parchment from his bag and tossed to Ron. "Be creative," he said. "Not word for word—"

"No. No. No." said Hermione, snatching the parchment from Ron and handing it back to Edward. "How will Ron learn anything if he copies your work How could you Ron?"

"It's quite easy," said Ron. "You pick up a quill—open the parchment—"

"However did you get to be friends with her?" asked Edward in a stage whisper that was clearly loud enough for Hermione to hear. "She's a nightmare."

"Saved her from a Rock Troll in first year," said Ron.

"Where were you that you saved her from a Rock Troll?" asked Edward incredulously.

"Girl's bathroom," replied Harry. 

"What!"

"The three of us spent quite a lot of time in the girl's bathroom," said Harry with a wink at Ron, who snorted through his nose. 

"Actually, there were four of us," Ron added. "But that was later."

"I wasn't there by choice," snapped Ginny.

"How do you know I was talking about you?" said Ron sweetly. "I was talking about Myrtle. If I count you, there were five of us—or maybe six--"

Harry broke into laughter, quickly smothered the sound with his hand, and pulled a book in front of his face.

  


"Can we please get some work done?" Hermione groaned.

"Don't worry." Ron confided to Edward. "You warm up to her. She isn't as bad as she sounds, and she's mighty handy to have around--rather like a walking dictionary—or Hogwarts: A history."

Hermione clearly looked like she was debating whether to burst into tears or punch Ron. Ginny chose tears.

"Ah—come on, Gin," said Ron gently rubbing her back. "I didn't mean it. Don't cry."

==

"Hermione," said Harry. "I brought the prediction to work on. Want to help me?"

"Humph! Predictions," she said.

"Really, I think there is some validity to this one. Look." Harry pushed the parchment across the table to her.

She looked at it for a few moments and then glared at Ron who was studying Edward's Charms homework again.

"I'm just checking my answers," said Ron. "Look. I have this part done." He held up his parchment for her perusal. "I'm reformed. Comes with being your friend, I guess."

She turned hesitantly back to her DADA book. "I really should read the assignment again. I only read it twice."

"Come on, Hermione," Harry begged. "I need your help."

Edward looked up at them and unreadable expression in his eyes.

Harry picked up his books and Hermione's, except for DADA, which she still held, and moved them to the next table. "So we don't disturb you," he explained to those still at the table.

"Alright," Hermione said closing DADA and glancing at Ron. She could no longer tell if he was doing his own Charms work or not. Picking up the prediction, she said aloud "Let's look at it line by line." Harry nodded. Then Hermione's voice dropped to a whisper. "How did last night's adventure go?"

"It didn't go at all," answered Harry in the same soft voice. "Edward wanted to come—"

"Oh no."

"And then McGonagall was at the common room fireplace talking to Sirius."

"What did Sirius say?"

"Well we didn't hear much—" Harry related the tale as it happened including what they heard about the floo problems and using "Somnus," to finally put Edward to sleep.

"We'll have to think of a way to keep him occupied tonight."

Hermione nodded. "Well let's look at this prophecy then," she said as Harry spread the parchment out in front of her.

At the height of the Dark Lord's Power

A Babe will lay him low.

Yet he will arise through his flower

Essences of friend, father and foe.

"Well," said Hermione. "That's pretty easy to understand. No guessing whom this is about. When did you say this was written?"

"Trelawney was 12, according to Dumbledore."

"Oh. Ancient history," Hermione quipped.

"What do you think the 'flower' part means?"

"Maybe it was something in the potion that Voldemort made to bring him back. You didn't see what might have been put in the cauldron earlier: maybe it was some kind of flowers, or maybe it refers to Tom Riddle's mother. I think she had a flower name. Ginny knows."

"Ginny?" Harry hesitated. "I'd rather not ask her."

"Ok," said Hermione. "Let's look at the next stanza."

For within have snake and phoenix warred

But Phoenix must surely rule

For this bird rises again and again

And Eating Death is the fuel.

"I thought maybe it meant in the second year," said Harry. "In the Chamber of Secrets: phoenix warred with Basilisk. It's not technically a snake, but it is called the King of Serpents.

"But what about Eating Death is the fuel?" Fuel for what?" Hermione shivered. "This is creepy," she said.

"Next stanza?" suggested Harry

Will he Riddle the past with pain

Or Riddle the future with glory?

Six lives or deaths hang in time by three

Brave children who'll mend the story.

  
"This seems like a crossroads," said Hermione. In arthmancy it's when we get multiple results. It means that the prediction can go different ways here according to how the people act. That's good because it means that it's not Destined. It's flexible at this point, which makes me agree with you that this might be a real prediction. It doesn't sound like Trelawney. She'd just have them all die."

"But Hermione," said Harry "this already happened." 

"It did?"

"Six lives. It's Buckbeak and Sirius Black. We three: you, Ron and me saved him two years ago."

"Ron was hurt. It was really only two of us."

"Well, then maybe the prediction means me, you and Buckbeak, but I think it means Ron even though he wasn't with us at that moment, he was with us—it was his rat. The only other three is that you turned the time turner three times, and it was our third year."

"Yes," said Hermione, "But that's only two lives saved."

"I know," said Harry. "It's three if you count Wormtail, but I couldn't get 6 either."

Hermione looked at the prediction for a while and then dragged out her huge arithmancy book. Let me try to solve this with arithmancy," she said. "Let's see if we get the same numbers."

Hermione worked for a long time. Harry, continued to stare at the prediction and tried to make sense out of it. "Hey Hermione," he said after a while.

"Just a minute. Almost done."

He waited until she looked up. "How are the numbers?" 

"You first," said Hermione. "What did you think of?"

I just thought about the verse with the phoenix fighting the snake. 

Maybe it meant last year. Voldemort couldn't use his wand to destroy me because it holds a phoenix feather core, just like mine. It's from Fawkes."

"You have the same cores in your wands!"

Madam Pince hushed them.

"That's how I felt," said Harry, "But I guess it paid off. He couldn't hurt me because his wand and mine wouldn't duel. So what about your numbers? How did the arithmancy read the prediction?"

The wand cores could definitely be something," said Hermione softly. She shook her head and continued. "Anyway, arithmancy comes up with a different number all together. It says 1, 3, 2, 1 which makes seven instead of six."

So what does that mean?" asked Harry. 

"Well, I believe these happened at separate times. The one may be Ginny in our second year. The first 3 could be Buckbeak, Wormtail and Sirius, and it looks like the three are in the future and either because we saved Sirius, someone else is going to die, or because we saved him someone else will be saved. I'm just not sure."

"That still doesn't explain the different numbers Hermione. You haven't made a mistake have you?"

She just looked at him.

"And why are these numbers separated in your Arithmancy?" asked Harry.

"I don't think this is right, considering that Trelawney made this prediction, but the first number two on my Arithmancy calculation may be lives and the second number one, deaths." Said Hermione.

"You mean, Trelawney only counted the ones that lived?"

"Yeah, I know, doesn't sound like Trelawney. Let's move on."

"I read this next part over and over. It looks like they knew Cedric Diggory would die and they didn't even help him or excuse him from the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Yet there will come to Hogwart's school

A year from Hufflepuff's loss

A housemate to thwart the rule of him

Unnamed and ne'er count the cost.

"Well," said Hermione, "You can't really blame them for not getting upset over 'Hufflepuff's loss' when Hufflepuff loses in quiddich most of the time. Maybe they were waiting for a particularly bad season. It sounds like someone from Hufflepuff will avenge him. That's strange. You don't know who that could be—someone he was really attached to—"

"No, said Harry. "As far as I know, there's just Cho Chang and she's in Ravenclaw, and Cedric was an only child. I really don't know who his friends were."

Hermione shook her head. Well it certainly seems like a Hufflepuff will come into his own here. They continued looking at the prediction. Obviously, it is this year, so we'd better be on the lookout for this Hufflepuff.

Fate put Gryffindor bravery in one heart

And Ravenclaw brains in one head

And Slytherin cunning, ambition and guile

Yet Hufflepuff's love is his dread.

"So do you think this is one person, or four people," asked Harry.

Hermione started to shake her head. "No. It has to be one. Look at the next line. The hat wouldn't be confused if they were four people. It would just put them into the four different houses: One for Gryffindor. One for Slytherin. One for Ravenclaw and one for Hufflepuff. " She paused. "Do you think the Hufflepuff listed in this stanza is the same one listed in the preceding stanza?"

Harry shook his head. "I guess it could be, but it looks like a completely different person if you ask me.

Look at how it talks about the hat's confusion here."

The hat's confusion will mark you as true

Though tears may make you swoon

Your choices are hard. Your choices are few.

'Ware of losing your childhood soon.

The hat isn't confused about the first person. The hat knows that one is a Hufflepuff. The second person though doesn't seem to be sorted into any of the four houses.

"You know, Harry," said Hermione. "If the Sorting Hat was working properly, we would know who this person is…  


"You're right. Do you think that was the purpose of whoever tampered with the hat? To hide the identity of this person?"

"Undoubtedly."

Hermione and Harry looked at each other. After a while, Harry shook his head. "What I don't understand is why this person is so important."

Harry, as I understand arithmancy, certain people and events and things in history have what is called pivotal significance. It's like that muggle Christmas story where one man wishes he'd never been born and the whole town changed because he didn't save his brother so his brother wasn't alive to save a whole regiment in the war and he wasn't there to warn someone making a potion and a little child died. It goes on and on. This prophecy isn't telling everything. It is telling pivotal moments. One of those moments was when the Sorting Hat was placed on this person's head, but that was tampered with, because the Sorting Hat isn't working. The first pivotal moment was when you brought Voldemort low. Then there was the event when Voldemort got his body back. Any of the key ingredients could have been blocked: the flower, whatever that means or the friend, father or foe, and we know that the time we saved Sirius and Buckbeak it was a pivotal moment. 

"Harry," said Hermione, "considering Parvati's prediction with the Sorting happening on the train, do you think the fact that the Hogwart's Express was attacked was also to find this child?"

Harry nodded. "You may have something there," said Harry, but no one was kidnapped, so they must not have found him."

This one stanza has me stumped though. How is eating death fuel for the phoenix?"

"Because it keeps dying?" suggested Harry.

"Well, if it's a wand Harry, it's not a living thing." 

Harry bit his lip. He wondered if the stanza meant a real phoenix or if it was symbolic in some way. 

"Maybe Voldemort's preoccupation with eternal life. He keeps rising from the ashes too unfortunately"

Hermione shook her head. We only have a few minutes of class left. Let's look at the last two stanzas before we run out of time.

Eat Death and be Dead. Eat life and live on.

Don't sacrifice children or truth.

Bring rue to your heart or rue to your hand

Or savor Old Love for a youth.

"Well, the first two lines certainly define the good side from the evil side don't they. Of course it could be colored by the Seer too."

"Come on, Hermione. It's pretty obvious that the Death Eaters are evil.

"And how many times has Dumbledore said he will not put the children at Hogwarts in danger," added Hermione.

"Why has that never quite worked out that way, in my case?" asked Harry.

"But he never consciously 'sacrificed' anyone," said Hermione. 

"I guess that's true," said Harry. Continuing, he added. "And will bring sorrow or rue. But there's another meaning for rue. It's an herb. I read about one of its uses in something we read yesterday: if you feed it to a weasel, the weasel can kill a basilisk."

"Pity we didn't know that second year, huh," said Hermione.

"I think it is just laying out the choices: Death Eater-death and Sorrow if you don't use the rue to kill the Basilisk."

But the question is," said Hermione who is making these choices: You, the Hufflepuff or the mystery child?"

Harry nodded as he read the last stanza.

The moment of truth will come in a flash

The night sky will glow with gloom

A friend's flight--A friend's mad dash

May halt the moment of doom

"Now that sounds like Trelawney," said Hermione.

"No it doesn't," said Harry. "She never talks about halting doom."  


Just then, Madam Pince told them to clean up their books and get ready to go to their next class, Herbology.

The morning seemed to drag on forever to Harry. He couldn't wait to get to lunchtime. He wanted to looks at the prophecy again and see if he could drag any more meaning out of it. "I think the problem with the Sorting Hat and this prophecy are related," said Hermione, as they finally sat down for lunch. "If we can solve one, we will be able to solve them both."

"So instead of looking up the prophesy, which will probably gain us nothing, let's see what we can find out about the Sorting Hat and how it was made," said Harry.

"What I don't understand," interrupted Samara is how could the Hat be tampered with if it was a closed spell."

"What do you mean?" asked Neville. 

Perhaps you do magic differently, but from everything I've read in the old books, a spell has to be completed to work. It's like a complete circuit in electricity. If you leave a part out, it breaks the circuit and the spell doesn't work—at all—not half way working like the Sorting Hat. So I could understand someone tampering with the Sorting Hat and then it just laying there silent like an old Hat, but it talked to us: that meant at least part of the circuit was closed. How could it be tampered with if it was closed?

"Electricity?" said Ron

It's a muggle term," said Hermoine. 

"Samara's talking about the Laws of Exclusivity and Continuity of Magic," said Hermione and that's true. The founders must have found some way to suspend one or both of the laws to each give their gifts to the hat. This was made a thousand years ago. It was old magic. Your book was just the right time."

"Hermione, I never learned this," said Harry startled. "Was this something you read?"

"Hmmm. No. I think it was History of Magic II. Binn's class, second year, I think. I have all the laws of magic, along with who discovered them, written on a parchment somewhere."

"Oh, well," said Harry to Ron. "I guess we must have slept through that one."

"So what you are saying," repeated Beatrice "Is that there must be a circle, everything must be completed, but that isn't always true. Lots of times people get transfiguration half done."

"Yes, but someone else has a terrible time trying to pick up where they left off, even to fix their mistakes, because the magic has their signature. That's the law of Exclusivity. " Beatrice looked puzzled. 

Let's say I took this fork and tried to transform it into a lizard. Hermione started to transform the fork. It got a little greener in color and the tines pulled apart to form the front legs. Then she stopped and handed it to Beatrice. "Try to finish it," she said. Beatrice sat there holding the half-changed fork and looking at it.

After a few moments, she said I couldn't find all the edges. It's like a half-done tapestry that you have just thrown at me. I don't know what I'm starting with and there are half-finished edges everywhere. I think there are an infinite number of them.

"There are," said Hermione. That's why even though you are good at transfiguration you can't finish it. The person who starts the spell has to finish it, but if the founders did the spell together, then they had to be together for the whole thing. No one could have sneaked anything by the other founders. They all had to be present when each one cast his or her spell, and surely one of the four would have realized the spell was left open ended, specifically made for someone else to add something later—like a Fifth Founder.

"Or an Heir?" suggested Harry, casting a sudden chill over the group.

After a few minutes of tense silence, Hermione moved, picking up the half-changed fork and returning it to its original shape. She reached out and took Beatrice's hand and put it with hers on the fork. If we changed this together—" she said, and the fork began to change. At the last moment, Hermione pulled out of the spell, and Beatrice had no trouble finishing it.

  
"But," said Beatrice, "If I had a specific person in mind, I might be able to leave the spell open. She started to change the squirming lizard into a quill. Its tail became a feather, but halfway through, she paused. "I need to know someone's wand core, to leave this open to you. What's yours Harry?"

"Phoenix feather, holly."

"No. Can't do that one. Does anyone have Dragon Heart strings?"

"I do," said Neville.

She smiled, finished what she wanted to finish, and passed the half -transfigured quill to Neville.

"I'm not very good," began Neville, but as he took the lizard/quill, he frowned and took out his wand. "There are only three strands to pick up, like a braid," he said. "This is easy." Within ten seconds, he had finished the transfiguration into a quill.

"If what you say is right," said Edward; "Then the Sorting Hat was not just tampered with lately. It was left open to be tampered with from the beginning"

"That's correct," said Hermione. "And only a certain person could finish the spell."

"So, said Lou, "We need to find out which of the founders is most likely to want to leave his spell open ended.

"Well, that's not a hard question," said Ginny. "Salad Bar Slytherin."

After a few half-hearted chuckles they agreed that it had to be Slytherin who left the hat prepared for his heir. He was undoubtedly hoping his heir could accomplish what he could not: the elimination of muggle born wizards from Hogwarts.

"So tonight I'll take a little trip to the restricted section and see what I can find out in the eighteen or so books on Salazar Slytherin that are there," said Harry.

"I want to come with you," said Edward. 

Harry shrugged. "I only have one invisibility cloak.

The group settled down to finishing their lunch.

=

"The students started to gather up their work. It was time for charms. "Were my notes neat enough?" Hermione asked Harry. "There was just so much to get down on paper. I was writing so fast."

"I believe it," said Harry. Next time he missed a class, he thought he'd borrow Ron's notes—He'd probably fail, but at least there wouldn't be so many notes.

After charms, Harry looked at his schedule. He thought they had Defense, since they had Defense yesterday after charms, but it was switched with Potions. The schedule change was undoubtedly because Double Defense was today and only a single potions class. The double classes were always at the end of the day or the end of the mornings. As he walked to potions, Harry wished he was going to Defense, not that he wanted to go to Snape's class. However, he hated the wait, wondering what Snape had planned. No only that, potions with Ethan meant that he would need his attention on his potion, no matter how much he wanted to try to figure out what Snape had planned.

When Harry walked into the room he noticed that a list of ingredients covered most of the board at the front of the room

Polyjuice Potion

Lacewing flies

Leeches

Fluxweed

Knotgrass

Powdered horn of bicorn

Shredded skin of a boomslang

There were no cauldrons on the desks. "We will let them soak with the disinfect solutions," said Mrs. Figg. While we discuss where to find the various ingredients. The students were still hovering around the door. "Come in. Come in," she said, waving her arm at the open classroom. "You may sit where you like today."

With a sigh of relief, Harry sat with Ron and Hermione. Joe, on the other side of Ron was talking happily with Lou and Edward was chatting with Ginny who sat on the other side of Neville. Harry watched Ginny blush and smile at Edward through most of the class. He had trouble concentrating on the potion. No matter, he thought. He had made this potion before—well, truth be told—Hermione made most of the potion before. 

"Where's Beatrice?" asked Harry suddenly.

"Working with McGonagall," said Hermione.

"Why?" began Ron, but Mrs. Figg frowned at them, and not wanting to lose any more points for Gryffindor, Ron applied himself to finishing preparing the potion ingredients.

"We still have over one half hour," said Mrs. Figg. That should be plenty of time for you to empty your cleaning solutions and fill your cauldron with Mrs. Skower's sparking rinse. Unfortunately, it was not. The rinse was a glittering powder that was sprinkled on the cauldron, before water was added. Neville sneezed and blew his powder all over his table and the next. When he tried to catch the powder, he knocked over his cauldron and its contents spilled everywhere. Goyle, angered beyond belief by Neville's clumsiness, stomped toward the door. It was indeed, time for their next class: Snape's DADA class. 

"Where are you going, Mr. Goyle?" asked Mrs. Figg calmly.

"My next class."

"You didn't clean up your area,"

"I didn't make the mess," said Goyle coldly. He turned again toward the door.

"If you walk out that door," said Mrs. Figg, "Ten points will be deducted from Slytherin."

Goyle hesitated and then walked back to the table by Neville, but he didn't clean anything.

Harry, distracted by the commotion spilled some of their powder too, though not as much as Neville.

"Watch what you are doing, Gryff," snapped Ethan impatiently. 

++

Please review and I will return the favor.

If you like this fic, please read my other fic, DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE .

A MILLION THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS. 

THANKS.

Lady Lestrange

  
++


	12. CH 11: Snape's Slumber Party

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK!

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

BY Lady Lestrange

Chapter 11

Snape's Slumber Party

Harry and Ethan had to clean up the mess that they made. The rest of the Gryffindors had already left potions except for Neville, Lou, and Hermione. Neville was still cleaning up his potions area with Mrs. Skower's magical mess remover. Hermione moved over to help him. Ethan took the worktable and spelled the cauldron closed. When he was finished he hurried out the door, leaving Harry to just take the potions ingredients back to the student's shelf, but Mrs. Figg stopped Harry. "There's still rinse powder on your floor," she said. 

"I'll get it," promised Harry, Looking daggers at the departing Ethan. 

"We'll help," said Hermione. Harry quickly righted the potions bottles on the shelf and Hermione conjured the broom to sweep the floor. 

Only Neville and Greg Goyle were left and they had finally cleaned up their mess. Neville was trying unsuccessfully to get the lid of his cauldron to stay on. 

"We'll help you," said Hermione, "Just let me finish sweeping." 

But Lou was already there putting the lid on. 

"Go," said Neville. "You're going to be late for DADA. No sense in Snape deducting points from all of us."

++

Harry and Hermione, hurried from Potions to DADA. 

"Did you read the assignment," asked Hermione.

"Are you kidding?" asked Harry. "Of course, I did. This is Snape's class remember. Any other class, I might get detention for not doing my homework. In Snape's class I might get killed."

When they reached the classroom, Ron, Joe and Edward were waiting outside. "I can't find my homework," Ron moaned. 

"Tell this idiot we didn't have any written work," said Edward. "Just reading."

"Just reading," said Harry. 

"Oh. What were we supposed to read?" Ron asked as they opened the door to the classroom. They paused in the doorway. The entire class was sitting at their desks. Most had their books open, but they were sound asleep. Snape was no where in sight. 

"Go out," Hermione said, trying to back out of the doorway, but to no avail. "Vigilis!" Shouted Hermione stifling a yawn. "Vigilax". No, I think I'm saying it wrong. She started to leaf frantically through her book, muttering "waking wards, waking wards, vigil"

Just then, Beatrice, Samara and Ginny arrived, coming from the hallway towards the girl's bathroom. 

"Don't come in," shouted Harry "Find waking wards in the text book first."

But the girls apparently didn't hear him, whether because they weren't paying attention, or because Snape had put a silencing spell on the room. Harry didn't know. However, the girls were now in the room and would shortly fall victim to the sleeping spell. 

"Exsomnis," Harry tried, but his yawn half way through the word spoiled the sound of the spell.

Beatrice sat down at an open desk with her book in front of her. She laid her head on the book.

"Beatrice, no," shouted Harry, as a soft snore rose from Joe's sleeping body.

Ron sank into the chair beside her. Only Edward, Ginny and Harry remained standing and Edward was swaying as if he would falls asleep on his feet.

"Hermione!" Harry shouted. She was gazing glassy eyed at the book. She was trying to read it, but her sleepy brain couldn't concentrate long enough to get the words out. She pointed and handed the book to Ginny who was leaning on Hermione's chair. Ginny tried the spell, but mangled the pronunciation of the word, and punctuated it with several yawns.

Harry started to go to Hermione's desk, but sank down in a closer one instead. It didn't seem important to find the spell anymore. He just wanted to sleep.

Lou and Neville walked into the room. "Waking wards," called Samara who somehow dragged herself into a standing position with sheer force of will. 

"Here. Read." Ginny handed the book to Neville, but Lou, looking over his shoulder, read the words of the waking ward.

"Expergitum!" Called Lou with a flick of his wand.

Immediately Harry felt the sleepiness recede from his mind. Hermione stretched and rubbed her eyes and so did Beattrice, but the words did not effect those who were already sound asleep. 

"Thanks," said Samara to Lou and Neville. 

"Can you believe him?" Asked Ginny. "Only Snape would set traps to his own classroom."

"So now what do we do?" asked Neville. 

Harry looked around at the sleeping Gryffindors. There were no Slytherins among them. "It seems as if Snape has found a new way to favor Slytherin," he said. "Goyle was only a few minutes before us in leaving potions, and I can't believe that he got that spell all on his own."

"Oh, you can't call that favoritism," said Hermione. "Snape told us to read on the waking wards. If we had read it carefully enough, we could have said the spell as soon as we came through the door. We saw everyone was sleeping. The only person it may have been unfair for, was the first one to come in."

"Are you saying Goyle read the chapter better than we did?" asked Harry.

"I think I've found something," said Lou. He was shaking the picture frame of the sleeping wizard.

"Password," he mumbled. At first they began guessing. They tried everything they could think of, from foods to monsters to potion ingredients. Hermione and Lou sat down with the books and continued reading. "Hey listen to this," said Hermione. She read aloud. "Somnus" is the KEY WORD in most sleeping spells. It is one of the most powerful and fast acting. ." She stood and approached the picture. "Somnus!" she said. The picture swung open.

You're late," said Professor Snape without looking up from his desk. "Ten points from Gryffindor."

"That is totally unfair!" Samara burst out. 

Harry motioned frantically for her to get quiet. Several Slytherins sniggered. Harry noticed that THEY had all arrived at class. Probably Snape told them about the sleeping web, and in Crabbe and Goyle's case, probably had to tell them what counter spell to use too.

"You're the one that put the sleeping web around the class room!" She continued, eyes flashing fire and advancing on Snape.

"Samara, shut up," Ron hissed at her. She ignored him, her mouth racing on.

How do you expect us to be on time HERE when the class started in the other room?"

"Do you even know what time we entered the sleeping net?" She took a breath, and put her hands on her hips. "Well, do you?"

Snape looked up; There was a moment of anger, immediately suppressed. His cold expressionless eyes meeting hers, he spoke a single word: "Each." 

"You son of a –"

"Mutus—" Hermione had her wand out.

The room went totally silent except for a soft spray sound of Beatrice's puffer.

Samara wheeled around and glared at Hermione. Samara's hand shot to her hair and wand. Harry wondered who she wanted to hex more: Snape or Hermione.

"Miss Granger. You really should learn to mind your own business. 5 points from Gryffindor for unauthorized use of a spell in class."

"Yes, Sir," said Hermione through gritted teeth. "Should I reverse it?" 

"Leave it. I'm told contemplative silence is character building."

Samara turned back to Snape and at last seemed to realize that this was a fight she could not win. She stalked silently to an open desk behind Harry. 

"Leave it to a Gryffindor to not know how to shut her mouth," Malfoy said.

"10 points to Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy."

Harry could practically hear Ron grinding his teeth. 

"Indeed, control is exactly the quality that must be learned in this class. Control of your voice, Miss Donnally. Control of your actions, Miss Granger. There are times to attack and there are times to wait to fight another day. That is one rule that you Gryffindors so pitifully ignore. A dead hero is still dead, Mr. Potter."

Harry looked at his desk and forced himself not to respond. Why was Snape singling him out? He hadn't done anything. For once, he hadn't done a single thing to elicit Snape's anger, but Snape still singled him out. Snape turned to Neville. Mr.Longbottom, how many students are asleep in the other room.

"Uh- uh" Neville stuttered uncertainly.

"Mr. Longbottom, I am aware of your deficiencies in things magical, but I did assume that you could count. That after all is not a difficult skill. It takes no magical talent after all."

"Uh. Seven, Sir."

"And do you know their names, or is that beyond you, Longbottom."

"Lavender, Parvati, Dean, Seamus, Joe Foresman and Dean and Seamus' first years. I'm sorry sir, I don't know their names."

"Very well. How is it that you managed to get here, Longbottom? I can't believe you knew the waking ward spell."

"Lou and I came in just after Hermione, Harry, Ron and their first years. They had figured it out, but needed someone who was still awake enough to look up the spell."

"And you performed the spell, Longbottom?" Snape looked incredulous. 

"No, sir, That was Lou."

"Ah. Llywellen Styvesant, another chivalrous Gryffindor to save the day."

"How does it feel to be rescued by a first year, Longbottom."

Snape didn't wait for an answer, instead he returned to the desk and opened the book: Dark Magic through the Ages. "Turn to page 17." He said. Let me begin by saying that all of these curses except for Avada Kadavra, can be blocked, by a nimble wizard. Page 17 through 20 of their book had a number of dark curses on it including the curse of the bogeys, Terriculorum, which Snape told them, several years ago, the Ministry decided to reject from the 'unforgivable curses.' 

Snape discussed why it had been rejected as an unforgivable curse even though a majority of wizards thought that it should be included. Apparently, although it called up all the terrors of hell for the recipient of the curse, the effects were generally not lasting. A dreamless sleep potion, or surprisingly a four-hour sleep under a sleeping ward spell, would negate the effects of the curse, with no residual nightmares. Snape said that although the unforgivable curses would go right through common wards, strong wards sometimes prevented them from causing permanent damage to the wizard. 

"The wards, do not block the pain from Crucio nor the terror from, Terriculorum and only your will can block the Impervious curse. Avada Kadavra, as we know, can only be blocked by Harry Potter," he said with a sneer.

Snape continued to discuss what he called some of the lessor curses, although they didn't seem all that minimal. Amazingly, sleeping in a sleeping ward spell for a specific number of hours could reverse the damage done by most of the curses. These curses could be blocked if the wizard had quick reflexes and that was the preferred way to deal with them. Snape laid the book on his desk and walked around it.

"Some of the parents expressed concern to Headmaster Dumbledore about my choice of books. They have reminded me that this is a DEFENSE against the Dark Arts class and not a Dark Arts class. However, in learning what the Dark Arts are capable of, you will be better able to defend against them. For example;"

He turned to face the class. He already had his wand in his left hand.

Harry didn't remember Snape being left-handed.

" Stand and take out your wands."

"Accio, wands." He said with a quick flick of the wrist. 

Immediately, wands from most of the students flew from their hands and into Snape's outstretched right arm. There was a gasp of shocked surprise. He looked around at the class. "Now that you realize how easily you can be disarmed, I assume you will take measures to keep that from happening in the future. Who still has their wands?" He laid their wands on his desk, turned and walked towards the Slytherins. He stopped in the corner by Malfoy.

"Malfoy. Good. Mr. Lestrange. Mr. Malfoy, Will you tell the class, how did you manage to hold onto your wand?"

"My father told me you always grip your wand like you intend to use it."

"Very wise of him."

Mr. Lestrange. No one else?"

"You will have to work harder, won't you class." Harry noticed that there were three Gryffindors still holding their wands, but Snape ignored them: Harry, Samara and Edward. Samara looked like she had

just swallowed a pepper up potion. She was so angry that Harry imagined smoke coming out of her ears and she was muttering to herself, but no words, of course, were coming out. Harry silently thanked Hermione for the muting charm. He was sure they would have lost more points if Samara had her voice.

Snape, started to turn, but stopped. Harry realized that his feet were stuck to the floor. He glanced in horror at Samara who had stopped muttering and was smiling.

Snape paused a moment. "Is there anything else anyone would like to add about today's lesson."

Samara raised her hand and Snape undid her muteness with a wave of his wand.

Harry groaned. Please—please don't let him take any more points from Gryffindor.

"Never underestimate your opponent, Samara said coolly. 

"A good point," said Snape. Five points to Gryffindor. "Write a one foot essay on the uses of sleeping nets by tomorrow," He said. "Class dismissed."

Harry was amazed. It was at least 15 minutes early. No one moved. They seemed to think Snape must have made a mistake.

"Go!" Snape snapped and the entire class scrambled to their feet. Some of them started to leave without their wands, but Lou asked, "May we have our wands back, please, Sir?"

"Get them and go," Snape growled. 

No sooner had they left the room than Edward threw his arm over Samara's shoulder. "You were awesome girl!" he said. "I can't believe you had the guts to do that to a Death Eater."

"Snape is not a Death Eater, anymore. He was cleared," shot Hermione.

"Awesome? Awesome?" Croaked Harry. "You don't know Snape. It's a wonder he didn't kill you on the spot!"

"Samara you lost more points for Gryffindor in one class than we usually lose in a week," moaned Ron. 

Samara's eyes were wide and worried--Snape was a Death Eater," she whispered.

"Once a Death Eater; always a Death Eater," said Edward darkly.

For once Harry had to agree with Edward. Even after personally hearing Dumbledore asking Snape if he was ready to spy for the good guys, Harry wondered how reliable Snape would be. It would be so easy for Snape to play each side against the other and later, just side with the winner. Dumbledore may trust Snape, but Harry never would. Perhaps that was why he managed to keep his wand. He wouldn't want to be unarmed in front of Snape.

"What I can't understand," Lou muttered, trying to analyze the situation, "Is how did he manage to take all of our wands with 'Accio.' I could see if he used, 'Expelleramous' but—"

"That was the point, wasn't it," interrupted Hermione. "He wanted us to know how utterly defenseless we were."

"Speak for yourself," shot Edward. "Some of us managed to hold on to our wands."

Hermione blushed. "So, why don't the three of you tell us how you did it, so we are prepared. I have a feeling that he will try this same trick again."

"You're right, Hermione," said Lou.

"No," said Harry. "Knowing Snape, it will be a different trick next time."

"Can we discuss this later?" asked Hermione. "I have to go to the library."

"Why don't you come and watch the tryouts?" said Harry, but Hermione shook her head. "We have a lot of homework and I wanted to work on that other project we were discussing this morning if I could."

Harry nodded.

Edward, Neville, Lou and Hermione decided to go to the library.

"We also have our appointment with McGonagall," Beatrice reminded Hermione. "Are you going to stop back in Gryffindor Tower? I don't know where her office is." 

"Right, but that's not for another hour." Said Hermione. "We have time to do a little studying before we have to go, but if you want to stay here, I'll stop back. McGonagall's office is right down the corridor anyway." Hermione paused at the door to the Great Hall. "You know, I really hate this mixed up schedule this year. How are we ever going to study for OWLS when Dumbledore said he was changing it. It seems like everything we are doing this year is based on Defense against the Dark Arts."

"Well, Hermione," said Ginny softly, "If we don't survive, the rest of it doesn't have much point, does it."

"Yeah, but, nothing's going to happen to us here." observed Joe. "You'd have to be pretty naïve to think that any Death Eaters could get into Hogwarts."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny looked at each other in consternation. Should they tell them about the past DADA teachers? 

"Oh, yeah, We're safe," Ron blurted. "First year, we had He who must not be named for our Defense teacher."

Be serious," said Lou. "We're at a school. You have to trust the teachers."

"Then in second year," Ron continued hotly, "My sister here, opened his diary and got possessed. She turned loose some Slytherin monster and it was going around the school killing people…"

"No one got killed!" snapped Ginny. "Only petrified."

"In third year, we had a few escaped Azkaban prisoners running around, but that wasn't half so bad as the Death Eater rat I carried around in my pocket."

"And forth year we had a Death Eater for a Defense Teacher. He GAVE Harry to He who must not be named. It's a wonder he made it out alive, minus a little blood. The other boy, Cedric Diggory didn't."

"You still have a Death Eater for a Defense Teacher," said Edward.

"Dumbledore trusts Snape," Hermione reminded them, but Ron ignored her.

"Yes, there is that," Ron said to Edward. "Opps, I forgot, there was that little incident on the train, or do you think it just had a mechanical failure like the Daily Profit said. A mechanical failure that put a Dark Mark in the sky."

"I'm sorry," Lou said sarcastically. "I just thought. . ."

"No you didn't think," snapped Ron. "For a Ravenclaw, you are remarkably short on sense. Maybe I was wrong about that, Neville. He can't be a Ravenclaw. A Ravenclaw would have some brains."

"We still have to trust the teachers. . . " Insisted Lou.

"Well, Lou," said Ron "If you still think that you should just wait and let the teachers take care of everything, that's fine, but they haven't done a real bang up job so far, have they?"

"But they're teachers—"

"So—" Ron threw up his hands in exasperation. "Why don't you just go sit in front of a nice fire, Lou and you can just guess who's going to drop in?"

"Ron," said Harry. "Let's go fly. I think you need some fresh air. In your mood, maybe you should try out for beater."

"No, that's the twins' job," said Ron. "Keeper is it."

==

PLEASE REVIEW. I NEED YOUR SUPPORT.

==

Thank you to the following reviewers AND ALL MY REVIEWERS. I want to personally thank those who

Have been faithfully sticking with me. Here's some answers—vague ones—because I don't want to spoil the story. Guaranteed to get very hot—VERY SOON.

LAURA LI--Thanks for your faithful reviewing. And don't worry. I will finish this. 

I'm almost at 30 chapters in the rough draft, and the end of the story is written.

Things get a lot worse before they get better. Stick with me. I won't quit and

let you down. I just want to get it as good as I can before you readers see it.

WHITERIVER: Omygod--You didn't think we could get through a book without the Death Eaters

getting into Hogwarts did you? But honestly, there are SO-O many ways they

can get in. And of course, so many ways the students can get out--

If you haven't read anything by whiteriver, go read The Scales of Balance. It's 

Excellent. ?storyid=1073991

You write very well, and sometimes it's a challenge finding well written

Stories on fanfic.

==

Coming up Next: Quiddich and Curses as well as that secret trip to the restricted section of the library.

Watch out for Peeves, Snape and others-- Also a little snippit of news of what's happening outside

Of Hogwarts. It'll make you wanna owl home for –opps. I better not tell. Lady Lestrange.


	13. CH 12: Quiddich and Curses

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't make any money from this. All of it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings.

THANKS JK!

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 12

Quiddich and Curses

Hermione and several others had already slipped out to the library. Ron and Harry headed for the Quiddich tryouts and they didn't care if anyone else came with them or not.

Angelinaa, Fred and George and Harry were the returning Quiddich team members. Although Angelina was chosen as captain, she reminded Harry that if she was absent due to her duties with the war, he would have to take over the strategy and give the team their pep talk. 

Angelinaa and Madam Hooch arranged the Quiddich tryouts by starting with the youngest and slowest of the riders. Angela didn't want to intimidate them by letting them see the more experienced players too early. First, they just flew around the goal posts. She asked for increasingly more speed. Then she asked them to take one hand and then two hands off the broom. Anyone who could not do that was disqualified. Samara was one of those who Angelina was ready to disqualify, because she could just barely let go of her broom and anyone could see that she was very tense about it. 

Harry called Angelina aside. "Yesterday, was Samara's first time on a broom." He said. If she can even think about taking her hands off of it, she can only get better, and she is fast."

Madam Hooch agreed that Samara had promise so Angelina nodded and kept Sam in the group that still had a chance to make the team. 

"We have an opening for a keeper," said Madam Hooch, explaining that position to those who never played Quiddich. Those who wish to try out for keeper lined up on one side of the field. One at a time, Angelina assigned them the task of guarding the goal. Then all of the other people who had come to try out fired a quaffle at the rings in quick succession. No one managed to keep out all of the points. 

In fact, what they were doing was much harder than it ever would be in a game, and Colin Creevey protested. 

"Right," said. Angelina. "In the game you will not have quaffles in quick succession. Instead some of the balls coming toward you will be bludgers. Colin nodded and agreed grudgingly. Lyle Applegate, a sixth year who had lusted after Oliver Wood's job for 4 years, Ron Weasley and Colin Creevey had all only let 3 people score. Angelina demanded that both Ron and Colin try out for the other openings. "That way," she said, "If I can choose you for the other position, I will still have a back up keeper for emergencies." She quietly told Harry and the twins that she felt she had to use Lyle for the first string keeper, even though Ron and Colin were both good enough for the job. They would be great for the needed back up.

Next she tried sending pairs of people up to see how they passed the quaffle. It was almost impossible to tell the best players because sometimes they were paired with the worst ones. After several rearrangements of the players, she switched to having them pass and then try to score. She had the field narrowed down to eight hopefuls who included Ron, Ginny and Colin, but she couldn't get any closer to a decision. "I need to be up there," Angelina told Madam Hooch. She looked at Harry and the twins. "I need your honest opinion," she said.

Although both the twins and Harry wanted to pick Ron, he just wasn't a chaser. He telegraphed his moves too much. As beaters, the twins knew they could hit him with a bludger whenever they wanted to. "He'll get killed as a chaser," they agreed, and as much as Harry wanted him on the team, he had to vote Ron off as a chaser. Ginny was like focused lightening. There was little doubt that she would make the team. It was obvious she had practiced hard with her brothers this summer. Christi Prentice, a third year girl was also fast. They would put her as first string with Ginny and Angela. Colin was a back up chaser and Ron was a back up keeper under Applegate.

Finding beaters to back up Fred and George was almost impossible. Christi could hit the bludger about 50 percent of the time, but she was too small and didn't have the power needed. Anyway, she was a much better chaser. Joe, Ron's little brother also could occasionally connect with the bludger. Samara hit it once but then she caught an updraft, which nearly unseated her. When she grabbed at her broom, she dropped the bludger bat. It careened into the air below her, narrowly missing Angelina who was preoccupied with watching other players. Apparently, hitting the thing with a bat while moving at tremendous speeds was a lot harder than Harry thought. Finally, they chose 4 replacements for Fred and George: Joe, and three other boys, who were big enough to have the strength to hit the bludger, but didn't have the accuracy. 

"We'll work with them," said Fred and George. In fact, let's just leave it open to whomever wants to practice with us. "Maybe someone else will show up, with a little eye hand coordination and strength at the same time," said Fred. 

"What about that Halston boy who was a year younger than us?" asked George. "He tried out last year didn't he? Why isn't he here?"

Angelina shook her head. "Didn't come back. I heard his family moved to Austrailia." 

"Josie Perkins?" Asked Fred.

"Didn't return to Hogwarts this year either."

After throwing up several more students' names for consideration, Fred and George just hung their heads. "I knew the Hall looked empty. I just didn't realize how many people didn't come back," moaned George. "What's the team going to do when we have to go on these field trips into the war zone?"

"I don't know," said Angelina. "I just don't know."

"We'll find someone," said Harry trying to sound hopeful, but he was more than a little nervous. He knew he depended upon Fred and George to keep the bludgers off of him, but watching the ninety plus connection rate that they had with the bludger and the fifty percent connection rate these recruits had, he couldn't help but be nervous. He'd better practice evasive maneuvers.

"OK." Said Angelina loudly. "Thanks everyone for trying out. You have all been great and if you don't make the team this year, there's always next year. Also, remember that if you are chosen for an alternate, you are really important and will get to play in some games this year. " If Fred and George Weasley are not here, in the first few games, we will have to make a quick decision about alternate Beaters; however, we would like to invite all eight of you to come to a special Beater practice that will be held by Fred and George Weasley. The times for that practice will be posted with the team list in the great hall. You can expect the Team List and practice times to be posted tomorrow morning in the Great Hall. Have a good night!" 

At that time, Ron and Ginny rushed up to Harry, Angelina and the twins. "How'd we do?" asked Ron.

"Oh no," said Angela. "Don't pester your brothers. They aren't allowed to tell you who the new team members will be. In fact," she winked at the twins. "They don't even know for sure. You'll have to wait for the posting, like everybody else."

"Well, you don't have to worry about telling me," Samara grinned. "I stunk. Sorry I almost hit you with a bludger bat," she apologized to Angelina.

"At least it wasn't on purpose," Angela said, giving the twins a look.

"What?" said Fred. "We never threw a bludger bat at you."

"First year."

"Oh yeah," said George. "Well, sorry."

"Long ago forgiven, guys." Angelina laughed.

Harry was frowning at Samara. "Did you get hit in the eye?" he asked. They all turned to look at her.

"Oh no," she said realizing that they were seeing her sweat streaked eye makeup. "It's muggle makeup. It's kind of like a glamour charm except that it washes off—or sweats off." She rubbed under her eyes and tried to get the smears off. Actually, she did pretty well in making herself presentable again without a mirror.

"Is that better?" she asked Ginny.

Ginny nodded.

"So this stuff is like a charm?" asked Fred.

"Well, probably more like a potion. Usually, a thick potion."

"And what is this stuff used for?" Asked George.

"Basically, the same as a glamour charm. Covers pimples—well not really, but muggles can hope."

"Or freckles?" asked Ginny hopefully.

"Not that well, but it does make them less noticeable."

"I'd like to try it," said Ginny.

"Me too," said Angelina. "If that would be alright."

Samara shrugged. "Sure."

'I just bought some great sparkling nail polish you can share if you like," Ginny said to Samara. "And contrary to what Lavender may tell you, I do know how to dry nail polish. I won't set your fingers on fire." 

"Oh I don't know," Samara teased. "You look like a tomboy to me."

"What!!" Ginny stopped in her tracks.

"Tomboy. Oh," Samara said, "Muggle reference. A 'tomboy' is a girl who is athletic, likes sports---" 

"Oh, yeah," said Ginny. "I knew that."

The girls turned and headed toward the girl's dorm, leaving Fred and George both deep in thought.

==

At Dinner, conversation revolved around quiddich tryouts until the hopefuls learned that neither Fred and George, nor Harry was going to reveal who made the team. That was Angelina's job, so they would just have to wait for the posting. 

Eventually conversation strayed to how each of them managed to hold on to their wands in Defense. Samara, they assumed was more closely attuned to her wand, since she had made it. Harry, after facing Voldemort, especially last year, felt much more comfortable with a wand in his hand than in his pocket. In fact, he didn't tell any of his friends, but he found himself checking his pocket several times during the day just to be sure it was still there. Perhaps that was because Crouch found it so easy to steal his wand during the Quiddich World Cup. Perhaps it was because the dull ache in his scar hardly ever went completely away. Of course, he didn't trust Snape either, and felt most comfortable in Snape's class with a wand in his hand.

"Edward," asked Harry, "Did you find out any more about how your brother and Malfoy held on to their wands in Defense?"

"I think it's mostly a matter of trust," said Edward. "Or lack of it."

That made sense to Harry. He certainly didn't trust Snape. 

Edward talked more about Malfoy than himself. He said Malfoy didn't trust Snape any more than Harry did. Harry thought, it must be hard to live in a house where some were Death Eaters, some were against Voldemort and some were judiciously trying to straddle the fence. Edward said that Malfoy was surprised any of the Slytherins had lost their wands to Snape given the situation in Slytherin. 

When Edward started to talk about himself, he seemed more withdrawn and harder to read. Given what his twin had said, Harry could understand Edward better. Like Ron, Edward lived in the shadow of his brother. Edward simply said that, his Granny had also told him to hold his wand like he needed to use it. It gave Harry an uncomfortable feeling when he called her Granny. He tried to imagine Edward's grandmother and couldn't. Finally Edward laughed. 

"What's so funny?" asked Harry. 

"I was just wondering if we could get Snape's wand off of him." Said Edward. 

"That's not funny," squeaked Ron. "That's suicidal."

"Well, wouldn't it be nice to see the look on his face?"

"No," said Ron, "Because we wouldn't get his wand. We'd get about a million points deducted from Gryfindor. And our heads deducted from our necks!"

"Unless you wanted to place it as a challenge for your brother—" suggested Harry.

"Forget it, guys," said Hermione. "Snape would just hex you without a wand. Haven't you ever noticed how many times he does magic without it?"

"Without it?" said Ron.

"Yes," said Hermione. "Even first year when I set his robes on fire—"

"You what!" shouted Edward. "You set a teacher's—"

"Mutus!" said Samara. 

Everyone in the great hall seemed to be looking their way. "I don't think Hermione meant that to be common knowledge," whispered Samara as she undid the muting spell.

"No, not really," said Hermione. "Snape never did find out who did the spell. I thought I was stopping a curse against Harry. Snape was muttering with no wand and Harry's broom was out of control. Then,

There was the plate at dinner yesterday, for instance." Said Hermione. "And he never used his wand to put potions back on the shelves last year, he just pointed and they went. No wand. No banishing words. He does it all the time."

"No words either," said Edward. "You have to have one or the other—"

"Nope," said Hermione.

"But—" began Edward.

"I'm sure," said Hermione. "Remember Neville's cough syrup last year?"

Harry started to laugh softly so Neville didn't hear.

It really wasn't that funny," said Ron. 

Neville was on the wrong page in the book," Hermione explained to Edward. "He thought it was 'coughing syrup' instead of 'cough relief' syrup and the ingredients actually start out the same. The last five are different, but similar: beetle legs instead of beetle wings. Powdered bicorn instead of tincture of bicorn, one whole live spider instead of spider legs--things like that. 

Anyway, Neville has all these wrong ingredients from the students' cupboard and he puts them in, all but the live spider, which he didn't want to take out of the jar. He was fussing with it, and spilled the whole cauldron—right on the spiders. The first spider completed the potion and the rest of them –all started coughing. Fifty coughing spiders running and jumping all over the room. They got in a couple other potions.

"It was horrible," said Ron with a shudder.

"Malfoy was so mad at Neville he hexed all his fingers into thumbs," said Harry.

"I was trying to help Neville," Hermione continued, "and Snape just comes over like a whirlwind. He starts tossing jars out of Neville's way—well, not really tossing—just directing them quickly back to the cupboard. 'You don't need this—you don't need this—' and the jars just flew right back, in order and put themselves on the shelves." Hermione paused remembering her amazement. "The labels were even turned right," she said. 

"Then he pointed at the ones he wanted and they flew back to Neville's desk. Snape never touched his wand and he never said a single word to the jars. He was too busy yelling at Neville."

"I remember," said Harry, "And poor Neville had to come back after Madam Pomfrey fixed his fingers and finish the potion. In fact, Neville told us, Madam Pomfrey needed 7 cauldrons more of it, so Snape made him brew all 7--one at a time."

"Harry," said Hermione in horror. "Your ears!"

"What?" He stopped with a forkful of mashed potatoes and gravy half way to his mouth and put it down. He reached up and touched his ear. It felt furry—and long—and getting longer.

He looked around at the rest of the table. Ron, Neville, Joe, and Samara were also growing long gray donkey ears. 

"Stop," called Hermione. "Don't eat anything else. It's probably something in the food."

Harry glanced over at the Slytherin table. They were practically rolling on the floor with laughter. 

Malfoy, however, picked himself up and flanked by Crabbe and Goyle and walked calmly over to the Gryffindor table. "When you act like an ass," he said softly, "You tend to start to look like one."

"Eat shit, Malfoy," Samara growled under her breath. She got up from the table with as much dignity as she could muster and stalked out of the Great Hall. It was only when Malfoy suddenly turned a little green and ran from the room with both hands over his mouth that Harry realized that Samara did not have her wand in her hair when she left.

"Did I miss something?" Ron asked confusedly.

"I think Samara just got even for your burping slugs in second year," said Harry. "So, shall we go to Madam Pomfrey to get these ears fixed?"

"Ah, after the peach cobbler," said Ron, scratching a long gray ear, and reaching for desert.

"You don't know which food it's in!" said Joe horrified. 

"I'd guess it's a meat product," said Beatrice. Only Beatrice, Lou, Hermione and Edward were spared the indignity of the donkey ears. 

"Lou and I are vegetarians," Beatrice continued. "Hermione was talking and hardly ate anything, and, Edward?" She stopped a questioning look in her eyes.

"Was the one who set us up," said Harry.

"I didn't," said Edward. He paused looking for some sympathy and finding none. "It's the gravy," said Edward suddenly. "I don't like gravy."

"So that's where you put the potion, right?" Snarled Ron.

"No. Don't you see? My brother knows I don't like gravy. He wanted you to turn on me. I swear I didn't put anything in the food." But in spite of Edward's protests, the Gryffindor's eyed him suspiciously.

Fred and George, also sporting donkey ears, heard the exchange, and came over to their part of the table. "If you didn't have a part in this, then you won't mind sharing these with the Slytherins." Fred dumped a pile of mints on the table. "These are Dragon Breath Mints: the original red fire version. They don't have to stay as mints." Fred leaned close to Edward's left shoulder. "They also work as tiny—"

"Little." Said George as he leaned over the other shoulder.

" Sprinkles--of crushed powder." Continued Fred. 

George scratched an ear. "Gosh, I'm itchy. Do you think these ears have fleas?"

Fred shrugged. "This is war." He said. "Gryffindor vs. Slytherin."

==

It was late by the time they got back to the common room, from Madam Pomfrey. They were all tired and cranky and the last thing they felt like doing is studying. 

"We've got to practice holding our wands though," said Harry, "Even if we don't get the other homework done. And I'd appreciate someone double checking my sleeping net parchment for spelling errors."

"What I wouldn't do for a spellchecker," said Samara.

"A what?" asked Ron.

"Muggle word processing program," replied Samara.

Ron looked at her blankly.

"Did you know that for the last ten years, Snape's classes have had the highest pass rate?" Hermione asked.

"I don't believe it." Said Ron, stifling a yawn.

"Who cares?" muttered Samara, as she threw her feet over the armrest of the chair and leaned back, closing her eyes.

"Nonetheless," said Hermione, "It's true. In fact, no one has ever failed their OWLS in his subject."

"Great," said Neville. "I'll probably get to be the first and spoil his perfect record." 

"All I'm saying," continued Hermione, "Is that we probably won't have to know half of this for the OWLS. Snape makes the class so hard that when you get to the OWLS it seems easy."

"Hermione," said Harry. "This has nothing to do with OWLS. This has to do with survival. Now, try to take my wand."

"Expellaramus!" said Hermione, and Harry's wand lurched out of his hand and flew to Hermione's.

"Hey," exclaimed Neville. "Snape couldn't take your wand, but Hermione did!"

"Hi," said Edward, coming through the portrait hole with Lou and Beatrice. "Still working on DADA?" he asked. Beatrice and Lou said "Hello," and continued on their way to the dorms. Edward settled himself in an overstuffed chair.

"No, just started," said Harry. "I'm so tired. Do you think there was some sleeping potion in what Madam Pomfrey gave us?"

"Maybe," said Ron, with another yawn. "Hey Edward, try to take my wand."

"Expellaramus!" said Edward, but the wand stayed firmly planted in Ron's hand. 

"Great, said Ron. "I got it."

"Expellaramus!" said Hermione, and Ron's wand flew to her hand. 

"Show off," muttered Ron as Hermione gave back Ron and Harry's wands. 

"I don't think it has to do with how well I did the spell," said Hermione. "I think it has to do with how well we know and trust one another." Hermione directed the Expellaramus at Edward and then Samara. They both held on to their wands, even though Samara awoke from dozing on the chair to do it.

"Intent is everything," said Samara, rubbing her eyes.

"Speaking of intent," said Ron, thanks for the payback to Malfoy at dinner. I don't know how you did that without getting caught." Ron continued to tell her about his broken wand in second year and how his own spell had backfired, causing him to spit up slugs for an hour. 

"As far as not getting caught," said Samara, "My wand is pretty short and it fits up my sleeve easily."

"What about 'swish and flick'?" asked Ginny. "We didn't see any movement."

"You don't 'swish and flick' a curse," said Samara. "It's 'aim and fire', and the steadier you hold your hand the more control you have. From what I've read, some of the more intense curses have a kick and holding the wand as still as--is –is important--" Her voice dwindled into silence.

Everyone had gotten very quiet except for Neville, who was sound asleep and snoring on the corner sofa. "Samara," said Hermione, "How do you know that?"

"It's in my book: Current Achievements in Modern Dark Magic."

"What!" Everyone was awake now.

"That's your book!" said Harry. "The one you found when you were eleven?"

"And in a muggle book shop?" asked Ron. "Oh man, my Dad has to get his department to step it up a notch!"

"It was in a pile of books on occult and Satanism."

"And you were looking through this pile?" squeaked Harry. "At age eleven?"

Samara shrugged. "My town is a tourist attraction," she said. "There's all kinds of Occult books and artifacts. Some people say it's the curse of the Haunted Mansion."

They were all looking at her in horror.

"Is there something wrong?" Samara asked confusedly.

"Well, it's Dark Magic," said Hermione. 

"I know," said Samara, "But I didn't have a lot of choices. Like I said, there wasn't anything else in the bookstore. Anyway, I haven't even gone all the way through it yet. Some of it is impossibly complicated, but like Snape has said, and the book emphasizes: the spell is always based on the caster's intent, so as long as I'm not INTENDING anything Dark, it's ok."

"Oh Samara," breathed Ginny. "It's not that simple."

"Well, there's some of the spells that I'd never try. I'm not that stupid, and most of it is history and laws and things anyway. The spells are only examples. It's not like there's a index of hexes."

Samara looked around at her classmates. They were all silent and tense.

"Come on, it's just a book."

"Um, Samara," said Edward, "Does this book ever—um—speak to you?"

"Speak? You mean like, some parts really touch me, and I like it—"

"No," said Edward. "I mean speak. It talks. You listen."

"Or change its writing," added Ginny.

Samara burst out laughing. "No. You guys are such a bunch of practical jokers. Books don't--"

"Samara," said Harry, grasping her shoulders. "Look at me. Really, look at me." Harry willed himself to project total sincerity. He didn't know if it would show in his aura or if Samara would see it, but he wanted her to know that they were not joking. They were concerned for her. "Do I look like I'm joking?" He said. " Do any of us look like we're joking?" He was sure she understood what he was asking.

"No."

"OK, will you do us all a favor, Samara, and not open the book again until we can have a look at it, together?"

"I've had it since I was eleven."

"Please… Please Samara."

Samara nodded. "Alright," she said, annoyed

"But you're going to have to look at it soon. I need it for class on Friday."

"What class?" asked Ron.

"Advanced History of Magic," said Samara. "That's why I took the class. I wanted to understand more about my book." She yawned. "You know what? I'm really tired. I'm going to bed."

After Samara left, the remaining Gryffindors seemed to take a moment to recover themselves. 

"I want to see that book," Harry blurted.

"Me too," said Edward.

"It can't be that bad," said Hermione. "I know it sounds bad, but if she's had it since she was eleven and read a lot of it, how bad can it be? If it was that Dark, well, she wouldn't be here now."

Ginny stood up. "I think I'm going to bed too," she said. "Maybe I can talk to her."

"Gin, you don't have to," said Ron. "We'll do it together."

"I know I don't have to," said Ginny, "But maybe this is why I stood up for her—why she's my little sister. I can tell her things—about books—that no one else can."

"Ginny." Ron stood up and gave his sister a hug. Harry couldn't see auras, but he was sure that Ron wanted feed his sister the same kind of strength that Samara had fed him last night. "Be careful." He said. "And don't touch the book, ok"

"Gawd No!"

Ginny headed up to the girl's dorm.

==

When she got there, Samara was already in bed, reading a book. Parvati and Lavender weren't there. Probably they had found some quiet spot with Dean and Seamus and would come creeping in later that night. Ginny did not know if the book Samara was reading was THE book or not. She didn't ask. Instead, she got ready for bed herself and with a quiet sigh, picked up her own book: Transfiguration. She started to read the assignment.

How an animagus differs from Human transfiguration:

An animagus is a complicated magic, which forms a template within the human's Very DNA. Once the template is formed, actually completing the magic is simple. In fact, it is so simple that those with newly acquired animagus skills often cannot control the transformation and certain emotions trigger it automatically. That is one of the reasons why animagus must be registered with the Ministry of Magic, especially dangerous animagi. Anamagi who cannot be taught to control their transformation may benefit from a stay in a Hospital facility to correctly separate the human and animal entity, although the most beneficial teaching situation is usually to apprentice to another animagi. 

Prey-predator situations between teacher and student respectively, usually elicit the fastest, though most traumatic learning curves. 

"I guess it would," thought Ginny. She shuddered. It was one thing to have a class with a teacher who was strict like Snape or McGonagall. It was quite another to know that your teacher could literally EAT you if they lost control.

"Did you read the Transfig homework?" Ginny asked Samara.

"Hmmmm? Most of it," Samara answered without looking up from her book. Ron said do the DADA first, and I ran out of time.

Ginny continued reading the Transfiguration.

Rarely do these animagi prove dangerous as they mature. In predator-predator situations it is helpful if a fully aware, human form wizard observe the sessions. To insure safety of both the teacher and the student, he should be armed with wand at all times and be ready to deflect Any vicious attacks before the student unintentionally hurts his teacher. Dangerous animagi are tested under rigorous situations to insure that the transformation is under control. Wizards are at all times legally and morally responsible for any loss of property or life while in their animagi form. Wizards who attempt this spell without proper guidance can be severely fined, punished or both.

"Samara," said Ginny. "Have you ever thought about what sort of animal you might be if you can do the animagi transformation? 

"Not really," said Samara. "I like all kinds of animals. Any would be ok, I guess." She put her book down, thinking now. "No, I guess that isn't true. I wouldn't like to be a predator, at least not a big predator. If I ever got stuck as my animagus, I wouldn't want to kill things like deer or antelope to survive. It would be ok to kill rats or snakes or something like that I guess."

"I know what you mean," said Ginny. "I'd never want to do that either." She paused and then pushed bravely on. "I killed roosters—four, maybe five of them—I don't know for sure."

"What?" Samara was looking at her like she had lost her mind. Maybe she had, but supposedly they put it back together at St. Mongo's. 

"First year, I woke up with feathers in my bed and blood all over me. I never could figure out how I got so much blood on me. I wasn't cut, just a few scratches, and the roosters were strangled." Ginny took a deep breath. "It was because of a book, Samara. I opened a book and started to do what it wanted, instead of what I wanted."

There was a long silence.

"That explains the murkiness," Samara said.

It was Ginny's turn to be confused. "What?"

"I've been able to see auras since I was very little. I don't ever remember not seeing them. Sometimes they are very clear, I can almost see through them, like your brother Ron's. Sometimes they shine, like Professor Dumbledore's, and sometimes they are murky like yours . . .."

"I knew, he wasn't really gone," whispered Ginny, silent tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Samara got off of her bed and moved over to sit next to Ginny. She put her arm around Ginny. "Can I help?" She asked, everything about Samara seemed to exude helpfulness, but mixed in was a healthy dose of curiosity.

Ginny shook her head. She wasn't going to tell Samara that St. Mongo's couldn't help, so it was doubtful that she could. She didn't want Samara to know that she was ever in St. Mongo's. She didn't want anyone to know. 

Samara was just holding her, like her mother did when she had first come home after the Chamber of Secrets changed her life forever. After Tom. She had wanted to hate him. She had felt filthy. Raped. But Mom and Dad and all of her brothers still loved her. She had not felt safe here at Hogwarts —not ever—until now, with Samara holding her. Suddenly, there was something different about Samara. The comfort was still there, but so were Samara's questions—questions Ginny had no intention of answering. She had locked that little piece of Tom far away inside of her. Even at St. Mongo's they said they couldn't get it out without tearing her apart. It seemed he was part of her now. Forever.

Samara sat back and looked at her. "When I was in preschool," she said, "My teachers always wanted me to draw people right."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny.

"Oh sometimes I drew them purple and sometimes they were blue—I remember once I drew my teacher all surrounded by black. I didn't know, but her father very ill. She was—angry about it—that no one could make him better. In fact she went home that day, and he died the very next day. She wasn't happy with me. None of them ever were. I thought when I came to Hogwarts, everyone would understand, but even here there are prejudices against someone who's different isn't there?"

"Do you mean my differences or yours?" Ginny asked wryly.

"Both," Samara said with a smile. "I'm supposed to forget about the colors and you're supposed to forget about the darkness. Then we won't be different."

"Darkness." Ginny frowned. She didn't like Tom described that way. "Who else?" Ginny asked, "Does anyone else have this darkness that you can see."

"I don't think I should tell you that, Ginny. It's not fair to them."

"Harry Potter?"

Samara frowned. "How did you know?"

Ginnys shrugged.

"Any way, he still has the murkiness—like yours--but I filled the holes." 

"Holes? From what?"

I don't know. Samara paused. "He loves you, you know."  


"Ha!" Ginny threw a pillow at her. "You're getting like Trelawney now: making predictions, and wrong ones at that! He just sees me as his best friend's kid sister. He may worry about me, but it's just like another brother, and believe me, I've got enough of those."

"I have three brothers, too—" Samara began "and they're all older than me."

"No," said Ginny. "I don't have three brothers, I have _six_ brothers!"

"Six! It's a wonder you're still alive. No wonder there's murkiness in your aura." She teased.

"It's not them," said Ginny suddenly, defending them violently "It was the book, Samara. It was a diary. Voldemort's diary. Never my brothers! My brothers love me."

"I know," said Samara softly. "I know it wasn't your brothers. I was just teasing."

"Never tease about that," said Ginny sharply.

Samara bit her lip. "I wish I could help you, but I can't. I don't know how."

"It's ok. I've lived with it for three years now. But we all wanted you to know, that the murkiness you see is because I opened the wrong book." 

Samara nodded and moved to her bed to get The Book. "I want you to see it," she said. Samara flopped back on Ginny's bed and opened it. Ginny scooted back involuntarily.

"Look," said Samara. "It's got a lot of history and laws about spells, but not that many spells. It says a lot about how different kinds of magics work. The Druids used the Earth magic. This was considered light magic, until a couple of church people started to brand all magic as dark. There's some speculation in our other history of magic book that those church people weren't good at all. They were some of Salazar Slytherin's squibs."

"Squibs?" began Ginny, but Samara was rushing forward with her explanation. 

It's confusing." She said. "But it all starts with the Elementals: Fire, Wind, Water and Earth. Earth was usually light and Fire was usually dark. Wind and water could go either way, but at some points Fire could be used for good and Earth could be used for evil. From what I read, originally light magic is described as drawing from growing things like the Earth or forest or something like that. Dark magic is drawing from things that are powerful in their own right, like fire, storms or waterfalls or wind, but later wizards found out it all boils down to intent, not the source of the magic."

"I don't think I understand," said Ginny.

"Well, if you draw from the Earth, and then you send the excess back into the Earth, it causes more growth and good things. If you draw from say a rainstorm and then you send the excess back into the rain, you might create a flood or a hurricane depending upon your own power."

"Where do wands come in?" asked Ginny. "I always thought that wandless magic was dark and magic with a wand is light."

SSamara smiled. "A lot of people believe that. The idea that Dark Magic is wandless magic came about a long time ago. But remember, at first no one used wands. Then, because wizards couldn't always release the power properly, the power corrupted them. They were called Dark. I can't find any real reason why they continued to use the power even when they realized they were losing some part of 

themselves, but all of them did. It seems like the magic itself was some how addictive. Finally, someone thought of the idea to make a wand to funnel the power. Before that, wizards used wands that they found at sites of great magical events. These usually enhanced the wizard's power; however, the wizard was often spared the degradation caused by using large amounts of power. Much later, wizards started to use wands not to enhance the power of the wizard, but to protect them. 

Actually, it's nearly impossible to draw from the Earth or any elemental and force it through a wand. It will shatter the wand. The wand is to conduct the energy from the wizard's own core self. 

"That's why wand cores are so important," said Ginny.

"I suppose so," said Samara. "The old wands didn't really work that way. They didn't have cores at all, so I don't know how that effects the power, but in the case of drawing from an elemental, the wizard himself is the conduit, like the wand. Of course no matter what kind of power you draw from Elementals you must release. If a wizard's body is not strong enough to handle the power he pulls into himself, you can see it will destroy him, just like the shattered wand, or more likely, turn him into something not quite human—thus the whole idea of dark magic and demons."

The power works like electricity. Oh, that's a muggle concept, you probably won't understand. 

"No, it's ok. I um, had a um-friend first year, who grew up with muggles. We—He told me a lot. And

then, there's Harry. He was raised by muggles too.

"I don't remember your telling me about this 'friend' before—" said Samara. "Are you sure he was just a friend? Your aura is saying he was something more."

"Just a—" Ginny closed her mouth over the words. "He was not important," she insisted.

"I see," said Samara, studying her, but Ginny could tell by the twinkle in her eyes that she had certainly

misunderstood. Samara waited, as if for a fuller explanation, but Ginny didn't want to tell her any more about Tom." 

"It wasn't anything like that—" Ginny protested. She could feel herself getting warm. Why did she have to blush. She hated her pale skin that let everyone know her feelings not that it made much difference to Samara who saw auras. "I was eleven!" Ginny burst out. "But she continued to blush" Even if she did tell Samara about Tom, she wasn't going to tell her about her foolish eleven-year-old fantasies about Harry Potter—nor Tom's sixteen-year-old embellishments of her fantasies. She suddenly shivered. 

"Electricity," Ginny reminded Samara. "We were talking about the similarity between magical power 

and electricity."

"OK." Said Samara "Electricity travels constantly in what is called a circuit. If it is interrupted by certain

substances, it is absorbed. Other substances conduct it. Human tissue is not strong enough for the

electricity to travel through with any real forces. It can be an uncomfortable shock, like a stupefy spell, or

if there is a lot of it, it can even kill, pretty much the same way as Avada Kadava works if I'm not

mistaken. Anyway, muggles can hold electricity in their hand if it is running through a wire, encased in a

cord. A wand is used as either a conduit or a lightening rod. It channels the power or grounds it and

forces the excess back usually into the earth. The wood protects you and the core conducts the magical

power. That's why if your wand is wrong for you, there's usually an overflow of power. Wizards get a

headache or just generally feel sick if their wand doesn't fit them. It's like trying to use certain crystals or

Elven or druid magic without proper wards." 

"You got all this from your book?" asked Ginny, finally picking up the book and leafing through it.

"Yes—well not the electricity part—I got that from Science class," said Samara. "You see, I had to know something about magic and this was all I could find. I see magic everywhere, Ginny. The whole world was surrounded by magic and everyone –well, muggles were telling me I was imagining it. I had to have this book. Dark or Light, it didn't matter."

Ginny nodded. "What happened here?" She stopped at a page that had some sort of stain on it. The words on several pages were completely eaten away.

"I don't know," said Samara. "It was like that when I got it. I guess someone tried to press some sort of flower or herb in the book and it was rather toxic, or maybe they just left it in there so long it rotted and ruined the pages. There was nothing but dust in the book on that page."

"So what did you do with the dust?" asked Ginny. "If it ate away the pages, it must have been pretty powerful stuff. You couldn't just through it in some muggle's trash can, could you?"  


"Oh no," cried Samara. "It was powerful magic!"

"And?"

"Well, I'm not positive what it was:" Samara said, uncertainly. "A plant or animal or half way in between, but it was definitely magic."

"And?"

"I read that the Druids looked for some powerful magic. Sometimes it took them years. I didn't have years to look."

Ginny just looked at Samara.

"And the book did have a spell—"

"You just told me how few actual spells were in this book," said Ginny and now you are telling me you used an unknown magical substance in a spell that you got from a Dark Book. Samara," Ginny shouted, "Are you crazy?"

"It was just one spell. I had to. My wand was a joke. I was walking around waving this piece of oak, and then of ash, and then a piece of yew—which was a little bit better, but still not right. And then, there was Katelyn McCormick. She was so annoying. You have no idea."

"A person?" Ginny was practically squeaking with anxiety. "You cast a spell on a person with this wand with an unknown magical substance—" 

"It was nothing that bad. I just made her break out. What's a few pimples? Well, maybe more than a few. I think she's still using heavy duty cleanser and going to a dermatologist, but I'm sure it would have cleared up as soon as she got out of her teen years."

Ginny was looking at Samara in horror.

"Oh come on, Ginny. Everyone expects pimples when they hit puberty. It's an automatic for muggles, even for some wizards I hear. At least I didn't curse her nose off like that Midgin girl. I should have. Her nose was always in someone else's business."

Samara sat silently on the bed for a few moments. "OK." She continued. "It was stupid to curse her, but the wand worked, and no harm done, really. Except that it was much more powerful than I expected. I even cleared up Katelyn's acne before I left for Hogwarts. She thinks the latest medicine is finally working. I wanted to leave with a clean slate, you know. And Ginny, this is going to sound really weird—"

"Go ahead," said Ginny resignedly, "I really haven't had my quota of 'weird' for the day yet."

Samara started to giggle. "Ginny, you're such a good friend. I'm glad I met you. Anyway, stop worrying so much. I think, whatever the dust was in the book—I think it was good." 

"How on earth did you come up with that idea?" 

"The fellow who owned the book before me wrote these little doodles in the margins. He called it 'Nirena' or sometimes, 'My Rena' like it was a pet or something. That's why, I thought maybe it was some sort of sentient plant, and not just a leaf. It doesn't look like hair. If you look closely, you can see the veins imprinted on the page so it must have been a plant, and I've had the dust in my wand for a few months now. I haven't exploded or anything."

Ginny looked closely at the imprints. It didn't look like any plant she recognized, but then she hardly had vast experience. Maybe Hermione would recognize it. "Well, I understand," said Ginny, "So this dust replaces your wand core then, but you were still taking chances—"

"Yeah, well," said Samara. "As far as I can see, taking chances is part of being Gryffindor. Don't tell me you've never taken chances."  


"No," said Ginny with a sigh. The thought of Tom came unbidden to her mind. It was strange how she could still picture his face, the way he had drawn it in his diary. It was stranger still that, although she knew who he really was, she still thought of him as incredibly handsome. "I've taken a lot of chances. More than I should have, but this year, I'm hoping to remedy that." Ginny leaned across the bed and grasped Samara's hand. "Promise you won't tell anyone, if I tell you something?"

"Sure—no wait—I can't keep my mouth shut." Said Samara. "You'd better not tell me, if it's really a secret."

Ginny considered. "It will be out by Friday anyway," she said, "Because that's when we have our first Advanced Classes. I might as well tell you." She paused for emphasis. 'I'm taking Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.'—with Snape. Truthfully, if I had known that Snape was teaching it I don't know if I would have taken it, but it's done now."

"Cool," said Samara. "Why is this a secret?"

Ginny thought about how easily she had been sucked into the diary with Tom. "I think that part is a secret," said Ginny. "That and the fact that my brothers will have a fit when they hear."

"And do you care?" asked Samara. "It's your life, isn't it?"

"Yes. It is. Expellaramus!"

Samara's wand jumped from the bedside table, but before it made it to Ginny's hand; it reversed directions and sped back to Samara's waiting hand.

"Expellaramus!" Samara cried, and Ginny grabbed for her wand before it could leave her pocket, and she kept it in her hand.

"I think I'm ready for Snape," Ginny said with a wry smile.

==

Thank you to my readers and reviewers. Please send the link to someone that you think will like this story. Please review and if you sign and I can find your work, I will return the favor.

COMING UP: The long awaited trip to the restricted section of the library—and more

Look up FIND: Lady Lestrange to see more fanfics by this author.


	14. CH 13: Covert Capers

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 13

Covert Capers

Later that evening, when Ginny and Samara were fast asleep, Harry and Ron donned the Invisibility Cloak in Gryffindor's Common Room and with Hermione's admonitions to 'be careful' they were off.

"Sure you don't want to come with us?" Harry urged holding up an edge of the cloak. "There's room." 

"I'm a Prefect now," Hermione said as if that answered that. 

"Which is why you should just look for the books yourself. You have the access to the restricted section," complained Ron.

"I told you, I still have to explain to Madam Pince why I need the book and this early in the year, I doubt if she would believe me." 

"So come with us," urged Harry. "Just for old time's sake." 

There was a sound on the stair as if someone was coming back into the common room at this late hour. "Go," Hermione hissed. "Someone's coming."

Harry and Ron made it to the library without incident. They even entered the restricted section without encountering any difficulty. They laid the invisibility cloak aside and started to go through the 18 books devoted to Salaazar Slytherin. First was: Friends and Enemies. Harry flipped it open, thinking to turn to the index, but the book had other ideas.

First, he was startled to note that it hissed a welcome to him. "Did you hear that?" He asked Ron, but Ron was engrossed in another book and didn't hear him. When he looked back at the book, it was open to a picture and Harry found himself instantly rivited. He knew that picture. It was a variation of the Crucious Curse. Images danced like flames on the edges of Harry's memory. He knew he could choose—choose to understand the spell or to experience the part of the victim. He felt nothing physically—yet-- but some part of him was with Voldemort on that fateful day, when he felt his life's blood boiling and his bones burning-- When Voldemort had laid the Crucious Curse on him. Harry yanked himself away from the thought. 

Immediately, he could read the title on the page, and then the directions for mentally controlling the curse. He turned the page. "Removing the skin of an enemy can be prolonged indefinately. Unlike physical torture which must end at the victim's death . . . When done correctly, the Crucious Curse does not allow the luxury of death."

Sickened, Harry forced himself to turn the page, but the next picture was worse, and the next…fire…crushing…knives…suffocation…He pulled himself back from it, trying to suck a clean breath of air into his starved lungs.

Ron tapped Harry on the shoulder and he jumped. "I think I've found something," Ron said. When he saw the blank expression on Harry's face, he frowned. "Are you OK?" he asked.

Harry slammed the book shut. "Thank you," he breathed. "That one should have a chain around it."

The sound of a door opening and footsteps echoing across the library floor froze the boys in the act of opening the second book.

"Cloak," whispered Harry, as he rearranged the cloak around both boys and the book that Ron had found.

"Oh, Gawd, It's Snape!" whispered Ron, and Snape was heading straight for the restricted section. His ground covering stride bringing him ever closer by the second.

Harry and Ron backed against the wall and willed themselves to shrink. Snape leaned so close they could hear him breathing. Surely he could hear them too, thought Harry, but no. He was holding his breath and the breathing and moaning of various books drowned out any miniscule sounds they may be making. Harry longed to shift away from Snape, but was afraid of making a noise. Snape was looking right over their shoulder at the very books they had looked at earlier. Then Snape reached forward and ran his finger over them as if looking for a particular book that he could not find. After an eternity, he moved several steps away and pulled a book from the shelf. He seemed to know exactly where that book was, and didn't have to search for it. The book was small, only about half the size of their potions book, but it was chained shut and seemed to be crying. Snape did not attempt to take off the chains. Instead he raised the book to his lips and kissed it. Then he brought it, still chained, back to the desk. He laid it on the table just inches from them. 

Why hadn't they moved away from the table while they had the chance!

With his wand in his right hand and trained on the book, Snape pushed up his left sleeve and lay his bare arm over the book. With a low moan, the chains dissolved and the book opened of it's own accord. Once it had opened, Snape seemed to relax. He pulled out a chair, nearly bumping into the hidden boys, and sat at the table. For a few minutes, he leafed through the book as if looking for a certain page. With some trepidation, Harry leaned over his shoulder. Harry felt Ron, silently trying to pull him away from Snape, but he couldn't go far and stay under the invisibility cloak.

Both boys jumped as they heard the door again open. "Severus, I don't see why we didn't meet at the dungeon, or my office--" said a voice that Harry could not mistake. Dumbledore. 

"Compingere," said Snape and the book slammed shut, chained itself and hastened back to its shelf.

Harry and Ron ducked to keep from being hit by the volume, but apparently it knew they were there. It had taken a round about route back to the shelf to avoid hitting the invisible boys, and Snape was frowning in their direction. In horror, Harry shrank against the far wall. He expected Snape to reach out and find them, but he didn't move.

"What was so urgent?" asked Dumbledore as he entered the restricted section.

"The Ministry's been compromised," said Snape.

"What! How do you know?"

"Because," said Snape simply, "I delivered Cornelius Fudge to Voldemort."

"You what!"

Harry felt Ron crumple beside him and he sank to the floor to be able to keep his friend covered with the invisibility cloak.

"Ron, get up," hissed Harry in a barely audible voice.

"Dad," squeeked Ron. "And Percy."

"I had no choice," said Snape.

"Ah Severus, have I not told you, there are always choices."

"Then let me just say, that giving up Fudge was the best choice I had," said Snape, pacing away from the boys toward Dumbledore.

Immediately, Harry moved closer to the book that Snape had so quickly banished when Dumbledore entered. 

"What are you doing?" muttered Ron from between clenched teeth.

Harry didn't answer, he just studied the book. It was dark green with silver lettering and silver chains. He recognized the name from somewhere: "Mors Mordre". Maybe it would be important. Why had Snape been so anxious to keep Dumbledore from knowing that he was reading it?

"Was it very bad?" whispered Dumbledore, taking Snape in his arms as if he were a small child.

Surprisingly, Snape stayed there with his head on Dumbledore's shoulder for what seemed like an impossibly long period of time. This was Snape, not some wounded school child that Dumbledore was holding!

After a single, ragged breath that did not sound like it could be issuing from Snape, their teacher again moved, this time pacing away from Dumbledore. "I don't know how much longer I can be useful to you, Albus," Snape said. "I'm sure he knows: he enjoys toying with me." 

Dumbledore rubbed one arm and then the other in a gesture that Harry recognized, but he was distracted as Snape paced towards them.

Ron and Harry backed up and wriggled themselves between two bookshelves. Immediately he felt the hot breath of one of the books. It began gnawing on his cloak. Why couldn't Snape stand still!

"I've saved that little Dunderhead of yours too many times. Voldemort wants proof of my fidelity to the cause."

"What does he want?"

"You."

Dumbledore sucked in his breath. "We knew it would come to this. If that will convince him…"

"NO!" Snape had never looked more dangerous. "You are needed here. I Am Not."

Harry tried to pull his cloak away from the book. It growled at him.

"That's not true, Severus." There was a long pause, as if Dumbledore was thinking of a way to tell Snape something. "We know …"

"Shut up!" Snape growled. "Do not tell me what you know. I will betray you."

"I trust you, Severus."

"You always were a fool, Albus," said Snape. 

Dumbledore chuckled softly and Harry could not imagine what Dumbledore found funny about this entire conversation. Harry was horrified. How could Dumbledore trust this man? Harry again tried to shift away from the book that was chewing on his cloak, but it growled even louder. How could they not hear it?

"So, you gave him Fudge," continued Dumbledore blandly. 

"Yes," said Snape. "But Fudge was already his—or nearly his. I had suspected for a while that his loyalties were divided. Ever since I showed him my Dark Mark after the Tri-Wizard Tournament . . . "

"I remember," said Dumbledore. "Then Voldemort is not convinced--"

"No."

Dumbledore sat down at the table, and put his head in his hands. "How can we convince him of your loyalty?"

"We can't," said Snape. "Short of delivering you or perhaps Harry Potter…"

"I will not sacrifice children!"

Harry gripped Ron's arm tightly.

"Especially not Gryffindor children," muttered Snape. "It's alright for Slytherin children though, isn't it," said Snape, his voice growing in volume and anger. "Reguardless of how little protection they have."

"Their parents make that choice, Severus, not me. I know some of the children in your house have had-- difficulty. . ."

"A euphumism, if I've ever heard one," spat Snape. "You claim Hogwarts is safe, but no where is safe for my Slytherins."

"But I do not hand those them over to the Dark Lord," continued Dumbledore. "I wish I could stop it, but I cannot go against their parents' choices. Neither can you, Severus, even though you wish you could."

"And yet, Potter, who has the protection of his mother . . ."

"We've had this conversation before, Severus. I am not convinced that Potter is still protected. I believe…"

R -I -P- Harry felt the material of the Invisibility cloak finally give way as the book tore a bite out of it.

Uncertainty of how the breach would affect the spell on the cloak was immediately apparent as they simply became visible. Luckily, they were still between the two bookcases. 

"Repairo" whispered Harry frantically as he pointed his wand at the gaping hole in the cloak. Nothing happened. 

Ron pointed his wand at the book which was munching happily on a piece of the misty cloth. "Stupify!" With a screech, the book became still. The cloth was clenched between its pages. 

Harry yanked it loose causing the book to fall to the floor with a clatter. It lay open and screaming—In that instant, Harry realized knew that book—It had revealed his presence before--first year. The stupify spell did not last very long. Neither Harry nor Ron could come out of their hiding place to pick it up. 

Instead Harry jammed the chewed remnant into the hole in his cloak and whispered "Repairo." Mercifully, the cloak covered them again with blessed invisibility.

Snape stalked over and picked up the screaming book. Running his long, spidery finger along its spine, he silenced it, and placed it on the shelf just above Harry's head. Once again they found themselves staring into the dark fathomless eyes of Severus Snape. "I believe that the best way to pacify Voldemort is to give him Harry Potter," he whispered visciously. "After all, it is not like that meeting can be avoided, and the new child is the one that must be protected now, Harry Potter's part in the prophecy is past." Snape spun around and faced Dumbledore once again. "I know you don't agree—but as a last resort—"

"A last resort," repeated Dumbledore miserably. "I suppose you are right, but only as a very last resort, Severus. We have several ideas about the identity of the prophetic child."

"I told you. I don't want to know," said Snape.

"Very well. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss, Severus?"

"Yes." Snape turned away and Harry could breath again. There was a book. The Legacy of Learning, by the Founder's Four. It has the original Sorting Hat spell in it. It should be helpful. Apparently, you already have it. It is not on the shelf."

"Maybe Minerva checked it out," said Dumbledore. "I didn't."

Ron tugged on Harry's arm and held up the book which he still had. The Legacy of Learning.

Snape nodded and they searched the shelves together one more time. "One other thing, Albus. Do not talk to me about any of this in the dungeon. The walls have ears."

"They are children," began Dumbledore.

"No, they are not. They are Slytherins—all of them—and some of them are Death Eaters."

"You can't be sure."

"Of course I can. I checked arms the first night."

"You didn't."

"I did." Severus sat and steepled his fingers. "I have to sleep with them, and so do the other students. Of course, several of them itched to curse me even more than usual for putting a serious damper on their Secret First Night Party." 

"Secret?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Just typical child's play. It gives them pleasure to think that they've accomplished the task in secrecy." Snape smiled and for a moment looked unlike his usual forbidding self. His eyes almost twinkled, and then the moment was gone, making Harry wonder if he ever saw it at all. "Imagine, if child's curses were the only curses we had to worry about, Albus."

"We are still a school, Severus. We are teaching children, not building an army." Dumbledore sighed. "At least you know who to trust now." 

"Hardly." 

Dumbledore paused as if weighing whether to ask Snape about the results of the arm check or not. Apparently he decided it was worth it. "Valeriana's?" He asked simply. Harry assumed that this was someone they both knew, who had a child currently in Slytherin.

"Need you ask?" Snape shook his head sadly.. "And so like Valeriana it's scary. A lot of bravado, but that's typical. Hate for Draco which is not typical. I still don't believe that the understanding of the Dark Mark is there, though Albus, for most of these kids. Hell, there are days I don't understand the Dark Mark myself. It changes. Grows with him. How can my children understand the gravity of what they have done. They have no idea."

"Any hope whatsoever?' Dumbledore questioned.

"I had hoped when some of them didn't come to Hogwarts earlier that they were still safe. Some aren't exactly in the fold yet though. They just have cool tatoos. Like Draco."

"That's the one that still bothers you, isn't it my friend."

"I can't help it I was so close, Albus. I really thought I could turn him around."

"It's his father," said Dumbledore. "You can't expect Draco to turn his back on his family."

"I think I could have handled Lucius," said Snape. "It was Naricissia who—" Snape shuddered. "That woman is pure evil."

"More than her sister Laurel? Or Valeriana? "

"No. Valeriana is worse." Said Snape. "At least Laurel is dead, and their Dark power is lessened by her absence."  


"And Valeriana is in Azkaban," said Dumbledore. "You worry too much, Severus. It solves nothing."

Snape shook his head sadly. "That is where you are wrong, Albus. You are too trusting. This is war. Just because it has come to my house first doesn't mean that it won't come to the other houses. Be more cautious, my friend. You will let the villain in the front door."

"No just in the floo," whispered Ron.

Harry hushed him

"Not with you standing by to check arms," said Dumbledore as they walked toward the door of the restricted section.

Snape shook his head. "It doesn't matter." He said. "There is no way to be sure. Half of those with the Dark Mark were forced by their parents to get it. Half of those without it are Death Eater wannabes. I place nightly wards around half of the beds to keep the students in them and round the other half to keep anyone else from attacking the sleeper. You should suggest the same to the other Heads of House. Slytherin is already a house at war, but the rest will follow. ..I've forgotten something." Snape left Dumbledore outside of the restricted section and walked quickly back to the book he was reading earlier. He pulled it from the shelf. Kissed it and placed it, still chained in his pocket.

"What can I do to help you, Severus?" asked Dumbledore.

"Kill Voldemort."

"In the meantime," said Dumbledore. "Perhaps a nice cup of tea with some of your sleeping potion—"

"HA!"

"Well, then at least a long hot shower—"

"And wash your slimy hair," said Ron, getting a little braver now that they were nearly at the front door to the library.

"Albus, you know, especially now, I abhor the vulnerability—That would hardly be relaxing--"

"Then take your wand in the shower with you." Interrupted Dumbledore. 

"I do—"

"Severus, There must be someplace you feel safe enough to relax for a little while. Place the wards 

around—"

CLICK.

The closed door of the library plunged Ron and Harry into sudden silence, except for the low moaning of the restricted books.

"Oh Gawd!" Ron sank to the floor and squeeked. "I can't believe THAT SNAKE gave Fudge to Voldemort! Everyone who sided with the Ministry is just shot to hell. I have to owl Dad. And Percy and he probably won't believe me anyway. And Dumbledore still trusts Snape—"

Ron was rambling almost as badly as he did in the Forbidden Forest when they were pursued by the spiders.

Absently, Harry put his hand on his friend's shoulder. All that he could remember at the moment about the conversation was Snape saying: "The best way to pacify Voldemort is to give him Harry Potter." And Dumbledore's answer was not what Harry expected. He did not refuse. He said: "As a last resort." Harry took a deep breath and rubbed his scar. He didn't need anyone to tell him that he had lost his mother's protection. He felt it with every throb of his head. Deep inside of himself, he knew it, but he had counted on Dumbledore's protection. Suddenly, he felt very, very alone and vulnerable. With shaking hands he took the book, Legacy of Learning from Ron, and opened it on the desk. 

"We need to copy this," he said firmly. "McGonagall or Dumbledore will be back for it tomorrow. We can't take it with us. Get a quill and some parchment from the main circulation desk. I didn't bring any."

Ron hesitated only a moment and then he hurried to get the parchment. When he returned, Harry had already found the page they needed. "I wish Hermione were here," said Ron. "She could probably just memorize it." 

The boys sat together at the desk and frantically searched through the spells used to give the Sorting Hat its brains. Then, they copied the set of spells which seemed to be the gifts that each of the founders

left in the hat. 

"What do you suppose this footnote is?" asked Ron. "It says it's translated from another book."

"Maybe it's old magic," said Harry without looking up. "Write down the reference. Ah, here it is."

"What?" asked Ron.

"The sealing spells. The ones that Samara was talking about yesterday. These should have made the Hat tamperproof. At a glance, I don't see anything wrong with them."

"Right Harry. A thousand years and no one saw anything wrong with them, but you're going to find what's wrong with them just by rushing through the spells by wand light."

"OK. I'm going to copy these too. I'm almost done," said Ron. "I'll help you."

In a few minutes, Ron moved closer to Harry and they both wrote, at last coming together and realizing that they were done. "Put the book back on the shelf," said Ron, but Harry shook his head. He laid it on the floor below the shelf where it was supposed to be and left part of the cover stick out from under the bookcase."

"Madame Pince, will have a fit," said Ron.

Harry grinned as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders. "Good thing she won't know who left it there. Let's go."

Ron sidled close to Harry and slipped under the cloak. 

==++==

They were almost back to Gryffindor Tower when they spotted Peeves putting marbles under the carpet so that people would trip. "Turn around," whispered Harry. 

"Who's there?" demanded Peeves immediately, streaking toward them. Both Ron and Harry ducked to keep Peeves from flying through them. "I know you're there," he said. "You can't fool me. I should call Filch tell him students are out of bed."

Well, it worked once, thought Harry as he took a deep breath, and lowered his voice to a man's gravelly baritone. It was not so difficult as it had been before his voice changed. "Peeves!" Harry growled. "The Baron has reasons for being in this corridor."

"Reasons that have nothing to do with me," shrieked Peeves, darting down the hall away from them. He spun around and shouted back. "I never liked that lying little snitch when he was here, and bloody hell will freeze over before I help him now, so don't ask me again. I've heard nothing." He stuck his fingers in his ears. "I won't listen. I won't." He began singing at the top of his lungs—if he had lungs—La. La. La. The song could be heard echoing down the hall. It was getting ruder and ruder as he went away from them.

"That was weird," whispered Ron. 

"At least we got rid of him."

"Unicorn horn," said Harry as they got the portrait of the Fat Lady.

Hermione was sitting in the Common room with a large arithmancy book on her lap. "Well?" she asked, "I heard Peeves—"

"The whole castle heard Peeves," said Harry.

"I still don't know why you didn't just get it out for us," said Ron disgustedly. "We almost got caught by Snape and Dumbledore. Then a book tried to eat Harry. And Peeves—well Peeves was very strange tonight."

"But we got what we needed, I think" said Harry pulling the crumpled parchment from his pocket.

"Who can read this?" asked Hermione as she looked at the scrawled handwriting.

"Didn't know penmanship counted," snapped Ron.

"What's with him?" Hermione whispered to Harry. 

"He's worried." Harry told her about the conversation they overheard Snape and Dumbledore having. 

"So what is Dumbledore going to do about the Ministry?" Hermione asked in an appalled whisper..

"We weren't exactly in a position to ask," said Ron. "I need to write a note to Dad and Percy," He turned and headed up the stairs to the boy's dorm. 

"There's something else we have to worry about," said Hermione. "A few minutes ago, Edward left Gryffindor Tower. He probably saw that you weren't in bed."

"Why didn't you send him back to bed?"

"He slipped by me. He seemed to be in a hurry, and I couldn't report him with you still out. I'd have McGonagall down here checking beds."

"Maybe he was just nicking food," said Harry. "Ron said he and Ginny were down in the kitchen last night with the twins." Harry yawned an enormous yawn. "It's probably nothing. Don't get all perfect on us just because you're a prefect. See you in the morning, Hermione."

Once upstairs in his room, Harry tried to read the crumpled parchment by the light of his wand, but it was impossible. He had almost given up when he heard footsteps on the stairs. "Nox," he whispered automatically, but it was only Edward coming into the room. Edward put the last bite of a cookie into his mouth, slipped out of his robe and went into the bathroom. Even though no one was awake, Harry heard several privacy spells click onto the door. A moment later he was back in the room and climbing into bed. Well that was that mystery solved. Harry just hoped that Edward didn't plan on taking Ginny with him on these midnight strolls every night. Eventually Hermione would have to turn them in, and they would lose house points.

==++==

That night, Harry dreamed he was in the Chamber of Secrets but, this time he was too late to save Ginny. He held her limp, lifeless body in his arms, and Tom was laughing and holding his wand. Harry knew that he should never have lost his wand. He could hear Snape saying, "You little Dunderhead, How could you lose your wand? I should have given you to Voldemort long ago. Too many people have died to protect your stupid ass: your parents, Ginny, Cedric Diggory--" Then Harry was growing asses ears again "How many more must die because you were too weak and allowed Voldemort to take your blood." When Harry looked down again at the body in his arms, it wasn't Ginny; it was Samara, and she was clutching the book: Current Achievements in Modern Dark Magic to her chest." Harry awoke shaking, with his arms wrapped around his pillow, and a strong urge to hold Ginny in his arms-- the living, breathing Ginny.


	15. CH 14: Bunny for Breakfast

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 14

Bunny for Breakfast

Morning light was filtering softly through the tower window and although Harry could have lain in his bed for a few more minutes, he decided to get up and get ready for class. He couldn't sleep now anyway. He headed down to the common room to review his DADA homework and sat in one of the chairs by the empty fireplace. He looked at his DADA work, but didn't see it. Something was wrong. Then he realized what it was. The bricks around the fireplace were warm. Someone had lit this fire early this morning or late last night. A little stitch of fear erupted inside of him, before he thought: McGonagall. She had to tell Sirius where to get the Wolf's Bane Potion. Maybe she had spoken to Sirius. He breathed a sigh of relief. By then, people were starting to stir. Ron came down into the common room. "You're up early," he said. "I was going to go to the owlry to send this to Dad and then I'm sure Dad will forward it to Percy." 

"I'll come with you," said Harry. As they walked they softly discussed last night's events, but Harry didn't tell him about the fire. Ron was already upset by the news of the ministry. Pig flitted here and there like a hummingbird instead of an owl. Finally Ron caught him and attached the letter to his leg. Then, they went down to breakfast. Ginny was coming into the Great Hall too. 

"I think I'm ready for Snape," Ginny confided. "Expellaramus!" Ron's wand jumped out of his pocket and into Ginny's hand.

"Bloody hell," Ron swore. "I wasn't expecting that." 

Ginny tossed his wand back to him. "That's the point, isn't it? Try again. Expellaramus!"

Again Ron's wand launched itself to Ginny's hand.

Trying to help his friend, Harry raised his own wand. "Expellaramus!" He said, but Ginny's wand stayed firmly in her hand. She grinned at him. "Samara's been giving me some pointers," she said.

"What does Samara know that we don't?" asked Harry. 

"Well, her book says—" Harry felt a cold sweat break out on his body as he remembered his dream. 

"We have to talk about that book," He interrupted.

"Pass the jam first," said Ron as they seated themselves on both sides of the girls at the breakfast table. He reached for some toast. "I'm starved."

Once they filled their breakfast plates, conversation strayed to Parvati's prediction, since Divination was their first class.

"Where is Samara, by the way?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," said Ginny, "She's usually up early. I thought she'd be down here. Maybe she just lost track of time."

Moments later, Samara came into the Great Hall alone, but Edward caught up with her before she reached the table. "Lou is still helping Neville with homework and Joe slept in," Edward told them. 

"I do think it is possible that Lou is a Ravenclaw," said Ron. "He certainly is hard to beat at chess, and he's the only one I know who spends more time in the library is Hermione. I hate to break it to Neville, but I think his study-buddy will be leaving us soon."

Edward paused, considering his seating arrangements. Harry was seated by Ginny, who shifted over to allow Samara to pull a chair up between her and Ron. "I don't think Lou spends any more time in the library than I do," said Edward. "It's just quieter to study. Of course, some of you can seem to study with everyone playing around in Gryffindor tower. I don't know how you can concentrate, Ron." Just then, Hermione and Beatrice entered, and Edward chose to sit between them on the opposite side of the table. "Is today the last day for changes to the schedule?" asked Edward. "Does anyone know?"

"Yes, it is," said Ron. "I've been trying to decide what I should take for my advanced class, and I'm down to the last minute now. I don't think I have any grades high enough."

"So what happens if you don't have high enough grades for advanced?" asked Edward.

"Tutoring," said Harry.

"With who?" asked Edward.

"Probably Hermione." Said Harry. "Right Hermione?"

"Right," she said between bites of egg.

"Hey," said Ron. "Then you are using a time turner. You told us you weren't."

"I didn't say I wasn't using a time turner. I said Ravenclaws had them all signed out. I'm sharing one with Padama Patil. She has it signed out for classes and I'm just using it just on Friday for that one hour of tutoring. I do Advanced and then meet Padama in the library to turn it for our tutoring sessions. And," Hermione concluded in a whisper, "They are not supposed to be common knowledge. But speaking of Padama, that reminds me—" Hermione looked down the table for Parvati who was seated next to Dean. "Parvati, the little Ravenclaw I gave your broom to tried to give it to your sister. It's in her room. She told me to tell you."

Parvati nodded, and kept eating. Hermione had the idea that Parvati probably wouldn't have even missed the broom if Hermione hadn't mentioned it. She had a dreamy look that was vaguely reminiscent of Trelawney, and was wearing several new bangle bracelets on her arms. "So, Ron, are you going to be in my tutoring?" asked Hermione.

"It looks like tutoring or Divination."

"Ask Flitwick if you can take charms, with me" said Harry. "You aren't that far below the cut off line. He'll let you take it, I'm sure he will. He gave me extra credit for summoning the Firebolt in the tournament."

"Charms?" said Edward. "No way. Maybe potions, or Defense."

"Is it ok if we take something different than our mentors?" said Beatrice. "I can't do arithimancy. I want to take transfiguration."

"Oh, I'm sure it is," said Hermione. "You'll probably have to take a test or something anyway since the teachers don't know your ability level, and advanced should be something that you are really interested in not just a required subject."

"Are you doing arithimancy?" asked Harry. "Why don't you take charms with us?"

"But I really like Professor Vector," said Hermione.

"Advanced should be something that you are really interested in." mocked Harry. "Not something you take because you like the teacher. Anyway, since when are you interested in Unfogging the Future? Arithmancy is as much Divination as what Trelawney teaches."

"Yes," said Hermione, "But Trelawney doesn't teach it."

"Charms, on the other hand," argued Harry "Can be useful for something."

Ginny took the moment to lean over to Samara. "You aren't very talkative this morning. Where did you go earlier?"

"Hospital wing," answered Samara.

"Are you sick?"

"No," whispered Samara. "But Draco still was."

"Draco?" Ginny snorted. "Still!"

"Professor McGonagall called me down to the Infirmary at about 7:30 this morning to take the curse off, but by the time I got there, he was—It was finished. I tried to apologize—"

"You tried to apologize to Malfoy?" said Ginny.

Suddenly the other Gryffindors got quiet.

"Apologize for what?" asked Ron.

"Her curse," answered Ginny laughing. "It was still going this morning. Don't get this girl mad at you!"

Suddenly everyone was patting her on the back and telling her what a good job she did. She didn't feel like it was a good job, she felt terrible. She hadn't meant for it to last that long.

"Hey Ginny, what are you and Samara taking for advanced?" Ron asked.

"Well, Samara doesn't need Advanced Curses," Edward joked.

"So. Did you decide on something besides History with Binns and Samara's Dark Book." Said Harry.

"I really don't know if it's Dark—" began Ginny.

And Samara answered at the same time. "Advanced Defense."

Everyone at the table got quiet. "You're going to take Advanced Defense?" questioned Ron. "With Snape? Ginny!"

"That's 3 hours on Friday with Slytherins and 2 hours with Snape," said Harry. "Isn't 3 hours of Slytherins on every day enough for you.. Do you need to add an extra hour of torture on Fridays?"

"Well, truthfully, I didn't know that Snape would be teaching it, but I really feel like I need a better Defense. I had Lockhart first year, and I just feel so unprepared for anything dark. I know Dumbledore didn't let anyone fail after Lockhart lost his memory—"

"Wait," said Edward. "Was Lockhart the werewolf?"

"No, that was Lupin," answered Harry. "Lockhart was just a useless git. He said he defeated all these dark creatures, but the only spell he could do was a memory charm. He lied in all of his books and then took credit for what other wizards did. When Ginny was in trouble, he didn't even want to try to save her. He wanted to run away. He tried to curse us with Ron's broken wand and if backfired. Lockhart lost his memory."

"They hauled him away to St. Mongo's." said Ron, oblivious to Ginny's little shudder. "He was DADA teacher second year and the second teacher, to go-- Only one more year of Snape," crowed Ron. "I could just sing."

"You don't know that," admonished Hermione. "Anyway, that's an awful thing to say."

"Have you forgotten I'm talking about Snape? It's a sign," Ron intoned in his best Trelawney imitation. "Every Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts shall meet his doom by the end of the year. You can't argue with destiny, my dears."

"And good riddance." He added in his own voice.

Post owls started to fly into the room. The little owl from the Daily Prophet dropped the news in front of Hermione and immediately flew off. Hermione opened it and glanced through the headlines. 

Errol flew into Ginny's orange juice and the whole glass spilled all over the table. "Pergo!" Ginny said, trying to get the mess under control as soon as possible. 

At the same time, a huge barn owl flew straight for Edward. Instead of dropping onto the wet table, the owl landed on Edward's shoulder. "Ouch! You stupid bird," cried Edward as he got the package off of the owl. The sound of ripping cloth was heard as the owl flapped his wings frantically and tried to settle on the slippery robes. 

Beatrice screeched and ducked her head as the large wings smacked her in the face. "The bird dug his talons in, and Edward tried again to transfer him to the table. The owl went straight in the air above them, and Edward held up a piece of sausage to tempt the animal. It dropped on the sausage like it was prey, including Edward's fingers in the process and drawing blood. Edward backhanded the bird. 

Suddenly, Beatrice was gone and a small brown rabbit darted under the table and between Harry's feet. The hungry owl swooped down on the rabbit. Before anyone was quite sure what had happened, McGonagall, in cat form, had bounded from the head table, and trapped the rabbit under her outstretched front paw. She hissed at the owl and immediately turned back into a calm still woman with a sedate bun. She was holding a small brown rabbit. 

"Headmaster Dumbledore, with your permission, I ask that Miss Ellis be excused from flying this morning. I have first period free and will work with her. After her scare, it may take her a while to transform from her rabbit animagus back into a witch. 

Dumbledore nodded. "Take your time Minerva. If you need me to take your second period class, let me know."

The entire hall suddenly burst into excited chatter. "Did anyone know that Beatrice was an animagus?" Asked Harry. 

"She mentioned it to me," said Hermione "When I asked her why she wasn't in potions yesterday. I guess she was working then with McGonagall too." 

"She obviously doesn't have much control over it, does she?" said Edward.

"Well, said Samara hotly. "It doesn't look like you have much control either." She was holding the barn owl that Edward had smacked when it drew blood with its talons. It was shaken and its feathers were sticking up all over. This is the same owl that was burned, isn't it?" She asked. 

Edward wondered how she knew about that.

"What's his name?"

"His previous owner didn't name him," said Edward, nursing his bloody fingers. "He just called him 'Monster bird' or 'Albatross' I've been calling him Demon.

Well, no wonder the poor bird has a complex. Getting burned and then awful names like those. 

"No one can control that bird," said Edward, wrapping his bloodied fingers in a napkin.

"He looks fine to me," Ron observed as he sent Errol to the owlry to get some food and some rest. Samara was calmly feeding the bird from her plate and he was daintily taking bits from her hand.

"You want him? You can have him," spat Edward "The bird's a bloody nuisance. I was hoping he got lost after the train wreck, but no, he found his way back. I'm going to have Granny send me another owl. Excuse me. I'm going to get Madam Pomfrey to fix my fingers."

"You really should send him to the owlry," said Harry. "It's almost time for class."

"But he's so scared," said Samara. "Look at him."

"He looked ravenously hungry and he looked like he was ready to take a bite out of anything that came within reach just for fun, but he didn't look scared to Harry."

"Scared?" said Harry. 

"Of course he is. Look at how fast his heart is beating, and how his feathers are all puffed out." Samara was stroking him with long gentle strokes, and didn't even look at Harry. Her entire attention was on the bird. Harry was, for some reason, reminded of Hagrid by Samara's actions. How could a beautiful witch like Samara remind him of his half-giant friend? It didn't make sense. Then Harry remembered Hagrid doing the same thing when Norbert nearly bit his fingers off—Poor thing indeed!

"Go on," Harry urged. "You can go up and check on him later. He needs some food and a rest." Samara reluctantly sent her new owl to the owlry, and stood up for class.

==

TO MY LOYAL REVIEWERS:

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW MY NEW SUMMARY. Tell me if you think it is better than the old one--or at least if you would read the story from reading the summary. It will also give you some teasers for the next chapters--

Thank you so much for sticking with me. I had some changes I had to make in chapters 15 through 18 because of what's happening later and it held up "production". Thanks for your patience. I should have updates regularly each week at least now. Maybe sooner.

To Reviewers of Chapters 14-15

TO REI K:

You're right needs more Draco. He's on his way. 

You're also right about Angela/Angelina OPPS. She should be Angelina. Thanks for the heads up. I was just too quick on the "Change all" button on WORD. Expect Hermione to become Herman and Draco to become Drake or Drano--No I promise I won't do that! 

TO LAURA LI:

Thanks for the kudos. I write much better when I get reviews.

TO MELBELL

I love that book in the Restricted Library too, but wait until you meet Samara's book

TO CONTRARYTERRI

Yes. I love Snape too. More of Snape coming. Much more. Read my new summary and see if you can figure out what side he's really on.

Muaahahahahaha!

Coming next: Divination, Ginny's Advanced Defense, and a visit to our friendly, neighborhood dark lord.


	16. CH 15: Pieces of the Prophecy

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 15

Pieces of the Prophesy

After all of the excitement of the previous night, Harry just wanted to sleep through Divination. Luckily Ron was called first to read his interpretation of Parvati's vision. He read:

The train means travel, so this prediction means that someone important is coming to Hogwarts this year. The Sorting Hat is tampered with and confused. That also happened. There is one child that is on the Hogwart's Express that the Founders want to find. Each of the Founders claim this child, so that means he will have talents of all the houses. Perhaps that is why the train was attacked to find this child. If the child dies, there is much Darkness. I believe that He-who-must-not-be-named tried to kill this child. When the child is gone, wizards desert one another leaving only one who cannot fly, a muggle, who is also attacked by the snakes. In the end, the Dark Mark over Hogwarts means that He-who-must-not-be-named has won and Hogwarts becomes the Dark school that Salazar Slytherin envisioned. It is an end to the Light, as we know it.

Harry looked at Ron, "I'm impressed," he whispered. "You managed to kill off most everyone. You should get high marks!" 

Trelawney looked ecstatic. She actually clapped her hands. "Oh wonderful interpretation, don't you think, Miss Patil?"

"Uh—I think that perhaps the Dark Lord wanted to kill the child, but since he did not succeed, there is a chance if the Light finds the child and protects him or her, the Light can still win the war."

Trelawney frowned. "Well, perhaps," she agreed.

Harry dozed while several other students shared their predictions. 

"Harry Potter."

"Er-- Oh right. I have my paper right here." Harry began to read:

The train represents time moving forward. We have a limited amount of time to solve the mystery of the child. Of course, we know that the Sorting Hat is involved since it is not working. I believe that the fact that Parvati couldn't see if it was a boy or a girl represents our own ignorance of the situation.

Trelawney frowned. Harry better be careful. He didn't want his true feelings about the interpretation of the dream to interfere with his grade in Divination.

The fact that the Founders argued means that there was some flaw in the hat itself that allowed the sorting to be flawed. If the hat had been working, it would have been unable to detect what house to put the child in. Then, we would have known the identity of this important child. However, as Professor Dumbledore believes, the Sorting Hat has been tampered with—"

Harry paused. Trelawney certainly couldn't argue with that. Dumbledore did believe that the Hat was tampered with.

The child is in grave danger of being hurt not just by one house, but by all of them.

Trelawney liked that line.

The fact that all of the Founders seemed to have equal claim to the child shows that

if the child is killed, or perhaps even harmed, the war will continue until it destroys 

us all. Perhaps that explains the attack on the Hogwart's Express. Parvati said, 

if they destroyed the child, all would be lost. 

The Phoenix represents war. And rebirth, Harry thought, but he didn't say that, because Trelawney only wanted to hear about death, not rebirth. This war is the war between good and evil that exists inside every person and also the war with Voldemort.

Several gasps punctuated his speaking Voldemort's name. He always forgot to say, He-who-must-not-be-named. Harry hated to give in to the fear in his own mind by refusing to utter the name of Voldemort. Harry took a deep breath and continued.

Simply, if the Child chooses darkness, we all die.

If the child chooses the light we have a chance to live.

Our fate rests with this one unknown child.

There is nothing we can do to change it, because as the Founders were trying to pull the child apart shows, if we try to change destiny, it will destroy us.

Trelawney was beaming. She liked that line. Now Harry diverged completely from what he truly believed. He sighed. What one had to do to get a good grade.

Instead of fighting, we should accept our destiny. All should go their separate ways and hide themselves to prepare for the Dark times ahead. Leave the finding of the child to the one who holds the Dark book with the Snakes. There is nothing we can do to stop the Dark Mark over Hogwarts. In the near future, this shall become a school for the Dark Arts as Salazar Slytherin once dreamed."

Harry raised his head and looked into Trelawney's eyes. "We are all doomed," he pronounced and then he sat down.

Trelawney clutched her heart. "That was the most profound interpretation I've ever heard," she said. "I cannot add a single thing to it. I believe you should all go and contemplate your destiny. Class dismissed."

"But Professor," began Parvati worriedly.

"One cannot argue with the fates, My Dear," Trelawney intoned. 

Realizing that she wasn't going to change Trelawney's mind, Parvati hurried to catch up with Harry. "Harry! Harry! Please wait! You're wrong!"

"I know," said Harry blandly.

"But you said. . . ."

"Sometimes the truth must be stretched," said Harry or I'd never keep my great marks in Divination. 

"I got it!" interrupted Ron, waving a piece of paper above his head. "I told Trelawney I had heard of a similar prediction when I was in Egypt in third year, an Egyptian curse. I told her I couldn't get the book I needed because it was Restricted. She was impressed with my efforts, and promised me extra credit!"

Harry took the note and looked at it, smiling. It was dated, but Trelawney had neglected to write Ron's name. She simply wrote: "This student may have access to the restricted section of the library for purposes of Divination research. S. Trelawney. 

"Do you think she knows your name, Ron?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged.

"You lied to a teacher!" Parvati was scandalized. "Both of you!"

"I did not," said Ron. "I heard of lots of Egyptian curses when I was in Egypt and I am going to do Divination research."

Parvati just looked at him amazed.

"Well, part of my interpretation was true," said Harry. "Just not the end."

"Right," Parvati agreed turning her attention back to Harry. "I believe you were pretty much right until after the Phoenix. The Phoenix means death, but it also means rebirth."

"Exactly. My question is, does that mean Voldemort's preoccupation with defeating death—Death Eaters? Or perhaps it means that from our suffering and the ashes of war, we will emerge stronger."

"So what do you think the end means?"

"I wish I knew," said Parvati. "But the snakes frightened me terribly. They were some kind of super snakes with magic."

"Ballistics," said Ginny.

And Harry stared at her open mouthed. "More than one?" he asked, horror filling his thoughts.

"I believe so," said Ginny. "I think—I think—" her voice caught on a sob and Ron moved forward to put his arm around her. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. 

"It isn't your fault," Harry said. 

"What isn't her fault?" Parvati asked. Confusion etched in every worried line of her frown.

"I'm having dreams again," she whispered into Ron's shoulder. "Please—Please--don't tell Mum. I don't want to go back to—"

"Sh-h-h. Hush," said Ron patting her back gently. "We'll find a way to deal with it. We'll get Madam Pomfrey to give you a dreamless sleep potion."

Above Ginny's head, Ron mouthed to Harry. "Go on. Tell Professor Sprout we're coming."

==

Harry waited in vain for Ron and Ginny to show up for Herbology. It wasn't like them to skip a class, unless Ginny had fainted again—

Harry spent the moments between classes explaining to Hermione what had happened to Ginny and Ron. Then, before they could really discuss why these flashbacks were happening to Ginny this year, they had arrived at History of Magic. 

Harry expected that he could mull the whole thing over in his mind, since it was just Binns, and as long as he was relatively quiet, Binns didn't care what he did in class. He didn't even notice if Harry put his head down on the desk and very obviously went to sleep. Harry knew, because he had done it before, and so had some other students including Neville and Seamus, and Ron of course, but something kept Harry awake today: Ron and Ginny had returned. Ginny's eyes were red from crying, and Ron was obviously shaken. What had happened? Harry wanted to know, but as much as Binns was oblivious to sleeping in his class, he didn't tolerate talking among the students, so the questions would have to wait. 

Actually, for Binns, the class was rather interesting. Harry found himself paying attention, and wonder of wonders—taking notes. Binns was talking about the historical beginnings of squibs and the genetics behind their birth. Although, he said, their appearance couldn't always be predicted with certainty. 

Afterwards, Hermione commented that maybe Binns wasn't getting less boring. Maybe Harry was just growing up and realizing the importance of getting good grades.

Harry looked at Ron. "Nah!" they both said together.

== ++ == ++

After class and Quiddich practice on Wednesday evening, Ron, Hermione and Harry were sitting and talking in the common room. Conversation strayed to the prediction and Hermione asked to see the scribbled parchments that Ron and Harry had copied from the restricted books the night before.

"There's a book we need to find," said Harry "but it's not in the library. See this part right here," he said pointing to a section of the spells that were Salazar Slytherin's. "This part was taken from another source. It said it was a translation. I looked for the book it referenced before Quiddich practice today. It's not there. I even asked Madam Pince if I could come back later, because I had to go to Quiddich practice. She let me keep the note in case one of the student assistants were at the circulation desk while she went to supper."

"And I looked too," said Ron. "I didn't want to ask Madam Pince for help, but I took my time and even searched some of the shelves two and three rows away from where it was supposed to be." 

"We have to find these," said Hermione. "Obviously, something was lost in the translation. Did it say what language it was translated from?"

"I don't think so," said Harry. "Do you remember, Ron?"

Ron shook his head. "I'm sure it didn't say."

You obviously didn't look carefully enough for this book," said Hermione. "It has to be there. This isn't the sort of book that would be common reading."

"Come on, Hermione," said Ron. "You aren't the only one who can read a card catalogue, you know. It's not there."

"OK, Let's go," said Hermione. "We're going to find that book that the Sorting Spells were translated from. It has to be there. You just don't know where to look."

Reluctantly, the boys got up and followed her to the library, if nothing else, just to prove that the book was not there!

==

"See," said Ron when they got to the library. "It's in the card catalogue, but it's not on the shelf. Maybe it's misplaced."

"It's not misplaced," said Hermione, "It's withdrawn."

"So what does that mean?" asked Harry. "Is it stored somewhere else?"

"I don't think so,"said Hermione. "In a muggle library when a book is withdrawn, the library usually gives it away or sells it. Sometimes if they are in really bad shape they are burnt or trashed."

"I can't imagine giving away a book labeled "chained and dangerous", can you?" asked Ron.

Hermione shook her head. "It was probably destroyed. We have no way of finding it. You were right."

"Hermione," said Harry. "Look at this date on the withdrawal card—1942—the year the Chamber was first opened. What if our perfect, prefect, Tom, stole the book. Would the library mark it withdrawn?"

"They might," said Hermione. 

"The Malfoys have a lot of Voldemort's old things," said Harry.

"Right, Harry," said Ron. "Let's just ask Draco to go check for us."

"Maybe there's another copy," Hermione said, as she gathered the load of books she always carried. "How about if I owl Viktor and ask him to check Drumstrang?"

"There's a possibility," agreed Harry. 

Just as they were ready to leave, Madam Pince approached them, her thin face beaming. "Hello, Hermione," She nodded. "Boys. I hope you found everything you needed," she said. "I'm so glad that Syb—Professor Trelawney has finally decided to make use of the wonderful resources we have here for Divination. Please tell her that I am more than willing to help her students with their projects. Are you sure you don't need anything else?"

"Er—" said Harry.

"I don't think so," said Ron cautiously.

"If we do, we'll be back tomorrow." said Harry, hastily. "Thank you." 

"What's up with Madam Pince," said Ron after they left the library. 

"Why?" asked Hermione. "She's always helpful. Anyway, I think she's just happy that some of her Divination books finally got opened. Or at least she thinks they got opened."

==++==

After supper on Thursday evening they finally had a little time to look at Samara's book together. It was a beautiful day so they decided to meet outside near the lake to enjoy the last few rays of sun before the cold rain and winter arrived. Hermione brought some other homework and Harry brought the rough draft of his Defense Paper, which he said he needed to recopy. Ron, of course, didn't bring a single book. 

"Are you all done with that Defense Paper?" asked Hermione. 

"As done as it's getting," he replied. 

"So what happy memory did you finally put into the Paper," asked Hermione.

"Getting into Gryffindor."

"You don't sound very sure about that," said Edward. 

"Well, it's not really my most happy memory. That was when Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret," he said, "But I couldn't put that in my paper could I?"

"Who?" began Edward incredulously and Ron filled him in.

"I can't believe it," said Edward, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. " That must have been a sight to see."

"Oh, it was," agreed Ron, "But you should have seen him abut a week later when he was itching for a fight, and Hermione just waves and says: 'Hi professor Moody' He about jumped out of his skin. We called him 'Twitchy' or 'Ferret Face' for a few months after that."

So what about you?" asked Ron. "What's your happy memory?"

"Oh, just, you know, quiet family times. Reading."

"That seems a little weak," said Harry who was the only one who had actually got a patronus before. "It has to be a strong happy memory to defeat a dementor."

"Well, it's stronger than you think," said Edward. "I like the quiet."

"How about you Ginny?" asked Harry.

She blushed hotly. "I'd rather not say."

Harry left it alone, but wondered how if she wouldn't say it to her friends, how she could say it on paper to Snape?

"I'll say mine," Neville replied proudly. "It was when I got 10 points for Gryffindor."

"When was that?" Ron blurted.

"You remember," said Neville hurt. "First year, when Hermione hexed me and you went to find the philosopher's stone? I was going to say when I first did magic, but there was the fear of falling out of the window associated with that. Then I thought that one time I did that shrinking solution right in third year, but I still had Snape breathing down my neck and I was worried about Trevor being poisoned instead of shrinking, so I think this is better."

"You're right," said Harry. "I tried to think of the first time I rode a broomstick as my happy memory, but I thought I might get expelled right after that."

"I'm still not sure what to put," said Joe. "It's between kissing Heather Locke and getting sorted into Gryffindor."

"How old are you?" asked Ron.

"Twelve."

"And you kissed this girl?" Harry could tell Ron was a little jealous.

"Well, she was sleeping beauty in the school play last year and I was the prince, but she had this long hair and long legs." He shook his head. "Too bad she's a muggle."

"Go for the girl," said Ron.

"Hermione?" asked Edward.

"Oh we all know what Hermione's is," said Ron. "It's when she looked at her perfect marks last year."

"No it's not," said Hermione. "It's when I got my Prefect letter this year."

Groans all around.

"Beatrice?"

"It was the first time I knew I could be an animagi," she said dreamily. "I got whiskers."

"Whiskers?" Repeated Harry.

Beatrice nodded. "It took ever so long. I started to think that even though my father was an animagi, I must have taken after my muggle mother, not that I really minded. I love my mum, but I really wanted to be a tiger. Then I got the whiskers. I was sure that my animagi would be a tiger."

They burst into laughter. Beatrice was about as far from a tiger as she was from being a Death Eater.

"What about you Samara?" Beatrice asked to get the attention off of herself.

"It was when I first got my wand to work," she said. "After I took the dust from my Book." She pulled it out of her bag and immediately the crowd got quiet. 

"You know," said Lou. "I think I really need to check on a couple of my facts on Defense, I'll see you later, ok."

"Wait," said Neville. "I'll come with you."

Without a word Joe also stood and hurried after them.

"Anyone else running away?" Asked Samara shortly.

"No." Since Harry was the one who had suggested their looking at the book, he supposed it fell to him to look first. Ron was sitting with his hands clenched in his lap and Hermione looked pale, she was wringing her hands.

"Oh for heaven's sake," said Ginny, taking the book from Samara. "I know that this book is listed at the library as 'alive and dangerous' but this one isn't alive."

"So what killed it?" muttered Ron taking a few deep breaths as if holding back nausea.

"We don't know," said Ginny. "Right here," she opened the book to a page that was stained and shriveled, "Something was pressed in the book. This is the dust that Samara used in her wand."

"Let me see," said Harry determinedly fighting the nausea that threatened to overcome him. If Ginny could hold the book, he could. As soon as his fingers touched the book, his scar exploded into a cascade of white-hot pain. He crumpled and began to retch. He gagged until all of his supper was up and then gagged some more. 

Samara reached for him.

"Don't," he said, equal parts of fear and disgust warred within him. He was disgusted with himself and his inability to touch the book, but a part of him would rather touch Voldemort again than touch that book. In fact, if he were honest with himself, the last time he felt such pain was when Voldemort touched him last year. "I'm going to Madam Pomfrey," he said, thoroughly embarrassed. "I can't. Sorry." He stumbled to his feet.

"I'll come with you," said Ron.

Hermione stood, worried about her friend.

Ron shook his head. "Don't come with us, Hermione," he said softly as he turned to follow Harry.

For a moment, Hermione sat with Edward and the girls "Didn't you say there was another copy in the library?" asked Hermione.

"No," said Samara "Lisa Turpin has it for our class. Professor Binns was a little put out by the fact that the book was out of print. He could only find four of them and there are five of us in the class. I told him I had my own copy but some pages were ruined. He said when we got to those pages, I could borrow his copy."

"Binns?" said Hermione. "He has a copy of this book."

"Well, he's teaching the class," said Edward. "He'd have to have a copy wouldn't he?"

"I don't think the books made anyone else sick, just Harry," said Samara.

"I feel fine," said Edward.

Ginny shrugged. "Me too."

"Well, I'm ok," said Hermione, "But truthfully I feel a little nauseous myself. I wonder if it is the book though or whatever was saved in it—your dust."

"I could trade books with Lisa tomorrow," said Samara. "I'm sure she would agree for a little while. Her book bit her yesterday, and nearly took off her thumb. You have to use a stunning charm to read it and if it starts to wear off look out!"

"OK," said Hermione. "I'm going to see how Harry is, and then I have some things to do in the library."

"I'll meet you there," said Edward as he stretched, his back cracking in several placed before he headed for the library. Samara and Ginny were still sitting near the lake, pondering The Book.

Samara leafed through her book puzzled.

"It's probably nothing," said Ginny.

"It's something," said Samara softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember, I told you I could see auras? Well, when Harry touched my book, the hole—the holes that I healed—one ripped open again."

==

Please review. Your encouragement and constructive criticism keeps my muse happy.

Lady Lestrange

For those of you who are mad at me because Draco didn't get even yet, I PROMISE, he gets even.

Read my summary if you don't believe me. At least one of the quotes is there, but there's something coming soon. Draco just has to wait for the Perfect opportunity.


	17. CH 16: ADADA

SORRY This took so long to get uploaded. Fanfic told me that my Sorting Hat story was a "List" and didn't let me upload until now. So—Three chapters coming in quick succession. Stay tuned. ENJOY.

Lady Lestrange

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 16

A.D.A.D.A.

(Remarks to reviewers at the end. LOVE MY REVIEWERS AND ALWAYS TRY TO ANSWER. PLEASE REVIEW. I NEED YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUGGESTIONS.)

Ginny awoke on Friday, looking forward to the day. The dreamless sleep potion that Madam Pomfrey gave her really did help Ginny to sleep, but Madam Pomfrey refused to give her more than two doses. 

Today was almost the beginning of the weekend and quiddich practice all week had been just awesome. She couldn't wait for the longer practice on Saturday morning. She felt like it was playing at the burrow with the twins as beaters and Ron as the back up keeper. Lyle Applegate really was an awesome keeper though and she liked him in spite of Ron being a little put out about not making the first string team. 

She decided to skip breakfast. The day began with her first ADADA class and she couldn't sleep a moment past the six hours the light dose of dreamless sleep potion gave her. 

Samara was up early as usual. 

"May I borrow your broom again?" she asked Ginny

"Sure," Ginny answered absently, as Samara climbed out of the window and mounted the broom from the ledge, just outside of Gryffindor tower to take the shortest possible route straight to the owlry. McGonagall would be furious if she knew, so Ginny and Samara were keeping that little stunt secret from Hermione. They didn't want Hermione to feel compelled to report them.

On each of the last two days, Samara had thrown on her clothes and was off before breakfast to the owlry to play with Aggie, her new owl. Samara had finally, after much searching, through name books in the library given it the unlikely name of Agamemnon. Ginny couldn't say a whole lot about the name even though she didn't like it since she had named Pigwidgen and Samara said she should have known he would get the nickname Pig. Ginny tried to convince Samara that owls were not so much pets as working animals. All the attention she gave that owl was going to spoil it. Samara replied that after its past experience it needed some spoiling. Anyway, she told Ginny, she had written a letter to her Grandma Lori and was going to see if Aggie would actually deliver it to a muggle address.

"Of course he would," Ginny assured her. "Owls found her when she got her Hogwarts letter didn't they?"

Ginny ran her fingers through her hair and tried to decide whether or not she should wear muggle make up to Advanced Defense. She decided against it and simply pulled her hair back in a tight ponytail.

Then she settled in her favorite overstuffed chair in the common room to read the first few chapters of her Advanced Defense book yet again. 

Ginny had some misgivings about ADADA. Of course, everyone's telling her she shouldn't take it only strengthened her determination. If only Snape wasn't the teacher. Anyone would be better than Snape. She wished Lupin was still the Defense teacher, but she was stuck with Snape. Well, she thought with resolve. Time for class. She gathered up her books and headed to the dungeon. 

==

The other students filed into the class. Edward sat beside her. 

"You decided to take this then?" she asked. 

"I'm here."

The rest of the class was less reassuring. Draco and his gang, Pansy and her gang, Several other Slytherins that Ginny didn't know. Ethan, Edward's brother, who sat on the other side of Edward immediately, engaged him in conversation. Ginny felt extremely uncomfortable, especially when Snape's black, unfathomable eyes fell on her. 

"I've already asked most of the Slytherins why they want to take this class. I have not asked our visiting Gryffindors. No doubt it's their inherent bravery," he sneered as if that were a bad thing. " Miss Weasley?" 

Ginny stood and started to answer Professor Snape.

Address your classmates, he said. 

This was infinitely harder. "I want to learn more about Defense. I've done some --um—well" She didn't know how to say it without making herself look extremely stupid. There was a long silence as she tried to get her thoughts together and failed. "I think it's a fascinating subject," she concluded weakly. 

"Ten points from Gryffindor for your lack of preparation for my class," said Snape. 

"Please, may I try again," asked Ginny. 

Snape nodded. "But if you don't have a considerably better answer, I would think you are grossly unprepared for class, which warrants a detention along with the 10 points. 

Ginny nodded. She should have known he wouldn't let her get away with that sort of half answer. She took a deep breath, and plunged forward. Her voice was shaking with nerves when she started to speak, but it soon gained strength. "When I was a first year, I was pretty stupid—"

Several Slytherins sniggered. "Only when she was a first year?" Mumbled one of the Slytherins that she didn't know, but she ignored him and kept talking. 

"Some of you probably know I opened a diary and it possessed me. The feeling of helplessness that I felt when I couldn't fight it anymore was more appalling to me than—than anything. I couldn't fight it. I didn't know how. I want to learn how. I don't ever, ever want to be that defenseless again. Nothing is more horrible than being helpless." As she looked around at the Slytherins, she found to her surprise, that some of them understood. She could sense their understanding and agreement. A few of the girls were nodding. To her horror, tears had crept into her eyes, but she dared not brush them away or even blink. Perhaps the Slytherins would just think her eyes were shining with passion.

"Be seated Miss Weasley."

"Mister Edward Lestrange."

"I don't know what my brother told you about his reasons for coming to this class. Aside from thinking that Professor Snape is such a brilliant teacher. —"

Some the Slytherins groaned. Ginny got the feeling that if they could have thrown rotten fruit in front of Snape at that comment they would have.

"Get on with it," growled Snape.

"My family has a predominance of Dark Wizards. I don't see how I can fight it. It's in my blood and yet, I think I have to try. I want to be myself. Not some copy of anther Dark Wizard. I have plans for my life and no one; not even Lord Voldemort is going to make me give them up. I will never kiss the hem of anyone's robe," he said with vehemence.

"An admirable sentiment," said Snape, "but not very healthy, don't you think? If you intend to oppose the Dark Lord and survive, you need to be a little more covert, I think. Even so, it is a dangerous pastime. A very dangerous pastime."

Take out your books and turn to page 28.

Professor Snape walked around the room as he spoke. His dark eyes missed nothing. Revealed nothing. Ginny shivered. She wondered for the tenth time, what she was doing in this classroom.

She knew he didn't want her here—her or Edward. He practically told them he expected this to be his own little Slytherin Class, but they were here to spoil his plans. She opened a clean parchment and wrote at the top:

ADADA and then Professor Snape, the date, September 9, 1994 and Page 28. 

"We are skipping the first chapter on dueling," Snape said. "We'll cover it in regular defense class and if you are forced to duel a powerful wizard, most of you are probably doomed anyway. The best thing to do is not get yourself in that situation. You should see several variations of protective wards that can be done with wands and without. The ones with wands are obviously the stronger wards, however they can be done without a wand. Obviously, the power increases with the number of wizards doing the casting. I know most of you have been using wards to protect your personal possessions here at Hogwarts, but these wards are not for possessions, they are to be used on your person. For that reason, if any wizard, other than yourself is involved in the spell, you must be certain of his or her loyalty to you because betrayal will unravel the entire ward. It is not a pretty sight," Snape growled, his eyes bearing into several Slytherins in the front row. 

We will pay particular attention to the Reflective Wards at the bottom of the page. This book limits the ward so that if the enemy casts Crucio, only a paralyzing spell will be reflected. To make the spell completely reflective, you need to change the following . . . ". Snape continued for a few moments explaining the intricacies of changing the spell. While Ginny frantically took notes. 

Crucio? She thought. Did he mean The Cruciatious Curse? An unforgivable curse? If someone was hit by his or her own spell being reflected, could you go to Azkaban? No one else asked, and by the time Ginny got caught up with the notes, Snape was on to a new topic.

"Please note that now we are going to go outside to practice this spell," he said. "It is easier for beginners to pull power from the earth when they are standing on it rather than in a dungeon. Some of you will need to start bare footed, but we will see how that goes once we are outside. I know some of you have done this—well—since before your were allowed to have wands—but this review is unavoidable. We do have some beginners," he sneered, looking directly at Ginny. "We will try not to leave you too far behind."

Snape hardly looked like he cared if he left the Gryffindor's behind. It was obvious he was teaching this class for his Slytherins.

Before we go outside, remember, the most important part of drawing the power is releasing," Snape continued.

Ginny thought about Samara and her book. She knew how to do this type of magic. It couldn't be that hard. She'd show Snape. She was a good as any Slytherin—better.

"Release must be done in the same quantity as the drawing." Snape said. "Do not try to rush things. Take only small amounts at first, until I can check your work to be sure you are releasing completely. It's dangerous if you don't –" Snape stopped talking suddenly.

==

He looked directly at her. "Roll up your parchments, please," He said.

Something had happened in the classroom, but Ginny didn't know what. Several of the Slytherins were gritting their teeth and most were very pale. Blaise Zambini looked frightened out of her wits and Pansy Parkinson reached across the aisle to hold Lauren Avery's hand. Ginny glanced at Edward, but he didn't look at her. His eyes were riveted on Snape. 

Snape steepled his fingers and stared at her. Ginny felt as if a wayward snitch had invaded her stomach. "I believe--I will tell you why you are really here." He said softly. "You are here because our Dark Lord wanted a time when you, as the future of pureblood wizards, could be called together." Snape paused. " I am not your teacher. He is." 

"And he calls—"

Ginny choked. "I think I should just drop this class," she started to stand. "I—"

"Sit down."

She sat, but her hand automatically reached for her wand.

"And don't be stupid," said Snape dryly. "Which of us would you curse?" He motioned around at the class, many of whom were now clutching their left arms, but were still perfectly capable of holding a wand.

Ginny's hand left her wand and she stared at him miserably. 

"She could come with us," Draco suggested through clenched teeth. "A little sport."

Pansy Parkinson gasped and Draco looked at her. Something passed between them in that look, but Ginny didn't know what it was.

Ginny fervently wished she were anywhere but here. "I could just forget this little conversation," Ginny squeaked "And take another class instead."

"No," said Snape "I'm afraid that taking another class now is impossible. There would be questions. Dumbledore would want to know why you are dropping Advanced Defense when you were so excited -- practically drooling to take it."

"Professor," Greg Goyle panted. Beads of sweat had broken out on his brow "Please, can we go?"

"Mr. Goyle, if you cannot handle a little discomfort for your Lord, what kind of Death Eater will you be? Acknowledge that the pain is there, and then put it behind you."

"I can't," Goyle whimpered. 

"Very well, then, outside. All of you. Leave your parchments here."

Ginny looked at him in horror, but stood. 

"I don't know how to apparate," Draco confessed softly to Snape. In a detached sort of way, Ginny noticed that Draco was practically skipping along beside Snape. 

"Neither do most of your classmates," said Snape. "There is a portkey, hidden in the Forbidden Forest."

Ginny weighed whether it would be possible to run. Maybe when they got near the Forbidden Forest—but she never got the chance. As they were passing some of the trees that usually shaded students who liked to study outside, Snape paused. "Here is where we separate," he said. He noticed several of the Slytherin girls edging away. "Wait," he commanded, then, he turned to Ginny.

"OBLIVIATE!"

"SOMNUS!"

==

Ginny was sitting under a tree. She had a splitting headache and Snape was bending over her. "Are you alright, Miss Weasley?" 

"My head," she complained. 

"Understandable," Snape pulled her to her feet. "Try again," he said.

"Try what?"

"Pull the energy from the earth, and let it trickle down you fingers and back into the ground. Next time you feel that you are getting too much, stop pulling and just release, you silly girl." 

Ginny tried, but absolutely nothing happened. 

Snape sighed. " You will have to try harder, Miss Weasley," he said. "We are out of time. "I'd suggest that you practice with Miss Avery or Miss Parkinson," he paused. "No one else," He said. Raising his voice to address the rest of the class, He spoke, "All of you, go back to the classroom and pick up your books, then go directly to your next class, we're running a little late, and I have no intention of writing all of you notes of excuse."

Once they were back in the room, Ginny started to gather her books when Snape appeared at her desk with a potion in hand. "For your headache," he said. "And Miss Weasley, you need a lot of practice pulling energy from the earth and releasing. You are quite pitiful at it. I'd suggest you study with Miss Avery or Miss Parkinson. Both are quite adequate at releasing the magic and could help you if you get into trouble. Do not try to do this alone. If you pull too much power from the Earth, you will be over-whelmed."

"Yes, Sir."

She took the potion without a second thought. It was only when she was half way to the greenhouse that she realized how odd it seemed for Snape to be that nice. Anyway, why didn't he send her to Madam Pomfrey for the headache potion. There had to be an ulterior motive. 

==

Harry watched Ginny walk into Herbology as he pulled on his Dragon Hide gloves. She didn't look ragged from Advanced Defense. In fact, she looked rather happy and well rested. Maybe Advanced Defense was good for her. He of all people understood how frustrating and frightening it was to be unprepared. Maybe he should have taken Advanced Defense himself. No, he just couldn't handle that much of Snape. Anyway, Advanced Charms should prove very interesting. He could hardly wait to start his homework. He had to find an innocuous item to act as a portkey. Strictly speaking, though, making a portkey was an enchantment, a series of interconnected charms.

Harry brought his attention back to Herbology and his Devil's Snare seedpods. It was hard to imagine Devil's Snare as a healing plant, but Professor Sprout said that very minute amounts in a tincture were used in several poison antidote potions. They bound to several well-known poisons and venoms allowing other plants to be used as an emetic. Well, that made sense. The vines certainly bound to Harry, Ron and Hermione fast enough when they encountered it in first year. Harry started to rub his eyes and thought better of it. With the clumsy dragon hide gloves, he could scratch his eyes and who knows what Devil's Snare in his eyes would do. Instead he rubbed his face on the sleeve of his robe. 

"Be careful not to break the pods," Neville warned. "The syrup around the seeds will ruin your gloves."

Harry nodded. "Did that before have you?" asked Harry.

"Twice."

The class continued without incident.

++

A/N: I know. I know. A bit of a cliffhanger, but the next chapter won't resolve it much. I should soon be uploading the next 2 chapters—that's 17—Problems with the Patronus Pensieve and Chapter 18 which is not yet named, but introduces my version of Professor Sinistra, along with Neville's awesome auror parents. I just have to do a last minute check and title chapter 18. 

For those of you who belong in a house other than Gryffindor, be warned that this weekend, Samara will be visiting other houses. Of course you knew that Ravenclaw has an awesome library, but did you know that Hufflepuff has "The Wall" (Chapter 19) and aside from Draco's room, there are other enchanting spots in Slytherin? Read the upcoming chapter 20 "Dancing is an Out of Body Experience" for Draco lovers excitement. And tell me what you think of my Draco—

If you haven't reviewed, please do so now. I promise I will return the favor.

Lady Lestrange

TO MY REVIEWERS:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Liz —At last you reviewed. Thanks. Looking forward to your email.

Elfmoon87

I'm glad you liked Edward's question of "Is Ginny still Ginny?" very observant of you. As far as this being "Deep" Well compared to my DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE I guess it is. I was wondering if anyone else would notice. Thanks. It makes me realize that some of the little things I've slipped into the prophecy haven't slipped by everyone. Just most—sigh.

Phoenix Flight

Now that you've read this chapter, are you SURE you want Harry to take Advanced Defense? Yes, well, I promise to get him armed and ready for his confrontation.

Rei K.

Yes. I promise. Draco chapters are coming. I know. I promised Draco. I'm going to promise MORE right now. With my Draco: You will laugh. You will cry and you will not be disappointed. I will really value your observations of Draco in the next few chapters. Please read on.

Melbell:

I'm being more careful with the dialogue markers than I was. I hope it's all clear. Thanks for reviewing and I'm also glad you like the auras—more about that coming.

Terri:

More Snape on the way. Glad you like him. Keep an eye on him and let me know if you think he's OOC.

IF YOU HAVEN'T REVIEWED. PLEASE. PLEASE DO SO NOW.

Thanks! J 

Lady Lestrange 

++


	18. CH 17: Problems with the Patronus Pensie...

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Some plot lines herein are extensions of those JK started. Thanks JK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 17

Problems with the Patronus Pensieve

At lunch, Samara and Beatrice were bickering about where they were going first this weekend. Because the Sorting Hat was not working properly, Dumbledore decided to allow new students to visit other houses on the weekend. Joe announced that he wasn't going anywhere. He was sure be belonged in Gryffindor.

"Well, that isn't the point," said Samara. "It would just be fun to visit other houses. We'll never get this chance again."

Truth be told, Harry remembered how excited he was to see the Slytherin house common room when they took the polyjuice potion, but that could have been because he was also disguised and the possibility of getting caught was an added excitement. If he had been permitted to visit Slytherin, he wondered if he would have gone. Probably, he decided. Of course, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were different. They held absolutely no interest for him. Hufflepuff was probably boring as a stick and what do Ravenclaws do except read and study? He got enough of that with hanging out at the library with Hermione. That reminded him—

"Hey Lou," he called. "Are you visiting Ravenclaw this weekend?"

Lou raised his eyes from a book he had brought to the table with him. "Hmmm?"

"I asked if you are going anywhere this weekend?"

"Oh no," replied Lou. "Neville and I are going to the library. We're changing pets next week in Transfiguration. I don't want to make a mistake. Neville's letting me borrow Trevor. Plus, we have that research paper on Patonus for Defense."

"Is there any doubt that boy is a Ravenclaw?" Harry asked Ron.

"I don't think so," said Ron. "After he beat me again in chess, I told Neville he has to tell McGonagall."

"And?" questioned Harry.

"Neville said he would."

"He doesn't have to be a Ravenclaw," said Hermione. "Lots of Gryffindors study too, just because you two don't—"

"Hermione," said Ron, "Don't tell me the hat didn't consider Ravenclaw when it sorted you."

"Well—It did," she agreed. "But it put me in Gryffindor."

Beatrice hopped into her seat by Hermione. "Samara said she'll come with me to Hufflepuff," she said excitedly. "I finally convinced her."

"That's good," said Hermione, "But I really don't understand why you wanted her to come with you in the first place. There isn't much chance that she's a Hufflepuff is there? You could have gone yourself."

Beatrice pouted. "But I didn't want to go by myself," she said. "The only problem is, she wants me to go to Slytherin with her later—"

Ron choked on his tea and it dribbled through his nose. "Sorry," he said grabbing a napkin. 

"You can't be serious, Beatrice." Said Harry. "You may never come back from Slytherin. I don't know why Samara wants to go there anyway. She's not a Slytherin. She's muggle born."

"Oh, I know," Beatrice agreed. "She's much too nice to be a Slytherin, but I think—" Beatrice became a little tongue tied and reached for her puffer. "I think it's Draco," she said. "She met him on the train you know, and he flew her to safety, and you have to admit," she looked at Hermione, "He's awfully good looking, even if he scares me a little."

"Scares you!" Hermione shuddered. Just imagining sharing a broom with Draco made her want to puke

Thinking of puking, "I don't think Draco really will want to see Samara, after she cursed him," said Hermione. 

"Hey Hermione," Harry teased. "You better not slap him again. You might have Samara to contend with."

"Slap who?" asked Edward who had just wandered over to the Gryffindor table with his food. He had spent the last few minutes at Slytherin, talking to his brother.

"Malfoy," said Ron.

Edward squeezed in between Hermione and Ginny. Ginny stopped talking to Samara long enough to smile at him. "Hi." She said.

Edward leaned across Ginny. "I hear you're going to Slytherin this weekend," he said to Samara. 

"I thought I might," Samara replied.

"Watch out for my evil twin."

Samara giggled.

"Maybe I'll see you there later. I'm going to Ravenclaw in the morning, but should be at Slytherin before lunch."

"Ravenclaw?" Harry was surprised. 

"I'd check out Ravenclaw if I could," said Hermione. "Padama says they have an awesome library and none of it is restricted as long as you can do a stunning charm and you are not alone."

"Exactly," said Edward who was hurriedly eating his lunch. 

"Well, I have to run. I have to give my Prefect's log to McGonagall before class this afternoon." Hermione said. "She stood and began to gather up her books for class. 

"What!" said Ron. "That little book you've been carrying around with you, deducting points from everyone?"

"I haven't been deducting points from everyone," said Hermione haughtily. "I've given some too."

Ron was still frowning at her. 

"All ready for Defense?" Beatrice asked whoever was listening. 

Most of the Gryffindors moaned.

"Is there any other class?" asked Harry. "I feel like my life is Defense and it's only the first week. Honestly, Ginny I don't know how you do it. Two defenses classes in one day! How was your ADADA class this morning, anyway?"

"OK," said Ginny. "I don't have that many notes. We mostly just practiced using wandless magic."

"Ginny," interrupted Ron. "Everyone knows wandless magic is dark."

"Everyone does not know that," snapped Ginny. She looked at her watch and got up to leave. "I'm going to class."

"I'll come with you," said Edward, even though he had only eaten half of the food on his plate.

Harry watched them go with some reservations. 

"It's OK," said Samara. "Wandless magic isn't really all dark. My book—"

"Your book," interrupted Harry. "Is Dark."

"Hermione doesn't think it's the book," said Samara. "She said—"

"I don't care what Hermione said. She's wrong," said Harry shortly. And he picked up his books and went to class.

==++

Later that day, they met in DADA.

Snape seemed to be in an almost pleasant mood for Snape that is. He didn't even glare at Beatrice when she puffed her puffer. He was almost nice to Neville when he couldn't even get a wisp of smoke to come out of his wand. He said for him to practice with Hermione! "I don't expect a full Patronus yet," he said. "You won't get it on the first try and probably not today, but I do expect an effort. What I am really looking for is concentration. Any bit of white smoke from your wand will get full marks." 

That didn't seem bad at all, thought Harry. Was this Snape?

Then Snape shielded the front of the room with a sound containment barrier and began taking students one at a time to show what they could do. The first was Malfoy. Although they couldn't hear what Snape was saying, they could see him talking to Malfoy. Malfoy shook his head and tried to push Snape away from him. A few moments later, Malfoy came back to the room looking paler than usual, his gray eyes shining. "You can do it," he said to Crabbe. With a sigh he put his head down on the desk and spoke to no one.

Crabbe was next. A number of the students in the rest of the room were looking at the front instead of practicing. 

Snape dropped the silencing charm for a moment, and shouted angrily: "You are supposed to be working!" 

Immediately several streams of white smoke poured from various wands. 

"Bloody hell," muttered Samara. "I thought it would at least last the whole class." She turned to Hermione. "Do you know how to strengthen a cheering charm?" she asked.

Ron choked. "Snape? You tried to cheer Snape?" 

"Samara," said Hermione in a worried whisper. "You can't do that to a teacher! Especially not Snape."

"It's better than setting him on fire," snapped Samara. "And what do you mean, I can't. I already did, but it's wearing off. Oh, I'm so sick of him grouching at us and he really looked like he needed it—"continued Samara, and then she shut her mouth as she noticed Snape glancing her way. It only took her a week of losing points to realize she couldn't win with Snape. She concentrated on trying to get the white Patronus smoke to come out of her wand.

Harry wasn't too worried. He managed to get a patronus even with a real dementor. He should be able to handle this. He spent his time trying to help Neville who was on the verge of hysteria because he couldn't do it now even though he had gotten some smoke to form in the common room. After several more people visited Snape in the front of the room, Harry wasn't so sure of himself. Dean came back looking thoroughly shaken and eating a piece of chocolate. Why would they need chocolate? There was no real dementor. Right?

"Who would have thought it," said Ron. "Snape giving out sweets. Maybe the cheering charm wasn't such a bad idea."

Ron came back looking like he had just escaped from Azkaban or The Forbidden Forest. He sank wearily into his chair. 

"Ginny," he said softly.

Looking white-faced before she even got to Snape, Ginny proceeded to the front of the room. But she returned looking much better. "I got it," she said excitedly. 

"Well, we knew you could do it," Ron said. "You held up a long time under that diary, and after all this is just Snape."

"So what's your Patronus?" asked Harry. "I didn't see it."  


"Ah-h, You're next," Ginny said to Harry. 

Harry walked to the front of the room and stood face to face with Snape. Black eyes bored into green ones. Neither wanted to look away from the other. Potter fingered his wand in his pocket, and at last, his eyes fell on the pensive on Snape's desk.

"Potter," Snape said. "What I have here is a pensieve." Potter recognized that, but Snape was continuing. "Not just any pensive," he said, "but a charmed pensieve. Normally people put thoughts in a pensieve to get rid of them, but not this pensieve. The charm will hold the thought, which you put in the pensive in your mind, just like a dementor would. All you have to do is put your hand on the rim of the pensieve and nothing but that thought will fill your mind. It will hold a single memory and you will look at it, feel it, experience it, while you form the beginnings of your Patonus. Since you have experienced dementors. You know what memory comes to mind when you face them. You have a choice. You can give me that memory to put in the pensieve or a different one, considering your experience last year. I want you to think about it—"

The thought was already there even though Harry tried to push it away. Choking--overwhelming guilt—His fault--His parents dying—Cedric—everyone dying for him—He saw himself as a baby--His father kissed him and gave him to his mother. Voldemort was at the door. His father—raising his wand—against Voldemort—fighting against Voldemort--and Voldemort took the wand—Effortlessly—laughing—

A stunning spell knocked Harry to the floor. "Potter," Snape growled. "I know you can do this, unless Lupin is a liar." 

The guilt lay on Harry like a monstrous rock, pinning him down. Great sobs shook him as he knelt in front of Snape. He couldn't speak. He could barely even breathe, so great was the weight of his guilt. As he gulped for air, another stunning spell hit him full in the chest.

"Get up," said Snape in his low monotone. Somehow the words pierced Harry's consciousness.

Harry looked from Snape to the pensive. "He took my Dad's wand," Harry said. Tears were streaming down his face.

Harry could look at the pensieve without feeling the terrible remorse, without being a part of it. He was sad, but in a detached sort of way, but if he touched it, all that changed. If he touched it, the feelings engulfed him with a ragged intensity that rivaled any feeling he had ever had.

"You need to touch it Potter," growled Snape. "We don't have all day. There are other students in the class."

"I know how to do this," Harry protested. "I could let someone else—"

"Or I could try your friend's 'adhere' charm on your hand. Don't argue with me."

Still Harry hesitated. 

"Potter, you need this more than anyone else in this room. You and I both know that." Snape's voice was low and even, exactly like it was when Harry had overheard him in the library saying give Potter to Voldemort. "We both know that, don't we?"

Still Harry hesitated. Why was this so hard to do with Snape? It was easier with Lupin. But of course then, Cedric Diggory was still alive then too, and he could think about the Quiddich cup without the Triwizard cup trickling into his consciousness.

Snape raised his wand. 

"Don't," said Harry "I'll do it." He tried to still the shaking in his hands. 

With his left hand he reached out to the pensieve. Think about the Quiddich cup, he demanded of himself. Think happy memories. 

More than anything, he wanted to shut his eyes against what he saw in the pensieve, but the charm would not let him. It played the memory of Cedric's death and Voldemort's laughter. He again felt the fear—the absolute certainty that he was going to die here. Then, the gut wrenching feelings of hopelessness were overwhelmed with guilt at Cedric's death. He deserved to die. Too many people had already died to protect him and Voldemort raised his wand. Sudden fiery pain took his breath away, and then it was over.

"Send Granger," said Snape. He dropped the memory back into Harry's mind like a lump of volcanic ash. It burned there, and he wanted to pick at it.

"Did I?"

"A pitiful little wisp of smoke," said Snape derisively, as he cleared the pensieve for the next victim. "Go. Send in Miss Granger. I don't have all day."

Harry went back to his seat. "Hermione, you're next." he said before he sank into the chair and laid his head on the table. His head was pounding. His skin still felt hot. Every bone in his body ached simply from the memory of the crucious curse, and Snape had stopped him almost as soon as Voldemort started the curse. Had Snape realized what was coming? Of course he did, Harry thought, He could see the pensieve. A horrible thought assaulted him. What if he couldn't do the patronus any more? Cedric wasn't in his memory when he had done this with Lupin. And how on earth could he hold any happy memory through the memory of the crucious curse? He couldn't even stop shaking now, from the memory of the flames of crucio—and it was just a memory. How could his pitiful Quiddich cup memory be strong enough?

"Neville?" said Hermione in a small voice as she returned to her desk. 

Harry glanced up at his friend. "Are you alright?" he asked Hermione. 

She nodded. After a long silence they both glanced up at the front where Neville and Snape were. It was obvious that Neville was sobbing. Like with Harry, Snape seemed to have to convince Neville to put his hand back on the pensieve. Amazingly, a solid spout of white smoke shot out of his wand.

Eyes red and face blotchy from tears, Neville returned to the class. "Edward," he said, and promptly fainted.

==

Liz: 

Elementals are in quite a number of fantasy books not just RAGWITCH. They are rather like unicorns, dragons and centaurs—no one can really claim them. So no, the idea of Elementals didn't come from there. I did change my disclaimer somewhat per your suggestion. Thanks. I'm glad I have your curiosity running. Keep reading.

Ilwinterhofal

Little surprise in ADADA wasn't there? More surprises on the way. Keep reading. And poor Ginny doesn't know—yet. What will our little Gryffindor do when she finds out? Hummm?

Rei K

OK let's see. How can I explain a little more. The Dark Lord called them. Various members of the class left to go to Voldemort. Ginny was made to forget and go to sleep under a tree. We learned the memory spell second year—Oblivate. Somnus was in JK's book but reviewed last DADA class. 

Snape is obviously not telling Dumbledore some of the things he's had to do to keep the Dark Lord thinking that he's on the side of Voldemort. And well, he's not telling Voldemort about those library conversations he's having with Dumbledore either. Very thin ice, our dear Severus is treading. As far as Ginny—Poor dear—she should have known better than to take a class with all those EVIL Slytherins. 

Phoenix Flight:

Darling, Ginny wasn't alone in the Chamber—Ginny is NEVER alone—No matter what they did at St. Mongos. And no, Ginny is not the only non-Death Eater in the class. Looking forward to the field trips in this class, are we??? I know I am.

A/N: NEXT CHAPTER: Meet Neville's awesome auror parents—OK you don't get to see all the awesome stuff yet, but you will. Find out why Neville really is so un-Gryffindor at times. And more of our favorite teacher, that we love to hate, Snape, and various Slytherins…


	19. CH 18: In Remembrance

Disclaimer: All Potterverse belongs to JK Rowlings. Also, since this is meant to be a 5th book, all previous plots of JK's are built upon. Certain plot references herein, are extensions of JK's original plot line. Thanks JK. 

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 18

In Remembrance

"Professor?" said Hermione, as Harry and Ron came over to Neville to assist him. "Professor Snape, excuse me, Sir?" She started for the front of the room, where Snape was working with Edward, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder. 

"Wait, Hermione. I don't think I'd interrupt him right now."

"Nonsense." She pulled out of Harry's grasp and proceeded to the front of the room. She could now see through the barrier at this close proximity, but she still couldn't hear. What she saw was enough. The pensieve Edward was looking into was crawling with dementers—thousands of them, by the looks of it. Hermione shivered even though she was not that close. She turned and went back to Harry, Ron and Neville, pulling her wand out of her pocket as she went. 

"Ennervate!" she said, and Neville blinked awake. "Are you alight?" She asked. "I've never done that spell on a person. Only on animals."

"I'm fine." Said Neville with a strange haunted look. "I've never done that spell on a person either. Only on devils—I mean animals."

"Neville," interrupted Ron. "What's wrong? What did you see? If it will help to talk—"

"Not for talking," said Neville. "Mum. Mum's the word—"

Harry guessing what Neville had seen in the pensieve, put a supporting hand on his shoulder. Harry's own parent's death was one of the nasty memories he had to relive when faced with a dementer. He understood. "Neville, " he said, "It's no shame to be upset. I saw my parents, in front of Voldemort—your parents—"

"I don't--know my parents," said Neville, with a frown.

"Don't you go to visit them—I mean—er—on break—"

Neville thought about it for a minute. "No. I mean, I guess I do. I don't know—Where are they?"

"St. Mongos!" Ginny interrupted suddenly. "Didn't you know?"

A look of total horror passed over Neville's face. It was instantly replaced by a look of total indifference. "Oh yes," he said. "I—ddid—magic—first time—when—when—the window--

"When your uncle dropped you out of a window, right Neville?" said Ron. "You told us."

"Yes," said Neville with relief.

"Then you used that as your happy memory after all," said Hermione. "Did it work? Did you get a patronus—did any smoke come out of your wand?"

"Awnd?" Neville said in a little squeaky voice. "No. The smoke just went into the wand. She sucked it right out."

"Mr. Longbottom," said Snape as he directed Edward back to his seat. "Please come here."

"I did. Already," whined Neville.

"I'm aware of that," said Snape. "Come here. The rest of you are dismissed."

"Let's wait for Neville," said Ron.

This happened to Neville before," said Harry softly to Ron and Hermione. "Remember in DADA last year when we were studying Crucious Curse? Afterwards, Neville wasn't speaking sense."

  
"I remember," said Hermione. "What do you think he saw in the pensieve?"

"The same thing he remembered when Moody crucioed the spiders," said Harry. "He saw his parents—"

"My Mum went in to see them when we were at St. Mongos," said Ginny with a shudder. "I never knew—

"So after Moody's class last year--" said Harry thoughtfully. "He didn't stay babbling for very long. What did he do? 

" He went to have tea," said Hermione. "With Moody."

"Not Moody," whispered Harry.

Harry and Hermione both hit on the same thought at once. "Crouch!"

"And Crouch was one of the Death Eaters that was convicted of torturing the Longbottoms!" Said Harry.

"And you know this--how?" asked Ron.

"I'm sure Harry read the papers about his parent's death," said Hermione. "It was all over the Daily Profit—for weeks afterwards—all the Death Eater's trials—"

"Hermione?" questioned Ron.

"First year," she said with a blush. "I looked up the old papers, after I learned who Harry was—Sorry Harry." 

"It's ok," said Harry, happy not to have to explain that he saw Crouch's trial in Dumbledore's pensieve. After all. He had promised not to.

Neville came out of the classroom looking pale, but not as frazzled as he did a few minutes ago. 

"What did Snape want?" asked Ron.

"J--just to tell me, to come b--back –"

"Back? After Apparition? For what?" snapped Harry. "A detention?"

"No," said Neville thoughtfully. "I d--don't think—"

"He can't do that!" said Ron.

"We'd better hurry," said Hermione. 

Neville was looking into his bag confusedly. "I t--think I left my Dark—De—Defense b--book-- Oh no, here it is."

Hermione who was peering into the bag with him, noticed a glowing red ball. She said, "Neville, has that rememberall ever worked right?"

"Well," said Neville. "It always gl--glows r--red, but then, I'm always for—g--getting s--something. I—I w--wonder w--what?"

"Can't be your homework," said Ron. "We haven't had this class yet." 

They paused for just a moment before entering Professor Sinistra's Apparation class.

"Come in, come in," she said. "Don't hover at the door, like a bunch of post owls." Harry's impression was of no nonsense kind of teacher rather like McGonagall, but with a bit of a sense of humor. He didn't know what house she was in. She was a petite woman with fine blonde hair and very pale blue eyes. 

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville all sat together. There was not much chance to talk, but Hermione wrote on the top of her note parchment—_I have an idea._

The class was almost an even split of Gryffindors, Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs—all fifth years. Samara and Beatrice were not in the class. Neither were Edward and Ethan. Malfoy was there with Crabbe, but Goyle was conspicuously absent. The houses seated themselves in neat little groups. None of them mixed.

"You may sit in these seats," said Professor Sinistra. "But the first time I catch you for any transgression, you will lose the privilege of sitting by your friend. There will be no second chances in this class. After all, you don't get a second chance to apparate, if you botch it.

All of you who are here, had to receive permission from your transfiguration teacher to be scheduled for this class. If you cannot consistently transfigure objects and animals, you cannot apparate, so for those of you who are missing friends, there is nothing I can do to help you.

Apparition is a tricky subject. Unlike other subjects, it cannot be taught exactly from a book". 

Hermione glanced over at Harry to see him smiling at her.

You can learn theory from a book. You could write down all the right answers on a test that I give and still not be able to apparate. Some wizards grow to adulthood and never learn to apparate. That is because apparation is a state of mind as well as a magic.

Who knows what the word sorcerer, means?

Hermione's hand shot into the air. 

Sinistra looked at the rest of the class, who were sitting quietly taking notes or listening. Sinistra nodded to Hermione. "For today, please say your names before you answer," she said. "That way, I will learn your names."

"Hermione Granger: The word Sorcerer came from the word "source" which means all there is. A sorcerer draws on his own source of power; therefore one who could draw on the source is a sorcerer.

"2 points, to--what house child?"

Gryffindor. 

"Very well then, Gryffindor. 

Can someone tell us some of the possible places we might look for our source?

"Inside ourselves. Wizards and witches," said Lisa Turpin, and collected her two points for Ravenclaw.

The Elementals," said Draco Malfoy. 

"And those are—?" Asked Sinistra. Draco started to answer, but Sinistra had already moved on. 

"Susan Bones. Earth, wind, fire and water," answered Susan.

"Very nice. 2 points to Slytherin and 2 points to Hufflepuff" She nodded at both Draco and Susan.

Sinistra settled herself at her desk and looked at the class. "This is the most important point you need to learn to apparate. The space and elements around you seek to help you. You are master over all of the animals—even the magical ones—because only wizards and witches have the ability to apparate—objects, animals or yourself. The wizards that do best at apparition have a bit of an attitude. Their arrogance doesn't allow them to fail. I guarantee that if you can transfigure a cup into a turtle, you can apparate, but some of you won't believe me, and that is your downfall. 

Simply put you dissolve an object to it's molecular level, which is similar to transfiguration, summon it, which is a kind of charm, and reform it where you wish, which of course is again transfiguration with some obvious changes. We will begin with objects, progress to animals and when you are proficient enough to manage that; we will attempt human apparition, with some safeguards. The mistakes most often happen at the reforming level. That is when you fail to reform part of the object or yourself. In the case of people, any failure to reform properly is called splinching. It is not usually easily correctable by another wizard; just like failed transfigurations are not usually correctable by another wizard. Mistakes are made for one reason and one reason only—lack of resolve on the part of the wizard. It is essential that you concentrate in this class. 

Only about 20 percent of you will actually learn apparition in this class. There is only one reason why the rest of you will not learn. You will give up. You will quit before the spell is finished. I will warn you now, in my class, if you fail to apparate an animal you will care for whatever it becomes, until it dies of natural causes—

Sinistra's hazel eyes flashed fire, as she looked at the Slytherins. "And there will be no mercy killings," she said. "When you make a mistake, you take responsibility for it. Now. We will begin."

She placed a cup in front of each of the students. "I want you to transfigure the cup into a turtle."

Everyone in the class got the transfiguration on the first try.

"Very nice. You are all able to apparate. How many of you believe me?"

A few hands hesitantly went into the air—mostly Ravenclaws. One hand belonged to Hermione, but Ron and Harry kept their hands down afraid that Sinistra might ask for a demonstration. Harry noted that Draco had raised his hand.

"He probably already knows how," commented Harry in a whisper. "Has to apparate to Voldemort, doesn't he?"

Ron sniggered.

Sinistra walked through the rows telling some students, to transfigure the turtle back into a cup, but she told everyone different colors, and she paired the students with another student across the room. Hermione was paired with Lisa Turpin. Ron was paired with Justin Fitch-Fentley and Harry, predictably was paired with Draco Malfoy. 

"Now," said Sinistra. "I want those of you with turtles in front of you, to look at your partner's cup. Transfigure it into its composite molecules, summon it to yourself and then turn it back into a cup."

There was quite a lot of crashing cups breaking on the floor, and some people, Harry included, let the molecules slip through his fingers somehow and couldn't properly form the cup in front of him. It became a red puddle instead of a red cup. Hermione also seemed to lose something, because although her cup looked right, it was not completely solid. 

"Hey look," said Draco snidely. "The mudblood made a ghost cup. Maybe you can give it to Nearly Headless Nick as a deathday present." 

The class chuckled, but Professor Sinistra was not amused. "2 points from Slytherin. Didn't I just say that lack of confidence is the reason why many fail to learn apparition?" She said. "I will not have students taunting one another in my class. Let's see yours, Mr. Malfoy." 

Draco managed to bring the cup to himself and transfigure it but the handle was missing.

Sinistra said nothing, but Harry couldn't help but snigger. "Doesn't look like you did much better, Malfoy," said Harry. 

"There will be no disparaging remarks in this class, Mr. Potter. "None. If you cannot encourage one another, keep your mouth shut. Understood?"

Harry nodded. 

"2 points from Gryffindor."

Sinistra continued to walk around the room helping people for a while. No one as yet, managed to wholly bring the cup to himself or herself. Then Sinistra suggested the unthinkable. "While your partner is doing the spell, I want you to encourage them. Tell them that you know they can do it. Tell them that they are gathering up all the molecules and drawing them close to themselves. If they seem to be having trouble concentrating, you can put up a silencing shield for them. You may move closer together if you wish, but physical space has nothing to do with it. Begin."

Harry raised his hand. "Professor Sinistra, I think Draco and I would do better with different partners. We are not exactly supportive of each other."

"No," she said shortly.

"But professor—"

"Mr. Potter, these are not arbitrary partnerships. According to the cast of the runes, as well as tarot, these are the best partners I can give each of you. Now, choose who will begin, and begin." She turned away, leaving Harry with a rather disgruntled Draco. 

"I didn't choose you either, Potter," said Draco. "I would've rather had the mudblood. She's smarter."

"I would have rather had Neville," spat Potter.

"Fine. I'll go first," said Draco.

"Yeah, better hurry up and learn to apparate, faster to get to the Dark Lord," said Harry.

The cup dropped and shattered on the table. Draco put his wand under Harry's nose, and Professor Sinistra was suddenly beside them repairing the broken cup. "Try again," she said.

Harry waved his wand and the cup vanished. It was like liquid in his mind. It felt untouchable, like the invisibility cloak, he struggled to hold on to all of the pieces. "You can do it, Potter. Just like you accioed that broomstick last year—It's coming together."

"No, thought Harry. "Like he acchioed the Tri wizard cup last year. He HAD TO do it, to bring Cedric's body back and save himself. Suddenly all the pieces were there and the cup was sitting in front of him.

"Bravo," drawled Draco. There was no other sound. Draco had erected a silencing shield for him and coached him.

"Thanks," Harry said, a little uncomfortable to be in Draco's debt. 

"Don't' mention it. My turn." Draco dropped the silencing shield and the noise of the room came crashing back. 

"Can't concentrate with all this noise," complained Draco, and Harry put up another silencing shield for Draco. "This isn't hard," said Harry. "You can do it, Draco. Pretend it's someone you care about—in danger—" Harry was thinking how easy it would have been to escape the Chamber of Secrets if he could have apparated, but apparently, Draco had some form of reference too, because the cup literally snapped itself into form in front of Draco.

"Draco," Harry asked curiously. "Who were you thinking of—"

"None of your business, Potter," Draco sneered. "No one. I'm just better at this than you are—"

Draco raised his wand and smashed down Harry's silencing shield. He stalked over to Professor Sinistra. "I've got it," he said. "When can I start on animals?"

"It will be a while yet," said Professor Sinistra. "Right now, I'd like you and Harry to join one of the teams that's having trouble and coach them."

Harry ignored Draco as he headed back to the Slytherin side of the room. Harry went to help Neville and Terry Boot. Terry went through all the calculations involved in changing the cup, which actually made Harry a little queasy. 

Neville, red-faced was stuttering. 

"Neville," confided Harry, "If I had looked at all those numbers, I would have never gotten it back to me. Just relax. It's no harder than simultaneously doing a transfiguration and a summoning spell. You can do both of them."

Neither Terry nor Neville had managed to bring the cup anywhere near themselves. They were no closer to success, when the class ended, and Neville's stuttering had gotten worse. He could barely string two words together. "I sh—sh—shouldn't be here," said Neville. "I c-can't do this."

It was only when class was over, that Harry realized the only people who had managed to bring the cup intact to themselves was Draco and him.

==

Neville was walking with them, but once they reached the Great Hall, Hermione asked, point blank, "Why are you stuttering like this, Neville?"

"L-like what?"

"You did this before," said Harry. "When Barty Crouch masquerading as Moody showed us the crucious cruse. Remember?"

"No," said Neville hesitantly. "B--Barty?"

"I don't like him going to Snape like this," said Hermione.

"I have to—" said Neville.

"Go with him, Hermione," said Harry. "Keep the dungeon door open for me."

"What are you going to do?" asked Hermione. 

"Cloak," whispered Harry, who took off for Gryffindor Tower at a run. He usually didn't like to use the Invisibility Cloak during the day. Too many people were around and it was hard to walk without inadvertently running into someone, but this was an emergency. Running through the corridor when you could be seen was difficult enough. Running when you were invisible was impossible. Harry walked as quickly as he could down the stairs from the dormitory. Ron opened the portrait hole for him and he hurried to the dungeon. Hermione was standing in the doorway of the dungeon talking to a very annoyed Snape.

"I just wanted to ask one more question about the patronus," she said. "If it is usually an animal, is it possible to be a magical animal?"

"Yes," Snape said in exasperation. "I really need to talk to Neville, now Miss Granger. Good-bye."

Harry managed to brush by her under the Invisibility Cloak, just before Snape pushed her out and shut the door. 

Snape led Neville back to the pensieve. "I saw something in your pensieve that I didn't expect to see," he said. "I want to see it again."

"No," whined Neville. "I really—"

"I removed the charm," interrupted Snape. "You will not have to remain within the memory like you did before. Just watch it, not live it."

Neville started to cry.

"Stop sniveling," snapped Snape "And come here!" 

Neville did as he was told, and with Snape's help he siphoned off a thought just as Dumbledore had done. Harry moved closer, still under the Invisibility cloak, to see the thoughts in the pensieve.

++

__

In the penieive, there was a blinding flash of light.

"**Crucio**!"

When Baby Neville opened his eyes two more men were lying on the ground, but his parents were also on the ground: twitching and crying. 

The bad people were hurting his Mum and Da. They asked questions and everytime they spoke, his Mum and Da would cry out like babies.

"Mum-mum-mum-" Baby Neville, in the pensieve, cried fretfully.

Baby Neville could tell that the bad people were hurting his Mum and Da—If they weren't hurt, they would come when he cried—he cried to a long time and no one came—His frustration gave way to anger. They were supposed to come when he cried. His cry rose to a screech of uncontrollable rage and the sitting room window shattered.

++

Snape looked at Neville in wonder.

++

__

The sounds in the room dropped to silence except for Frank and Anne Longbottom's moans. "They have a child," said Narcissia, staring at the broken window. "A son. Draco's age. I'd forgotten."

"That young?" said the one they called Barty. With one more glance at the broken window, he said, "I'll find him."

Baby Neville hiccuped and sucked his thumb. 

Finally, Valeriana put her wand against his mother's stomach. "Leave Frank alone," she said. "Maybe he will tell us more if he's watching his wife suffer—**crucio!**"

His mother's cries echoed in his ears. 

****

"Crucio!"

They didn't sound human anymore.

****

"Crucio!" 

Surely that wasn't his mother? 

****

"Crucio!"

His father was sobbing and whimpering. "Stop. Stop. Please. Stop."

They stopped. Only his mother's ragged breathing was heard. She began to cough and spat clots of blood on the carpet. She lay, twitching uncontrollably, her hands clenching and unclenching.

"Tsk. Tsk, Valeriana," said Narcissia. "Too rough. We don't want to kill her before we get the information. You'd better let someone else take over."

Lucius put the point of his wand under his father's chin. "Where did the Ministry Muggle lovers take Our Lord?" he asked menacingly.

"I don't—" Lucius spun around and pointed his wand at Mum**. "CRUCIO!"**

==

Tears were running down Neville's face_. He_ was sobbing, and Snape was completely ignoring him. If Harry ever wanted to curse Snape, it was now. The cold-hearted son of a --

__

Suddenly the pensieve rippled as if a strong wind had blown across it. 

"There!" said Snape excitedly. "That's it."

What? Thought Harry. What did Snape see?

"Neville, it's blocked." Said Snape. "It's a memory charm. If we can just—" Snape turned toward Neville, but this was a Neville that Harry had never seen. His wand was raised against Snape and his eyes were glazed. "Impervio!" he snapped. Snape, never expecting anything like this from Neville, was hit squarely with the spell—a spell, that the old Neville never would have been able to control. "You were mistaken." Said Neville, his wand trained on Snape. "You saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just auror torture. No point in making this child suffer more. Tell him to go."

"Yes," said Snape. "Just auror torture—"But already, Snape was reaching for his wand. Harry realized that Snape was no longer controlled by Neville's, Impervio, if indeed, he ever was—With a quick flick of his wand, Neville's glazed look vanished. 

"I have the pensieve ready," said Snape, as if Neville had just entered the room. "It's not charmed. You won't have to stay in the memory like you did before. And you won't need your wand."

Neville looked at his wand in confusion. He had no idea why he had it in his hand. 

"Put your wand away, and come here," snapped Snape.

"No—" protested Neville. He started to cry.

"Stop sniveling," Snape's voice dropped to a menacing whisper. "And come here! NOW!" 

Neville did as he was told. With shaking hands and Snape's help he siphoned off several thoughts just as Dumbledore had done. Harry, still under the Invisibility cloak, watched thoughtfully. 

Neville had put his hands over his eyes. He was silently crying while standing beside Snape. Snape ignored him, his eyes on the pensieve.

++

__

In the penseive, there was a blinding flash of light.

****

"Crucio!"

When Baby Neville opened his eyes two more men were lying on the ground, but his parents were also on the ground: twitching and crying. 

The bad people were hurting his Mum and Da. They asked questions and everytime they spoke, his Mum and Da would cry out like babies.

"Mum-mum-mum-" Baby Neville said fretfully against the mutus charm, but no sound was heard.

Baby Neville could tell that the bad people were hurting his Mum and Da—If they weren't hurt, they would come when he cried—he cried to a long time and no one came—His frustration gave way to anger. They were supposed to come when he cried. His cry rose to a screech of uncontrollable rage and the sitting room window shattered.

The sounds in the room dropped to silence except for Frank and Anne Longbottom's moans. "They have a child," said Narcissia, staring at the broken window. "A son. Draco's age. I'd forgotten."

"That young?" said the one they called Barty. With one more glance at the broken window, he said, "I'll find him."

Neville hiccuped and sucked his thumb. He was suddenly exhausted, but did not sleep. He watched the people who were hurting his parents. In his little baby mind, he sensed this was important—

Finally, Valeriana put her wand against his mother's stomach. "Leave Frank alone," she said. "Maybe he will tell us more if he's watching his wife suffer—**crucio!"**

His mother's cries echoed in his ears. 

****

"Crucio!"

They didn't sound human anymore.

****

"Crucio!" 

Surely that wasn't his mother? 

****

"Crucio!"

++

__

The pensieve rippled and then cleared. "Professor," said the fifteen year old Neville. "I want to stop. Please. Let me—"

"Just a little more," said Snape. "Do you know why you want to stop?"

Harry clenched his fists. Of course, Neville wanted to stop looking at this. Only a sadistic son-of-a-bitch like Snape would enjoy watching this.

++

__

Frank Longbottom was sobbing and whimpering. "Stop. Stop. Please. Stop."

They stopped. Only his mother's ragged breathing was heard. She began to cough and spat clots of blood on the carpet. She lay, twitching uncontrollably, her hands clenching and unclenching.

"Tsk. Tsk, Valeriana," said Narcissia. "Too rough. We don't want to kill her before we get the information. You'd better let someone else take over."

++

"Please. Please. Let me—quit," Begged the fifteen year old Neville. "I don't want to see this again." Neville was crying uncontrollably. 

Snape was completely unmoved. 

"Please—" Neville reached out and touched Snape's sleeve. Snape shoved him away, as if he'd been burned. "Shut up! You little brat, and let me think. And you call yourself a Gryffindor? Stop Sniveling and pull yourself together!"

Neville wrapped his arms around himself and hiccuped as he tried to get control over his sobs. He looked and sounded remarkably like the one year old version of himself in the pensieve.

"Do I have to look?" Neville asked.

"Yes," said Snape shortly.

Harry's hand had gone to his wand. If Snape didn't stop soon-- But then he hesitated. What did it take to break a memory charm? Harry wished Dumbledore were here instead of Snape. Why hadn't Snape sent Neville to Dumbledore? The awful truth hit him. Snape wanted to know what the memory was before he gave it to Dumbledore and the side of light.

Snape turned back to the pensieve. "Just a little more Neville. You can handle it. If it helps your parents, you can do it, can't you?"

Neville sniffed and nodded. They turned back to the pensieve.

+++

__

Lucius put the point of his wand under his father's chin. "Where did the Ministry Muggle lovers take Our Lord?" he asked menacingly.

"I don't—" Lucius spun around and pointed his wand at Mum. **"CRUCIO!"**

"Albania," breathed his father. 

"It's a big country," said Lucius. 

"I don't know where!" moaned his father. "I swear—"

"I believe him," said Desmond Lestrange.

"One way to be sure," said Narcissia pulling a small vial from her pocket. "Veritaserium."

She pulled open father's lip and dropped some into the space between his lip and his clenched teeth.

"Why--Why didn't you use it before?" Da croaked.

"You've turned too many of our friends over to those Azkaban monsters," said Lucius softly. "You've got a long way to suffer before you die—"

"Tell me how much you know about our Dark Lord," said Desmond. Da began to speak, but it didn't sound like him. He sounded far away and so sad—

+++

__

The penseive rippled wildly. "No. NO. NO. NO." Neville was inconsolable, his wand in his hand. 

Snape stunned him, and took the wand, placing it out of reach on one of the far desks. Neville dropped to the floor, crying. "I don't—even remember them," He sobbed. He was shaking, but now, somewhat in control.

"Do you know what I'm looking at," said Snape as he stared into the blank, silvery pensieve.

"It's b—ad. Evil. They knew—He-who—who—who—"

"I know who," said Snape. "What else do you want to tell me?"

  
"Mum-mum-mm. Said. Safe. Not—not-ss-ssafe."

"O.K.," said Snape. "I understand. "We're not going to talk about that anymore."

Neville breathed an audible sigh of relief, and put both hands on his forehead. "Hurts," he said.

"I know," said Snape. "I know what if feels like. You're babbling. That's good enough for me. Rest for a moment. Then we will try again."

"NO! I won't!" Neville began to screech uncontrollably and the glass in the front case of Snape's cupboard shattered.

"**_Somnus_!"** pronounced Snape and Neville immediately dropped off to sleep. Snape left him lay where he fell, and did **_Repairo,_** on the cupboard. Then he went back over to the pensieve. He waved his wand over it, and the silvery blank space was bypassed. Snape and Harry looked at the next part of the memory while Neville slept--Harry from his vantage-point under the Invisibility cloak and Snape, by touching the contents of the penseive and entering the memory.

==

__

Baby Neville couldn't see any more. A black robe blocked his view. "I've found the child," said Barty Crouch. "I can't get him out. He's protected."

"Let me see." The woman, Valeriana came over and stared at the now visible Neville. He looked into her hooded black eyes and was afraid. She examined the wards for a moment and then pointed her wand at him to open the wards. "**Rescindo**_," she said and although the fire of the spell rolled around the outside of his hiding place, the spell was not broken, and Neville stayed inside its protection. _

"Avada Kedavra, would get through it," said Barty.

"Be my guest," said Valeriana gesturing. "He's an auror's child and until I know what he's protected by, I'm not trying Avada. I don't want to end up like my sister."

Barty nodded. "I guess you're right. These children are dangerous."

Valeriana sighed and stooped down to Neville's level. "Hello, little wizard," she said softly. "Get the Mother."

Barty dragged Neville's mother over to his hiding place, but Neville did not think she looked like his mother. No one was still living inside of her body. Her eyes were as smooth and blank as a lake on a clear day. "Your son needs you," Valeriana hissed. "You have to open the ward. He's going to starve to death! No one will find him!"

His mother stared at him unseeing. "Mum-mum-mum-mum" said Neville plaintively, but no sound came out. The others could see his lips moving and encouraged him. His mother did nothing, but occasionally twitch or moan. Once she shivered all over and opened her mouth and screamed. Baby Neville began to cry.

+++

Harry put his hand over his mouth to keep from crying himself. It was intolerable for Neville to have to see his parents like this! Snape was sitting unmoving and unemotional beside him. Since his consciousness was within the pensieve, Harry had no idea how all of this was affecting Snape. Knowing Snape, he probably didn't care at all.

+++

.

__

"She's useless," spat Valeriana, pushing her aside. "OK little wizard. You are going to have to do this yourself."

"Are you crazy?" asked Desmond. "He's a baby. He can't do magic."

The pensieve flickered again and went silver. 

Snape emerged from the memory. He looked absolutely horrible. Harry had never seen him look so worn and tired. Dark circles were under his already dark eyes, and he looked like he had lost about thirty pounds in the last ten minutes. He rubbed his skeletal face with his long fingers, and reached for his wand. **"Dissimulatum aspectum,"** he murmured and Snape looked more like his usual self. Harry stared, open-mouthed. Snape had just done a glamour charm on himself and then he awakened Neville. "Help me to see this, Neville," said Snape. 

"What?" Neville looked at the pensieve and for a brief moment it cleared.

++

__

"Have you had a good look at the window?" said Valeriana, glaring at her husband. "All I need is a crack." Valeriana sat next to him for the next half-hour coaxing him to reach for a stuffed owl, a magic rattle that showered sparks like a wand, a cookie, a bottle—

++

It went silver again, and Neville was shaking like he was freezing to death. "Hurts," he croaked. "I—I—I—couldn't—" He shut his eyes and covered his face with his hands. Then he raised his face and held out his hand.

"Accio!" cried Neville and his wand was in his hand.

"Expelleramous!"spat Snape.

"D—D—id I just try to—OHH!" Neville covered his mouth with his hands and whispered, "I'm sorry—I"

"You're more of a wizard than we thought, aren't you, Longbottom?" snarled Snape as he pocketed Neville's wand.

"What h—happened?" asked Neville. "I d—idn't d--d--o it on purpose."

"I know. Someone doesn't want us to see the next part of the memory," said Snape. "And we do want to keep you in one piece, Neville. Dumbledore is so fond of his Gryffindors. Fragile little things that they are--let's try to speed this up—shall we? I would like to get some dinner and go to sleep tonight. How about some nice memories to get you relaxed. Let's go back to the evening before—say three hours before the Death Eaters came—Maybe your parents will tell us what you cannot."

Snape pulled Neville's wand out of his own pocket and handed it to him. Neville took it hesitantly.

"This should be easier," said Snape.

Neville nodded.

"Can you speak now?"

"I c-can," Neville stuttered.

"Do you know what information your parents were tortured for?"

"Where—where was the D-D-Dark –LL—"

"What else?" said Snape. "There was something else."

Neville tried to talk, but not a single word would come out of his mouth. He nodded furiously, and then covered his face again sobbing. "Hurts," he muttered.

"It's OK," said Snape. "Maybe your parents will tell us something—earlier"

Snape helped Neville take yet another memory from his temple and put it in the pensieve. Neville looked a little calmer. He had dried his eyes and wiped his face with his handkerchief. He seemed to be breathing easier, which made Harry feel a little less apprehensive.

++

__

The toddler awoke and looked at the mobile like illusion that had been magiked to entertain him, but today it didn't distract him from the cold, ugly fear that filled his child's heart. Baby Neville Longbottom started to cry. "Mum-mum-mum-mum-mum-" he sobbed.

Almost immediately he felt his father's warm arms surround him. He snuggled against his father's bare chest, his tiny hands gripping the dark hairs that grew there. It was as if his father had been sitting beside his crib waiting for him to awaken. Indeed, Frank Longbottom had been awake and troubled. He shifted the baby to his left arm and tucked his wand into the waistband of his pajama bottoms because he didn't have a pocket and tonight he wanted his wand nearby.

Neville sniffed and blinked his large blue eyes at his father. "Da—"

"Shh-hh-hh."

"Awnd!" said Neville reaching—

"Yes, that's Daddy's wand," said Frank readjusting his son in his arms so he couldn't reach the wand.

"Mum-mum?"

"Mum's asleep," said Frank Longbottom as he settled himself in the rocking chair by the fireplace and cuddled his only son. "As you should be, my little lad."

"No," said Neville.

"Yes," his father contradicted.

"No, seep."

"Yes, sleep. Sh-h-h-"

Neville and Frank watched the fire in silence for a few minutes. Then Neville lifted his head from his father's shoulder. "Foo," he said.

"Floo," Frank corrected automatically.

"Foo, Maam-Ah."

++

Neville chuckled softly at his baby voice. "I—h—h--ad a dr—dream," he said.

"I surmised as much," said Snape softly. "They should have listened to you."

++

__

"No, floo," said Frank pushing his son's head against his shoulder. "We're not going anywhere tonight. Go back to sleep."

But Neville didn't go back to sleep. "Mum-mum-mum-" began Neville getting louder and louder and louder—

"Frank?" called Anne Longbottom from the bedroom, "What's wrong?" Rubbing her eyes she wandered into the sitting room.

"Neville woke up," Frank said.

"But you were already awake, weren't you?" asked Anne softly. "What did you dream, Frank?"

"Nothing. Just a feeling," said Frank Longbottom. Anne who had long ago learned to trust her husband's feelings returned to their bedroom and retrieved her wand. She put it in the pocket of her night robe and together they sat in the room. Talking softly, so as not to disturb Neville, they waited.

"It should be over," Anne said.

"It's not," replied Frank.

"But Voldemort is defeated. I can hardly believe it. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes—"

++

"I didn't know your parents were there at his defeat," said Snape. 

Neville didn't answer.

++

__

"Do you think Narcissia and Valeriana are going to let their sister's death go unavenged?" Interrupted Frank.

++

Harry sucked in his breath. Narcissia? He thought, as in Draco's mother?

++

__

"Well they should. She was trying to kill a baby! What kind of sick—"

"Sick is right," interrupted Frank. "But that doesn't make them less dangerous."

__

What are they going to do? Take out their frustrations on the Potter baby? If they do, they may be just as dead as Laurel. I wonder what spell Lily Potter did to protect that child? It's certainly awesome."

Frank shook his head. "I don't know, but I wouldn't want to try to kill him. The reflective curse not only killed Laurel. It reduced Voldemort to something—" Frank shivered. "Lower than a slug."

++

Harry crumpled a handful of the Invisibility cloak in his hand. He knew about Voldemort, of course, but he never knew about Laurel. He never knew that he—or his mother's protection-- had killed someone. He was so distracted that he almost missed the next sentence spoken by Anne.

++

__

"Do you really think that Voldemort was possessed by the soul of Salazar Slytherin?" asked Anne.

"From what I've heard of Salaazar, I don't think he had a soul," said Frank, "But it doesn't matter what we think. It only matters that the fanatics believe it. They will try to find Voldemort's remains. I'd bet galleons on it—"

"The immortality," said Anne. "That part was right at least."

"I don't think I'd want to be alive if I had to live out my days in the thing that Voldemort was left with—You didn't see him. I pity the wizards in Albania who are charged with finding a way to imprison him."

Anne shivered. "I think he's formed his own prison." They sat in silence for a while, admiring their perfect baby boy, whose eyes were finally drooping.

"What happened to the Potter boy?" asked Anne. "Did Dumbledore really send him to live with muggles?"

++

"Me," thought Harry. "They're talking about me."

++

__

"That's the news at the ministry," said Frank. "But it's all very hush-hush—Dumbledore's afraid Voldemort's followers will still try to kill him. His mother's spell gives him some protection as long as he's with her relatives, and Dumbledore's not sure what part he plays in Trelawney's prophecy. He went to see her to find out."

"_Where's Sybil living now?"_

Frank shook his head. "I don't know. Somewhere secluded where her inner eye is unclouded."

"Too bad there isn't a place where her brain is unclouded," quipped Anne.

Frank snorted. 

++

And so did Neville. It was all Harry could do to keep from laughing himself.

"Do you remember anything about Salazar?" asked Snape, and the laughter died from Neville's eyes.

"Ju—just that he was a S---S—Slytherin. And one of the F—founders of Hogwarts."

++ 

__

A silence followed. The only sound within the pensieve was the sound of the rocking chair moving and the growing howl of a cold November wind. 

"I'd hate to see that Potter child raised by muggles, Frank."

"Me too."

"He's just Neville's age," said Anne.

"It's not that Dumbedore wants him to be raised by muggles. It's that he wants the boy to be safe."

"There are a lot of places in the wizarding world which could be safe," spat Anne.

"Such as living with two aurors, perhaps?" said Frank with a twinkle in his eye.

"Perhaps," she said moving behind Frank and rubbing his tense shoulders. "Why don't you lay Neville in his crib," said Anne. "He's asleep."

There was a flash of light and a soft pop outside that had nothing to do with the wind—followed by another and another and another—

++

Neville froze a look of terror on his face. "They're c—c—coming."

****

"Finis," said Snape., with a wave of his wand. "I think it's time for you to go get something to eat. It has to be almost supper time."

"P—Professor. Why don't I re-re-m-member them?" Neville was shaking uncontrollably. "My parents—"

"You will," said Snape. "Now that we know. It will just take time, and I think you're at the end of your endurance today. Come back on Monday after classes."

"Know w--what?" asked Neville.

Snape didn't answer. "Come back on Monday, after classes." He repeated. With a wave of his wand, he produced a pot of tea and added a potion to it. "Now, drink this." Snape said. "And I'll see you on Monday."

Afterwards, Neville paused at the door, and Harry slipped by them. "Professor," he said. "Thank you. I want to remember my parents." 

==

When Neville got back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Ron and Hermione were waiting for Harry to come down from his room. "Want to go to dinner with us?" asked Hermione. 

"Sure," said Neville cheerfully. "Have you seen Lou around?"

"He's at the library with Edward," said Hermione. "They'll be here shortly."

"So what did Snape want?" asked Ron, as Harry came down from the dormatory.

"It was strange," said Neville. "We just had a cup of tea and talked about my parents. I think he was worried about me." Neville shook his head. "Maybe there was more to Samara's cheering charm than we thought."

"It couldn't have lasted that long," said Harry. "Are you sure Snape was—er--Cheerful?

"Well, just nicer, I guess." Said Neville. "It had to be the cheering charm."

Ron shrugged. "Let's eat," he said. "I'm starved. "

++


	20. CH 19: The Wall

  


Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. References to happenings in the past, are JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 19

The Wall

Saturday morning dawned with a chilly fall rain obscuring the sunrise. Samara still went to the owlry to see Aggie and bring her some tidbits of food that she had saved from supper last night, but she didn't stay in the chilly rain. She was glad she didn't have Quiddich practice although Ginny seemed actually excited to play in the rain. I don't know who the beaters will be though. Fred and George aren't back –Ginny paused trying to make herself say the euphemism that Dumbledore had used for their covert excursions to the ministry. They aren't back from their 'fieldtrip' yet." Ginny said. Ginny yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Still not sleeping well?" Samara asked.

"No. I wish the twins were back."

Samara frowned. They had left on Wednesday evening. It was already Saturday. She hoped the twins were all right. She liked them. "I'll probably see you at supper," she said softly as she headed out to breakfast. "I'm eating with the Hufflepuffs this morning and the Slytherins for lunch."

"Still time to back out of going to Slytherin," said Ginny, opening the window for the tapping Errol.

"Why would I want to do that?" asked Samara. 

Ginny frowned. 

"What is it?" asked Samara. "Bad news?"

"No. I guess not. It's from my Mum. She's just worried."

"About what?" asked Samara. 

Ginny handed her the letter.

++

Dear Ginny;

Congratulations on making the Gryffindor Quiddich Team! Try not to gloat to your brother. I'm sure Ron had been insufferable since you made it and he didn't. Hopefully quiddich practice will tire you out enough that your will sleep well and not need any more potions.

Your father and I received a standard missive from the Infirmary informing us that Madam Pomfrey prescribed two days of dreamless sleep potion. Such potions are not given to students without parental permission or knowledge, but the missive gave no other information.

Ginny, Dearest, if you are having nightmares again, you should have told us. We should return to St. Mongo's for additional treatments or at least to be sure that the previous protections are still in order. 

We only want what is best for you. Owl if you need anything.

Love

Mum and Dad

++

"So what are you going to do?" asked Samara. 

"Tire myself out with outrageously strenuous quiddich!" said Ginny.

Samara laughed. "See you later, then—"

==++==

Samara realized as she put several sausages on her plate that most of the Hufflepuffs near her were obviously vegetarian. 

Seeing her hesitate, Justin Fitch-Fetchley said, "Don't let it bother you." He put a bite of sausage in his own mouth. "I love animals as much as anyone, but it doesn't interfere with my meals."

Samara smiled. "Don't worry," she said. "It doesn't bother me." She piled three more sausages on her plate.

Conversation drifted between various craft projects each was doing to drawing and painting and then to music.

"Well, of course, Beethoven was a wizard," said Susan Bones. "How else could he write music when he was deaf."

"What I don't understand," said another Hufflepuff "Is why he didn't see a healer."

"I heard he was a little like Trelawney," said Hannah Abbot. "She has an inner eye. He had an inner ear."

"We all have inner ears, Silly," said Susan Bones.

Little chuckles broke out and Hannah Abbot seemed genuinely hurt and applied herself to eating her breakfast. 

"Oh dear," remarked Justin to one of the other Hufflepuff boys as he refolded his copy of the Daily Profit: I know some of you exchange Wizarding money for Muggle money at Gringorts. Listen to this:

Ministry Money Swept Under the Rug

In a closed meeting today, Minister Cornelius Fudge was questioned about the appropriation of funds from

The World Quiddich Cup last year. Although an entire year has passed, no new evidence has been found to

Determine what had happened to the muggle money that was lost or stolen from Gringorts Wizarding Bank. 

The Bank continues to assert their innocence while the Ministry asserts theirs. Allegedly, in a heated meeting of fingerpointing and insults, Fudge went so far as to threaten to curse Dakon Gar, the Goblin President of the Bank. The goblin had suggested that Fudge be subjected to veritaserum. 

In addition to the World Quiddich Cup Money, rumors of smuggled Flying Carpets came to the attention of the ministry, and several goblins were suspended from Gringorts. The said Carpets were never delivered, or perhaps they were delivered to another location, but funds were removed from the Ministry Account at Gringorts nonetheless. 

When asked for a comment, Minister Fudge said that obviously one or more of the Goblins are embezzling money from Gringorts. He doesn't blame all of the Goblins, but he stated, apparently, Dakon Gar is hiding something or protecting someone. When asked if wizards should be concerned about their money in the Wizarding bank, Minister Fudge downplayed the entire situation saying he feels that it is one or two corrupt individuals and that Gringorts is still the safest place for Wizards to keep their money.

"Doesn't effect me," said Samara. "My parents' money is in a muggle bank, but if I were the Malfoy's I might worry."

After a while, Susan asked if they were ready to tour Hufflepuff Hall. There were a few other students from Ravenclaw and Susan, as the Hufflepuff Prefect was conducting the tour.

Beatrice was talking with Sally Anne Picks about Care of Magical Creatures, and Samara moved closer to listen. "Even though Mr. Hagrid was a Hufflepuff," Sally said, "I really didn't like blast ended Skruets."

"Mr. Hagrid," interrupted Samara. "Not Professor Hagrid?"

"Yes, Mr. Hagrid used to teach here. He wasn't actually a professor because he never graduated. He was expelled from Hogwarts, but two years ago, they found out he was innocent."

"Innocent of what?" asked Beatrice.

"Of setting a monster on the students," said Sally.

"So he could get his degree if he wanted to, now, right?" said Samara.

"I guess so. It's a little late," said Susan. "He's teaching now, anyway, so what does it matter."

"Well, of course it matters. It's never too late for what you really want," said Samara.

"Saturday," said Susan Bones as they approached the two suits of armor that flanked the entrance to Hufflepuff House. The crossed lances were moved and the door opened.

"That's your password?" said Samara. "It's pretty simple isn't it?" 

"Well, just for today," Said Susan Bones. "We don't want anyone to forget it. That would be so embarrassing."

"So you change it daily," said Beatrice. "That's wise."

"Anyway," continued Sally, "I thought the Hippogrift was really exciting. I was glad that Hippogrift who was supposed to be killed got away. In fact I asked Professor Sprout to put him on the Wall just because he was so beautiful, but she said 'beauty doesn't get you on the Wall—only hard work, perseverance, and loyalty.' Well, I told her, Mr. Hagrid was certainly loyal to the hippogrift and I even think he had something to do with its escape."

So finally, Professor Sprout agreed. "I've just started painting it. I hope it will be done when Mr. Hagrid gets back."

"It's the greatest honor," said Susan Bones.

"And where is this Wall that—" Samara stopped and gasped as they entered the Hufflepuff common room.

The beauty of the mural took her breath away. Covering over half of the common room wall was a painting of such complexity that it appeared real. Samara noted a large shaggy-looking man with bushy black eyebrows and a mane of black hair that was blowing wildly about his face. The man was bowing politely to a huge creature. The creature, apparently the Hippogriff, was looking ferociously at the man. Its head was finished, but it's wings and body was only sketched in ink. Even half done, the creature looked magnificent. 

"Oh Sally," said Samara in awe. "You painted that creature? You are right. It's beautiful."

"Thanks, Samara," said Sally self-consciously.

"The Wall depicts Hufflepuff history since the beginning of Hogwarts." Said Susan. "We always try to find Helga."

Samara was reminded of a muggle book that she had as a child where you had to find the little fellow in the red and white shirt. Since many of the Hufflepuffs were dressed in yellow robes, finding any one yellow robed Helga was considerably harder.

"Look for the green," suggested Susan Bones. "Helga's usually somewhere near Salazar Slytherin."

"What?" Samara stared in surprise. Everything she had heard in Gryffindor Tower about Salazar Slytherin had not suggested that he would look twice at a Hufflepuff.

"She loved him," Susan said. "Whether he deserved it or not is—Oh! There he is!" 

Indeed Salazar scowled darkly at them before ducking into a small green door and pulling young and giggling Helga into a dungeon room. He slammed the door.

"Not very friendly is he?" said Beatrice.

"What Slytherin is?" countered Susan.

"That's not true," interrupted Sally Anne hotly. Her mousy brown curls bobbed as she sprinted back to face Susan. 

Susan rolled her eyes. "Except for Vincent," she said sweetly. Then explaining, she continued. "Sally Anne asked Vincent to go to Hogsmeade with her next weekend."

"Hush. Don't tell everyone," said Sally Anne.

"Vincent?" questioned Beatrice. 

"Vincent Crabbe: he's the big guy that hangs around with that snake Malfoy." Susan explained.

"Sally asked him?" said Samara. 

"Well, shrugged Susan. "He's really very shy. Actually, he hardly thinks for himself without Malfoy."

  
"He does SO think. You just don't know him," snapped Sally Anne. Her hands were clenched in tight little fists and she looked like she was ready to launch herself at Susan.

"OK, OK," said Susan "We know, love is blind."

They started to turn away from Sally.

"Wait!" She said, her large brown eyes pleading with Samara. "Please don't mention me in Gryffindor Tower. Draco Malfoy doesn't approve of us dating and Vincent told him we broke up."

What a coward! Thought Samara, but she kept her disparaging thoughts to herself. It's not Malfoy's business, is it? The more Samara heard about Draco Malfoy, the less she liked him, and yet the stories and the person himself didn't seem to match up.

"Well," Sally's pale face blushed. "My father is a muggle, so you can't blame him."

The Crabbes are a very old wizarding family and—"

"You're kidding me!" spat Samara annoyed.

"Um--Oh look—" cried Susan directing everyone's attention back to the Wall. "It's Cedric Diggory!"

Everyone paused to look at him as if he were the house icon. Samara had to admit he was good looking in a bland sort of way. He waved and winked at the girls, before mounting his broom and flying off toward the Quiddich pitch.

After discussing Cedric's actions of last year for a while and silently mourning his death, Beatrice and Samara completed their tour. Afterwards, they went back to one of the craft rooms where some of the boys and girls were making shirts.

"I have an idea for a shirt," said Samara. Beatrice helped her with it and when it was finished, it depicted a beautiful caricature with soft brown curls and big eyes. She was holding a wand and when she waved it, the color of the shirt changed from yellow to green. Silver and black letters blinked "Muggle-Born and Proud".

Samara tried to present it to Sally Anne, but Sally looked at her in horror and ran away.

"I expected that," said Beatrice.

Samara shrugged and they proceeded to change the shirt. Samara drew the hair longer and darker like her own. Beatrice added the shirt colors red and blue as well as the Slytherin and Hufflepuff colors. Then they added the appropriate letter colors of gold and bronze.

"Should we make one for you too?" asked Samara. 

"We don't have time if we're going to eat lunch with the Slytherins."

"OK," said Samara. "We'll come back and make one for you. I'll bet Hermione Granger would wear one too."

"I'm sure she would," agreed Beatrice.

"I'm ready to go." Samara's eyes twinkled "Just let me change my shirt." She pulled the new T shirt over her head and kept her robe partially open.

"You're not going to Slytherin like that, are you?" asked Sally Anne.

"Sure," said Samara. "Why not?"

Susan giggled. "You should sit by Malfoy."

"Oh, I intend to," said Samara.

==

A/N: You all know where she's going next! Exciting. Let's see what trouble Samara can get into in the Slytherin Common Room—or do you think she'll stay in the Common Room—hmmmmmmmmmmm.

I can think of more interesting rooms than that I think. Yes. Oh yes. DON'T TOUCH THAT MOUSE.

More fun is on the way.

Lady Lestrange

If you haven't REVIEWED, PLEASE. PLEASE. REVIEW. I need your input. It really helps me to write more.


	21. CH 20 Dancing Is An Out Of Body Experien...

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 20

****

DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall. Up next, Samara's visit to Slytherin House.

On to the Chapter…

****

Chapter 20

Dancing is an Out of Body Experience

As they approached the Slytherin Table in the Great Hall for lunch, Edward came forward to meet them. "Where have you been?" he asked, "I was looking for you."

We were at Hufflepuff. Making tee shirts," Samara replied opening her robe to show him her handiwork.

"You are never going to get out of Slytherin alive," he predicted. 

"We'll see. I don't think they're all as tough as everyone makes them out to be."

==

Edward introduced them to his brother and some of the girls. Beatrice feeling a little short of breath took a puff of her puffer. Most of the Slytherins looked disgusted at this show of weakness, but Lauren Avery moved over a seat. "You can sit by me," she said. "I was wondering, how does that puffer work and why don't you just drink a potion?"

"Well, the medicine goes into the bloodstream much more quickly when it is inhaled. It works almost instantaneously. Beatrice continued to explain as Lauren and Pansy exchanged glances.

"So is one puff equal to a glass of potion or several milliliters?" asked Pansy.

"Can you put anything in this puffer?" asked Lauren.

"Well, within reason," replied Beatrice. "If it were anything toxic that wouldn't be very good."

"Of course not," said Pansy quickly.

"And as far as concentration," said Beatrice "It can be much less concentrated than most potions because of the delivery system. The stomach acids always destroy some of most potions." Beatrice seemed to be happily chatting with the girls, so Samara pushed her robe closed and headed over to Vincent Crabbe. She put her head near his. "Sally sends her love," she whispered.

He froze with the mouthful of food in his mouth. He didn't swallow. He didn't chew. He just looked cautiously at Draco.

"What is it?" Draco asked annoyed.

"Oh I just wanted his seat," said Samara.

"Why?" Draco's eyes narrowed.

Vincent was already moving and Samara slid into his seat.

"Because I wanted to sit by you," said Samara sweetly.

"Why?"

A few minutes went by as Samara filled her plate. No vegetarians here, she noted.

"I wanted to apologize," said Samara.

Now, Draco looked at her. She could feel the assessing quality of his gaze. "Why?" He asked yet again.

Samara chose to misunderstand. "Well, for my—um--your being—uh—under the weather."

Draco grimaced. "No," he said. "I mean why are you apologizing. You meant to curse me."

"Yes, I did," agreed Samara, "But I didn't mean for it to last for a day and a half."

"Fifteen hours. Fifteen minutes," said Draco.

Samara grimaced. "Well, I'm sorry," she said.

Draco ignored her.

Samara took a few bites of food, waiting to see if he would speak. He didn't. Samara sighed. "You're supposed to say, apology accepted."

"Humph."

Samara decided to try once again. "I know we didn't start out too well—" she began.

Draco looked up his aura suddenly alight. "If I remember correctly," he said in a low voice, we started out fine. It was after you started hanging out with Potter and his gang that the problems started.

For just a moment, Samara felt the intensity of his gaze, and everything changed. When she was in Hufflepuff and even in Gryffindor she could think of him as a little twit, but right now, she could feel the waves of power emanating from him. Sure, some of them were sexual, but most was just pure charisma. People would follow him, for good or for ill, he was a leader. A little thrill of the unknown coursed through her.

Apparently Draco took her silence for assent. "We could kick Greg and Vincent out of my room," he said softly.

"I don't want to do that," said Samara.

"Liar." A crooked smile was on his lips as he stood and rubbed his thumb against her bottom lip. "You have a bit of sauce, right there," he said.

"Liar." She said. 

He kept his thumb against her lips, waiting she knew, for her reaction—for her to suck the sauce, real or imaginary, from his thumb. She just grinned at him, so he reached for a napkin and wiped his thumb before offering her his arm. "Allow me to conduct your tour of the Slytherin dungeons," he said. 

"Sure," said Samara. She called out to Beatrice. "Ready to tour Slytherin?"

"Feeling like you need a chaperone?" whispered Draco, his eyes locked on Beatrice. 

"No." she answered. "But I asked Beatrice to come with me to Slytherin."

"Pansy, come with us," said Draco tightly.

Pansy glanced from Draco to Beatrice to Samara. 

Samara had the feeling that a practical form of telepathy had just taken place. At the very least, Pansy seemed to sum up the situation, rather well. "Hey Draco, she said, with just a little annoyance. "We were in the middle of a conversation here. Maybe we don't want to come. What do you think Beatrice, girl's dorm or grand tour?"

"Girl's Dorm," Beatrice said immediately. "You don't mind? Do you Samara?"

"Of course not," said Samara, "But Beatrice, are you sure—I'll meet you—"

"Back in Gryffindor Tower," Beatrice said. She smiled brightly at Samara. "Have fun." 

Samara realized that Beatrice had just effectively negated her promise to come with her to Slytherin in exchange for Samara going to Hufflepuff. She had only made it as far as the Slytherin lunch table, and Samara doubted that she would really go to the Slytherin girl's dorm. Furthermore, she managed to do that with a smile on her face. You had to admire that. 

With Draco's arm around her waist, they started for the door. "So where do you want to go first?" Draco asked Samara.

"Oh, I don't know, I—"

"I think we should start right from where we were on the train," he said suddenly. His arm tightening around her and his lips descending upon hers. Just before his lips touched hers, Samara saw something in his eyes that didn't look like love or desire. It looked like hatred.

It was impossible for her to fully enjoy this kiss when she knew he had some ulterior motive. She tried to push him away, but her effort was weak. His lips felt too good on hers. Practiced, she thought suddenly. Everything inside of her was turning to liquid heat, and her logical mind seemed far away.

Suddenly, Draco released her and his arm slipped from around her to hold her hand as if he didn't want her to run—or smack him. His eyes were looking at someone across the Great Hall.

"Who are you looking at?" she asked, turning.

"Potter." Harry had turned away and was leaving the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. Suddenly the kiss became clear and Samara didn't appreciate being used to annoy Harry Potter.

"Draco," she said evenly. "Fifteen hours wasn't enough. Next time it will be more."

"Next time, I'll block," he said grinning at her. "Now, where were we going? My room, right?"

"No," Samara answered with a smile. "With that persistence, it's a wonder you weren't sorted into Hufflepuff.

Draco broke into gales of laughter at that. Samara had to laugh too. 

Neither of them noticed the looks of disbelief and amazement that the Slytherins were giving them.

"I know where I'll take you," he said at last. "I have a feeling, you'll appreciate it."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Come on." They went to a blank and unremarkable stretch of wall in the dungeon. "Salazar," said Draco and he touched the wall. A doorway appeared where there had been nothing but a blank stone wall before and several stone snakes hissed at them. Draco silenced them by laying a hand on one of their heads, and Samara, accompanied by Draco, entered the Slytherin Common room. "By the way, that's just the temporary password while we have visitors. "So don't expect to use it later, and if it's not accompanied by a Slytherin's touch—"

"Why would I want to?" interrupted Samara.

Draco shrugged. Instead of staying in the common room with Edward, Ethan and the two other boys who had come from Ravenclaw to visit, Draco, holding his wand, went to an alcove that held a sneering picture of Salazar Slytherin. He had a large snake wrapped around his shoulders. It seemed to be sleeping. Its eyes were closed. 

"**Apertum Pseudothyrum**,"Draco said and a small green door under the picture opened. Samara was looking at a dark tunnel leading straight down. Draco had to duck his head to get onto the stairs. 

Samara hesitated, wondering at how many unlikely objects, Draco had muttered the incantation: "Open the secret door" before he found this place. She grinned. She wondered when he did it. Probably at night, otherwise, everyone in Slytherin would have thought he had gone barmy.

"Come on," He was pulling her hand.

"I can't see the stairs," Samara complained. 

"There are thirteen," said Draco as he started down them.

"It's dark," she said still holding back.

He stopped. "Scared?"

Samara didn't speak. She wasn't going to grace that question with an answer. She pulled her wand from her hair "Lumos," she said.

The tunnel wound down the thirteen steps, across a hallway and down some more steps. Samara was hopelessly lost. Even in the dim wandlight, Samara could see Draco's aura shining and changing: It was a deep and vibrant red. Whatever he wanted to show her, he was terribly excited about it. He paused in front of a large stone door. He put his hands on it and concentrated. Obviously, this was no simple Alohomora spell.

At last, Draco raised his head and ran his wand around the edges of the door. It opened. A flickering light was coming from within. There was yet another set of steps, which Draco hurried down. This time, not waiting to see if she followed. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she stood in silent awe. The room was huge and basically empty, but it wasn't dark. Various bits of color floated in the air. Magic had been done here. Old and powerful magic. She could feel remnants of every emotion from terror to bliss. It felt like her Book in a room—and more.

"Draco?"

"Lumos," he said. The colors vanished before the light. "I'm here," he said. He had kicked off his shoes and was standing bare footed in the dirt. His aura had deepened even more to a swirling mass of maroon and violet, but several dark spots marred its beauty. 

Samara came to stand beside him. "Nox," she said softly. 

"Nox," Draco repeated and the colors of the room returned, chaotic and fragmented.

"Do you feel it?" Asked Draco in a hushed tone.

"Oh yes," said Samara. "I see it." 

Draco caught his breath.

Samara suddenly knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to dance. She kicked off her shoes and felt the cool earth between her toes. As she began to move, she called the fragments to herself and they formed into drops of dew, then long streamers like shining ribbons that clung to her. She raised her arms and felt the magic running down them to the Elementals again. She moved it, carding it and weaving it into something that was not there before something wild and wonderful. She dug her toes into the cool soft earth and reached for the magic and the dance. She began with a ballet that she had learned in the muggle world. At first she was the maiden dancing for Kostchei, the Deathless and then she was the Princess with the darkest hair dancing for Prince Ivan. Unlike any dance she had done in the muggle world, she felt afire with the magic as she danced the magical title role—She was flying. It was intoxicating. She had to release—release---and release again.. Fulfilled, yet spent, she lay with her cheek against the dirt. It smelled fresh and alive and cool against her hot skin. She felt wonderful.

When she finally lifted herself from the earth, she found herself looking into Draco's steely gray eyes. "What have you done?" He asked softly, not in anger, but in wonderment. 

"I—" Samara was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. Although the silence deepened, there was no feeling of discomfort—no rush to speak. 

"You've made it yours," he said at last.

"I suppose I have," Samara said, pulling her eyes from Draco's and looking around at the room. "At least I've added my magic to what was here before." She paused. "Draco, why did you bring me here?"

He moved closer to her, but still did not touch her. She wanted him to touch her. The scent of him reached her nostrils--the sound of his heartbeat—the rich red-violet of his aura—unhurried and sure. "Why did you dance?" he whispered.

As she searched for an answer, she looked at the Room—the fragments of magic--the Earth at her feet—anywhere but his soft searching eyes. How could she not dance? When she felt the music with every fiber of her being—When she felt so full of magic in this place—"I don't know," she said. "It just—called to me—"

"As it calls to me," he breathed against her hair. "I knew," he said. "Even before I cast the runes. I knew you were the one to share this with." His lips brushed her temple—her cheek. Waves of heat seemed to emanate from him, or perhaps it was just the magic of this place. He caught her in his arms and kissed her cheeks. Her neck. Her mouth. "Make it ours," he whispered against her lips.

His mouth was hot and insistent on her skin. For a moment, Samara gave into the delicious feelings, but as she felt his hands brush the clasp that held her robe, fear flooded her. He couldn't see that tee shirt now. It was practically sacrilegious. 

"No." She backed away from him clutching her robe. "I can't," she lied. "I'm too tired. I gave too much to the dance."

The shadow of a frown crossed his face, but it was instantly erased. He was unused to being denied. Nonetheless, he took her back into his arms and relented without asking her a second time. "Then later." He said. "I understand." 

Pride would have some part in that, thought Samara, but then would he ask her again? 

"And until then, every time I come into this room I will be immersed in your magic." He murmured against her hair. 

After a few moments he released her. "Are you ready to go?" he asked impassively.

Would she ever be ready to go? She thought, but she nodded. "Yes," she said. As they reached the bottom of the stairs that would take them back up to the common room, she paused. "Draco," she said, and he stopped. She felt so guilty about that stupid curse. It was just her quick temper and now, she wanted nothing to spoil this afternoon. "I just wanted to say. I'm sorry again—about—about"

To her surprise, he started to laugh. 

"Draco?"

He chuckled and shook his head and then he reached down and picked up a handful of dirt from the floor of the Room. "Close your eyes," he said. 

Obediently she shut her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Quiet! I need to think." He took both of her hands and poured a small amount of the dirt in a thin line along one palm and the rest of the dirt he put in the other hand.

"Draco?"

"Still and quiet," he demanded. She felt the magic growing in her hands as he murmured a spell she didn't know, but she knew immediately what was in her hands—a flower. She opened her eyes to see a lavender rose.

"Oh it's beautiful," she said, closing her hand around the stem and cutting her palm on an overly long thorn. "Ouch! You're supposed to take off the thorns," she complained.

"Oh, no," said Draco. Taking the rose and examining it. Isn't it a marvelous piece of work that can produce such beauty and softness as the petals and such dangerous thorns in the same plant? No, a rose without its thorns would not be half as intriguing.

"I'm not sure I understand," said Samara aloud as she performed a healing spell on her cut hand. It almost sounded as if he were glad that she had cursed him.

"The power that made the curse is the same power as what made the dance."

"Yes, I suppose it is," Samara said, as she carefully took back the rose that he had transfigured from the Earth of this Room.

They walked without speaking, without touching through out the lower levels and the tunnels. Just before they got to the main door, which led under Salazar Slytherin's picture to the Slytherin common room, Draco paused. Samara could see people coming into the common room from the dorms to go to supper. She could hear them talking. 

"Samara, I'm not sure what just happened, but I'm damn sure that it didn't happen for a Gryffindor." He reached up and traced the crest on her robe with his forefinger. "Samara—"

Samara put a finger to his lips. "They'll hear you in the common room," she said.

"No, they won't," Draco corrected her. "There's a spell on this door--silencing and something else-- It's not invisibility, but no one sees it. No one sees you come in or out of it. For some reason they think you just came from the dorms or the corridor. Not many people know it is here, even Slytherins. It's a special place Samara."

"I know it's special.

"The lower door won't even open unless you're a Slytherin. Samara, you know you aren't a Gryffindor. Tell McGonagall you belong in Slytherin. Professor Snape won't be hard to convince. Ever since you cursed his feet to the floor—"

"I did not curse his feet," said Samara. "It was his shoes."

"The only reason you're in Gryffindor is because that damn Weasley stood up. 

"I like Ginny Weasley," Samara said shortly.

In the background that was the common room, Samara heard a faint voice she recognized. It was Edward. "At least I can sleep at night," he said, "as long as I wear a sleep mask to block out the bright red." 

"What kind of mask?" someone sniggered.

Draco was continuing undaunted completely ignoring the voice that held Samara spell bound. "I know you belong in Slytherin, Samara. How can you doubt it?" Draco said.

And then another voice drifted in from the common room: "I can't believe you told McGonagall you were speaking from your heart when you said you were a Gryffindor." The voices were moving further away. 

"Well, I vomited the words up from somewhere around there." Those words were still softer.

More sniggering. Getting softer, and then gone.

Samara tried to drag her attention away from the conversation Edward and another Slytherin had had.

"Why? Why would someone fake which house they were in? What purpose could it possibly serve?"

Draco grew annoyed with her inattention and cupped her chin in his hands. He turned her face to gaze into his steely gray eyes. Suddenly, his voice was blocking everything else from her ears. "Everyone else who stood for you was Slytherin. I stood."

"You stood?" said Samara. "Why?"

"I felt," Draco started to speak and then hesitated. "Really?" he smiled that quirky little grin that she was starting to understand.

"Yeah. Truth."

He shrugged. "I thought you'd be a good quiddich player."

Samara burst into laughter, and Draco took her in his arms, and kissed her. But this time her whole attention was on him, and she realized something she had missed before, in the swirling emotions of the Room and in her moment of panic that he would see the tee shirt. She realized that although his kiss was well practiced, there was an innocence that did not seem contrived. It existed to the very bottom of his soul. If he were anyone but Draco, Samara knew how she would have interpreted what she saw: in his touch and in his aura. She would say, this person was a virgin, but Draco was entirely too passionate for that assumption. 

As Samara headed to the Gryffindor table for supper she pondered what this meant. Much later, she came to the conclusion that she was correct. As she remembered some of the Old Magic claims, she knew that virginity proclaimed innocence so loudly, that major criminal acts had been hidden by it. That was why evil, so often sought out children to do the most dastardly deeds. There were certain potions and powerful spells that could only be performed my virgins. She needed more information to be sure, but she was almost positive that in spite of Draco's charisma and charm, sex was not his passion, MAGIC WAS. So what exactly was he asking her for in the hidden chamber? She shivered, uncertain whether it was in fear or anticipation. Was it even possible for her to share the kind of magic she had done in the Dance? What would the spell entail? She looked deep inside herself, trying to ascertain the answer. Perhaps. But the Dance wasn't just part of her body, it was part of her soul, and if she shared it--if she even could--she was quite certain that she would never become untangled from that person again.

Of course she could be completely wrong--

Please review. 

==

Please review. 

Bluetigereye13: Will there be any Ginny/Tom? Well in book 7, I'm planning on Ginny going back in time—well if she survives ADADA-- to fix everything—lol—so maybe—Or maybe before that, *whispers conspiratorily * Don't let Him hear you calling him Tom though, it's LORD VOLDEMORT! You did read chapter 4/fanfic has it as ch 6 "Crucio for Instance" didn't you?

Whiteriver: Always appreciate your reviews. I have that Quiddich game in the works although there have been moments when I contemplated burning it to the ground. Get ready to play.

Mara 456: Enjoying your Obsessively complex story. Hope you are enjoying mine—and since you're only on chapter 12—I've hope you caught up by now. Good things on the way.

UniLiz85: Glad to hear a Hufflepuff approving my Hufflepuff House. More great Hufflepuff scenes to come and Ravenclaw too. Uh huh, Liz. Sure. You're Gryffindor.

Sky is blue: You are on chapter 3 and you are impressed with the suspense? Goody. Claps happily, but Oh deary, you haven't seen suspense YET! 

Please review. 


	22. CH 21 Chained and Charmed

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 21

****

CHAINED AND CHARMED

A/N: I'm currently reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one

And sometimes it takes me a few minutes to remember what has happened in'

The previous chapters, so I decided to give you a 'what's happened up to now'

Summary. You can skip it if you like.

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. This chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as the last chapter—when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing.

It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors are examining Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. (You might not want to read this right after lunch though—PG-13.) LL

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 21

****

CHAINED AND CHARMED

At Lunch, Harry was half listening to Hermione's thoughts about Samara's book: A copy of which Hermione now had in her possession, but actually, Harry's thoughts were more with Samara herself. He didn't like the thought of her going to visit Slytherin House alone, well with Beatrice, but that was essentially alone. Why Beatrice didn't talk her out of it instead of consenting to go with her was a mystery to Harry. Why didn't Samara visit Ravenclaw instead? She certainly wasn't one of those disgusting Slytherins. So why was she there? Harry watched Samara lean close to Crabbe and he moved to let her sit by Malfoy for lunch. Harry's stomach tightened.

"Are you listening to me?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, Sorry. What did you say?"

"I said, Harry, now we can also get moving on that prediction," said Hermione. "Now that you're done with quiddich practice. Do you want to know what I found out this morning about the Book or the prediction?"

"Huh?" 

"Harry what's—"

Harry's eyes were glued to Malfoy who was now standing with a possessive arm around Samara. He clenched his teeth looking for Edward. Didn't Edward promise to keep an eye on her over there? Lunch wasn't even over and Edward was no where in sight.

"Harry, it was Samara's choice, to go to Slytherin."

"Uhg—" said Ron turning away. "Does that snake have to slobber all over her in public."

"Looks like she's letting him," said Ginny. 

"It's really not our business." Added Hermione. "Let's just go."

Harry's hands had balled into fists. He glared at Malfoy who smirked back.

"Harry," Hermione repeated. "Let's go."

After they left the Great Hall, Harry still couldn't seem to get Samara out of his mind. "I just worry about her over there," said Harry.

"Why didn't you kiss her first, then," said Hermione. "Maybe she wouldn't have went."

"No, Hermione, It's not like that. She's just a friend."

"I can't stand it!" exclaimed Ginny. "Harry's got another sister. This boy should have had about six sisters, like I have six brothers just so he 'd have somewhere to spend all his brotherly love."

Hermione started to laugh.

"How about those Cannons?" Harry asked Ron. "They were—"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Can't you boys ever think of anything but Quiddich? Shall we go and look at Samara's book. She left Lisa Turpin's copy for me. It didn't make me sick at all. I had to stun it three times before I could open it safely, but the nausea was gone."

"Great," said Harry. Turning to Ron he asked, "Did you finally finish your Defense paper?" 

"No. I still have today and tomorrow."

"Ron!" said Hermione shocked. "Why do you always wait until the last minute?" She stopped and looked narrowly at Harry. "I don't think you want to look at Samara's book. "

"I don't," he said. They were working their way up toward the Gryffindor Tower and had just reached the corridor outside of Myrtle's bathroom. There was water all over the floor and more pouring out of the doorway. "I wonder what her problem is now," said Harry. "She hasn't flooded the bathroom for ages."

"Well, I guess I can look at the book myself," said Hermione in a long-suffering sort of way.

"Great," said Harry. "Ron and I can pass a quaffle around for a while."

Suddenly Peeves burst out of Myrtle's bathroom. "Pimple face! Pimple face! Who little Hornby liked to chase. All because that naughty brat, Spied on Tom her Prefect prat, Saw him in his underwear, Stayed to see his –"

"PEEVES!" Yelled McGonagall. As she came into the hall to intercept him.

"On my way, Your Ladyship Men-Gone-Gal." He sank into the floor and below they could hear him continuing to sing.

Professor McGonagall looked at the quartet of students, turned on her heel and went back the way she had come. The students hid their smiles behind their hands. "He always seems to hit right where it hurts doesn't he?" said Harry. "I doubt if there have been any men around McGonagall for a long time."

"Except Dumbledore," said Ron.

"You two are as bad as Peeves," said Hermione.

Suddenly an older ghost that they didn't know flew out of Myrtle's bathroom. Myrtle was right behind her pelting her with her fists although it didn't do any harm. They were screaming obscenities at one another at the top of their lungs—if they had had lungs.

"Who was that?" Asked Ron.

"Donno" Harry shrugged. "New ghost?"

"Well she was too old to be a student, and I don't think any of the teachers died," said Hermione.

"She didn't look like the teacher sort," said Harry. "But why would she haunt Hogwarts if she didn't die here?"

"Who cares?" said Ron. "Time for us to hit the Quiddich pitch, Harry." 

"You practiced Quiddich already this morning," complained Hermione. "What about Samara's book?"

"But you want us to get good enough to beat Slytherin, don't you?" Countered Harry. "Anyway, it's Saturday. Looking at Samara's book is way too much like homework."

"But she needs us to help her," said Hermione. "What kind of friends are you?"

"Oh all right," Harry agreed. "Lead on."

In the girl's dorm, they clustered around the book. "Stupefy!" said Hermione. The Book groaned, but continued to growl. They hit the book with two more stupefy spells before the book was still. "OK, said Harry to Ron. "I'll take off the charm. You take off the chains."

"According to Padama and Lisa we have about 20 minutes before it awakens and tries to bite off a thumb," said Hermione.

"Alright," said Harry, "What page was the green stain on? Do you know, Ginny?"

"I'm not sure. About the middle of the book. I think I could find it."

Ginny picked up the book and began leafing through it. "Right about here," she said. "Oh—"

Her face went completely white and Harry was afraid that she might faint again. "What is it?" he asked.

She handed him the book. 

He took it and before he could wonder that he wasn't sick, or his that scar was only throbbing what was now normally, He saw the title: The Incubation of Basilisks by Salazar Slytherin. 

He turned the page to find Methods to Shorten the Incubation Period of Basilisks, 

then Imprinting of Basilisks followed by 

The Care and Feeding of Baby Basilisks: The Critical First Thirty Days 

And Training Your Basilisk to Attack on Cue and Only On Cue. 

Twenty-seven pages altogether were devoted to Basilisks in the book. "Well, it sure freaks me out," said Harry, "I guess if you are training a Basilisk to Attack on Cue, that's pretty strong evidence for Dark Magic."

"Harry," said Hermione. "I seriously doubt that Samara even knows what a basilisk is."

Harry leafed through the pages: Unit one was the Laws of Magic. It began with Elementals and discussed how each of them could be used as a source of power and how to wield the power. There was a section on wandless magic and how to control it as well as who first performed various curses and how they were perfected throughout the ages. 

Another unit included the detriments and contributions of dozens of dark creatures including vampires, werewolves, grindelows, goblins, orks, ogres, and a whole list that Harry didn't even recognize.

The section on historical uses of potions was way over his head, beginning with potions that were several pages long and extremely complicated. None of them were for healing, unless you counted the several potions that were to provide "eternal life" as healing, and those all needed a philosopher's stone. 

The Transfiguration in this book was also beyond him. It was interlaced with the charms that could be used to keep a person or magical creature from fighting the transformation itself. Examples were included of how transfiguration played an important part in various wars, and transforming someone or something while in the midst of apparition.

The Charms section itself didn't look too bad, but the appendix listed such things as the uses for muggle blood, squib blood, mudblood, mixedblood and pureblood. "I can't believe that Dumbledore is allowing anyone to use this as a text," muttered Harry. "He can't know—"

"I wondered that too," said Hermione.

Ginny, biting her lip, sat of the edge of the bed, "When I looked at Samara's book," She said slowly, "I felt like some of this was familiar."

"What!" Ron was looking at her in horror.

"Just a few things," Ginny qualified her answer. "I've done that before you know." She addressed Harry and Hermione. "I told Ron, sometimes I know how to do something that I've never learned. It's like a de'jeau'vous. I think—I know—it has to be from Tom."

"So, do you think Tom read this book?" asked Hermione.

"I don't know." Ginny sighed. "There are gaps where the mediwitches at St. Mongos removed memories, but I think Tom knew some of these spells, and if he knew them at sixteen, he certainly knows them now—as—as an adult."

Ron said, "Well, this has to have something to do with He who must not be named. Otherwise, why would Harry's scar hurt him and why would he get so sick with that other book. The question is: do you think this has anything to do with the prediction?"

"I don't see how this has anything to do with the prediction or the Sorting Hat." Said Harry

"Let's see," said Ginny. "Salazar Slytherin was an expert on the basillisk and there is that line in the prediction about the Phoenix and the Snake which we weren't sure about. Is there anything in here that will help us with that line?"

"Ginny, I think we should just go with your feelings on this," said Harry.

"Let's see the line of the prediction again," said Ron.

"Honestly," said Hermione, "Don't you know it by now?" She began reciting:

At the height of the Dark Lord's Power

A Babe will lay him low.

Yet he will arise through his flower

Essences of friend, father and foe.

For within have snake and phoenix warred

But Phoenix must surely rule

For this bird rises again and again

And Eating Death is the fuel.

Will he Riddle the past with pain

Or Riddle the future with glory?

Five lives or deaths hang in time by three

Brave children who'll mend the story.

Yet there will come to Hogwart's school

A year from Hufflepuff's loss

A housemate to thwart the rule of him

Unnamed and ne'er count the cost.

Fate put Gryffindor bravery in one heart

And Ravenclaw brains in one head

And Slytherin cunning, ambition and guile

Yet Hufflepuff's love is his dread.

The hat's confusion will mark you as true

Though tears may make you swoon

Your choices are hard. Your choices are few.

'Ware of losing your childhood soon.

Eat Death and be Dead. Eat life and live on.

Don't sacrifice children or truth.

Bring rue to your heart or rue to your hand

Or savor Old Love for a youth.

The moment of truth will come in a flash

The night sky will glow with gloom

A friend's flight--A friend's mad dash

May halt the moment of doom.

"Now that's magic," said Ron.

"What?"

"That you can remember all that," said Ron.

"Oh Ron—" said Hermione.

"This is the strangest list of potion ingredients I've ever seen," interrupted Ginny

This isn't just hard. It's impossible.

She began to read:

Ballistic are hermaphrodites, thus only one Ballistic is necessary

to obtain fertile ballistic eggs, however, basilisk eggs are rendered infertile by magic. 

Do not use your wand or wandless magic in the close proximity of the ballistic eggs."

Ginny started reading the list of ingredients, along with old staples such as spider legs and beetle eyes

The recipe asked for A DEAD TOAD, aged 3 days under oak leaves.

LIVE TOADS equal to the number of basilisk eggs 

2 liters of ROOSTER'S BLOOD drained before sunrise on the last day of the full moon.

Roosters* must be killed by strangulation and may not have any cuts on them other 

Than the cut made to collect the blood. The blood may be frozen until needed, but 

Must be thawed to room temperature before adding to the potion.

Ginny stopped reading.

"Go on, Ginny," said Ron.

"I strangled roosters," said Ginny softly.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"In first year," said Ginny. "I strangled roosters, but there was blood on my night robe and I never understood why—"

"Oh Ginny," whispered Hermione.

"It doesn't matter," said Ron. "There were no eggs. Right Harry? There were no eggs."

"No," said Harry slowly. "I don't think so. I ran all over that chamber. There were no eggs. I would have seen them."

"Are you sure?" asked Ginny.

"I didn't see any." Said Harry, taking the book from Ginny, and handing it immediately to Hermione, even though this one wasn't physically making him sick, he was still hesitant to touch it.

"Go ahead, Hermione, read," said Ron. "I don't think anyone could really make this potion. It's too hard."

"Save the rooster feathers to make a nest after—wait," said Hermione. "I'm skipping that part. The next ingredient is dragon blood—

7 drops of fresh, WARM DRAGON BLOOD, procured from a first time nesting mother

The blood must be free and untouched of any magical influence except the dragon herself;

Therefore it must be collected without using any stunning or sleeping spells. However

the dragon may be killed (not with any magical means. I.e. No magical swords) 

before collecting the blood.

"Wow!" said Harry, "Just collecting the dragon blood is a feat!"

"I believe you can buy it," said Ginny blandly. "It's terribly expensive, but it is only 7 drops."

They all turned to look at her. "And you know this how?" Asked Ron.

She hesitated, obviously trying to remember where she heard that. 

"Maybe you read it somewhere," suggested Hermione.

"Maybe," said Ginny, obviously not convinced.

30 ml (6 teaspoons) of WEREWOLF BLOOD, collected from the SAME werewolf on three

Consecutive full moons. (10 ml each moon) Blood may not be contaminated with wolf's 

bane potion or any magic stunning spells.

"Might not be impossible if you were friends with the werewolf," said Ron. It doesn't say exactly when on the full moon. Perhaps the werewolf could get the blood himself before he was completely under the transformation. You don't think Lupin--"

"No!" interrupted Harry. "At least not if he knew what it was for—"

They all seemed to consider this a moment before Hermione continued reading.

30 ml (6 teaspoons) of GOBLIN BLOOD collected one hour before 

sunrise.

30 ml (6 teaspoons) of GNOME BLOOD collected at mid-night.

30 ml (6 teaspoons) of GIANT BLOOD collected one hour after dusk.

Note: All blood except for unicorn and werewolf, may be obtained by a vampire's natural

Means without compromising the potion.

"Well, it wouldn't be impossible for a vampire would it?" said Ron.

"Yeah, but—" Harry hesitated.

"What is it, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"I just wouldn't want to think of meeting up with a giant vampire, that's all."

They all shuddered.

"Oh, This is just too disgusting," said Ginny. "It looks like the entire potion is either blood or venom."

"Watch out! Stupefy!" cried Harry. He stupefied the book twice more and it lay still once again. Being hesitant to take the book, even though it seemed not to bother him without the stains of whatever died in it, he stood and read over Hermione's shoulder.

"I've got it," said Ron, picking up the book, and continuing to read.

30 ml of venom from King Cobra

30 ml of venom from Saw Scaled viper

30 ml of venom from the Black Mamba

PUT ALL ABOVE INGREDIENTS IN A COLD CAULDRON

AND MIX COUNTERCLOCKWISE 10 TIMES WITH A YEW WAND.

"Did you know Voldemort's wand is yew?" asked Harry.

"It's not that rare," said Ginny. "So's Samara's, and Edward's, I think. He either said yew or ash. But so is Neville's."

"Neville's?" said Hermione. "Neville's is yew? I never knew that."

Harry took the book cautiously and continued reading:

Add two uncracked whole dragon's eggs. (May not be from the same nesting mother as above)

"Well, we know that isn't impossible," grinned Ron at Harry. Thinking however briefly of flying above the Hungarian Horntail last year and stealing one of the eggs made Harry smile. Harry continued reading.

"And light a small fire under the cauldron." Harry paused. "some things about controlling the heat," he muttered and then continued reading.

In a separate cauldron combine 

2 liters of muggle blood

"I wouldn't like to think how some purebloods would get that," commented Hermione.

1 cup of finely shredded Devil's snare

1 cup of finely shredded Rue

Bring to a rolling boil.

Add the eyes, hearts, fangs and skins of the following snakes:

1 King Cobra

1 Saw Scaled viper

1 The Black Mamba

Bring to a boil again and add the first of the following

Live Snakes, head first to the boiling potion.

"Ugh," said Ginny. "These snakes are boiled alive!"

"So are lobsters," said Hermione.

Ginny shuddered.

"If you need a break, Ginny" said Harry gently. "It's ok. Ron, Hermione and I will continue—OW! STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!"

"Didn't anyone see that thing wake up?" asked Harry nursing his bitten hand.

"No. Sorry." Ginny reached out to see the puncture marks where the book had bitten his hand between the thumb and fore finger. Angry red lines were already beginning to run up this hand where the poison was traveling. At one time, holding Harry Potter's hand would have set Ginny's heart aflutter, but that was before the Chamber of Secrets—before Tom—before everything—

"You'd better go see Madam Pomfrey," said Ginny matter-of-factly.

  
"No, it's alright," said Hermione.

  
"Easy for you to say," said Harry who was starting to shake.

"Here." Hermione handed him a potion. "Drink this," she said. "It's from Madam Pomfrey." Hermione then opened an earthenware container and took out a handful of purple paste. She slapped it on Harry's hand, which was already swelled to twice its normal size. 

"Are you sure, Hermione," said Harry as he drank the potion and grimaced. "That's my wand hand."

"It's also your 'snitch' hand," said Ron.

"Madam Pomfrey said she's already treated all of the Ravenclaws who took Binns' class for bites, so she's given some of the antidote to all of them. Lisa just assumed the worst and said take the antidote with the book." Hermione paused. "Do you want to continue?"

Harry nodded. 

Hermione took the book. "Just sit and listen," she suggested to Ron, Harry and Ginny. She continued reading where Harry left off.

Any seven (7) of the following snakes

Added live to the boiling potion.

Once the snakes are dead, simmer for

One hour over low heat.

No stunning spell may be used on

The snake, however an antipoison/antivenom

Spell may be used on the wizard.

Dragon hide gloves are an asset.

A lid may be briefly put on the cauldron between

The addition of each snake, but only until the snake is dead.

"Wait," said Harry. "Stun the book. How long have we been working on my hand? Did anyone look at the time?"

"No," said Ginny. "You're probably right. Stupify! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

"It's just the list of snakes, now," said Hermione. "They are from all over the world. You're right Ginny. This potion is almost impossible."

Rattlesnake

Water moccasin

Copperhead

Okinawa Habu

Jararaca 

Wutu 

Jumping Viper 

Wagler's pit viper 

Egyptian or African cobra, or asp

The Green Mamba 

Boomslang

Inland Taipan 

Taipan 

Death Adder

Remove the first cauldron from heat.

Immediately stir in

400 grams chopped skin of Basilisk 

Hermione stopped reading. "All of these ingredients are difficult, but how on earth would someone get their hands on a Basilisk skin? They are pretty rare. I can't even imagine them being sold in Knockturn Alley."

"Oh you can get most anything in Knockturn Alley," Ginny stated in an off hand sort of way.

The others looked at her. 

"Ginny," said Ron. "I really hate when you do that."

She shrugged. 

Harry reached out and took her hand in his. "Everyone was scared of me when I spoke parseltongue, too," he said. "But if Voldemort gives you something you can use, I say use it."

"Tom." Ginny said softly. "It was Tom, not Voldemort. Anyway, there was a basilisk skin on the floor in the chamber," said Ginny. "Do you remember, Harry?"

He nodded; green eyes meeting brown ones in a shared understanding that no one else in the room could touch. Harry and Ginny shared a closeness that sometimes Ginny had trouble defining. She didn't think it was love. Her pre-Hogwarts crush on Harry was just that, a little girl's crush. 

After the Chamber of Secrets she had tried to think Harry as her knight in shining armor. She wanted someone to save her, not just from the cold stone floor of the chamber, but from the coldness that now surrounded her heart. Unfortunately, when she closed her eyes and imagined 'her knight' she didn't see Harry's face. Then after the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she got a glimpse of the true Harry Potter. He wasn't the brave, all-powerful Gryffindor that the world knew. When she saw him crying in her mother's arms, just like Ron had, just like she had, she realized that she was in love with an image that did not exist. Remarkably, once she was over her infatuation, she found Harry to be very easy to talk to, and they shared something that no one else understood. Their brushes with death—with Tom Riddle 

What else is on the list?" Ron asked.

"One chopped dead toad," said Hermione. "Remove the oak leaves first.

Add 2 liters of unicorn blood (May be collected voluntarily from a unicorn at several different

times or may be obtained by killing the said unicorn) Unicorn blood must be aged at least 4 months before use in the brewing of the potion. Unicorn blood must be stored in a crystal bowl at room temperature."

"Unicorn blood!" said Harry. "Didn't Hagrid say anyone who drank unicorn blood had a cursed life, even though it could heal and keep someone alive?"

"It doesn't look like anyone's drinking this," said Hermione. "I think it is poured over the eggs, and if the unicorn gave the blood willingly, would it still be cursed?"

No one knew. 

Hermione continued reading.

"When both potions are cool, pour cauldron one, (red liquid) slowly into cauldron 2 (silvery liquid)

Do not stir. The result should turn iridescent white.

Using Dragon hide gloves and silver tongs, Emerce a ballistic egg in the potion.

Immediately put the egg in a toad's mouth. The toad will struggle and try

To spit out the egg. Stitch the toad's mouth closed with dragon hide thread

Immerse the entire toad in the potion and put the toad on a nest of

Rooster feathers within a crystal bowl. Repeat with each toad. Fill the bowl with

the remainder of the potion, being careful not to cover the toads nostrils.

The toads will now be paralyzed and will sit quietly for the required four

Year incubation period (1460 Days). The incubation time must be in total darkness."

"Poor toads," muttered Harry.

"Stop," said Ginny. "I think it's time to spell the book again."

"OK," agreed Hermione, just to be safe, and then they continued reading.

"Neither the toads, nor the eggs need nourishment except for the potion in which they sit, however they must be sprinkled with fresh rooster blood at least once during the first year of the incubation period. 

However, if you have more than one basilisk egg, a wizard must

Be present at the hatching because the first basilisk hatched will eat the other 

Toads and basilisk eggs. The basilisk must eat the toad that hatched it within five minutes

Of hatching or it will die. Feeding this, now live and animated delicacy to the baby 

Basilisk will foster a stronger imprint. See: Imprinting your Ballistic: the critical first 30 Days."

"This is after the potion," said Hermione, "But it is kind of interesting.

To keep your baby Basilisks from eating each other's toads have on hand a fresh supply of

Live lizards or other reptiles. However, the live lizards will be more appealing to the hatchlings than the 

Original Toad. The toad must be eaten first, before the Basilisks are allowed to eat the lizards or the

Basilisk will not obtain his powerful eyes. If the toad seems sluggish or unappealing to the Baby Basilisk, you may "enervate" it."

"Oh, yeah," said Ron sarcastically "I've always found that feeding basilisks lizards makes interesting reading."

"This is the part I meant," said Hermione continuing.

"You should not use an antivenem spell on yourself at this stage. The basilisk venom is 

Relatively harmless (expect some joint pain and muscle tremors, seizures, nausea, vomiting, paralysis, 

dizziness or hallucinations)"

"You call that interesting?" said Harry. "That's like calling seizures and hallucinations harmless!"

Hermione shrugged, "I just meant I never would have thought there would be a time in a Basilisk's life when its venom was not highly deadly. Should I continue?" she asked. "How's your hand?"

"Hurts like hell, but the swelling has stopped. How long until I can close my fingers again?"

"Lisa said, Madam Pomfrey told her it would be about three weeks, but she nearly had her thumb bitten off."

"Three weeks!" shouted Harry. "I have a Quiddich game in two weeks! It better be all right before that! How will I catch the snitch?"

"I don't know," said Hermione. "Do you want to go talk to Madam Pomfrey?"

"No," Harry said reluctantly. "It won't matter now. Keep reading."

"When the basilisks bite a wizard and do not kill him, they are imprinted to him. The more bites

Your body can stand, the better imprinted your basilisk will be. " 

"Can you just see Salazar Slytherin testing this out?" asked Ron. "I mean he must have had a theory before he let them bite him."  


"Maybe it was just an accident," suggested Ginny.

  
  
"I guess it could have been," said Ron

After a moment, Hermione continued reading.

"Basilisks are born with their eyes closed."

"Just like puppies," said Ron.

"Not really," deadpanned Harry.

Ginny was starting to look a little white and strained. 

Hermione continued undaunted.

"Their eyes do not open until they are approximately six months old and because basilisks are

Nocturnal creatures that shun the light, basilisks can be taught to only open their eyes on cue, to attack, 

Thus making their wizard handler safer. A basilisk's primary source of information is not sight. It is smell/taste, followed by hearing. A basilisk is only 3 to 5 centimeters long at hatching and grows to approximately one meter by the time it is one year old. Thereafter, growth occurs at 0.5 to 1 meter per year until death."

"Are you saying the ballistic that killed Myrtle was—" Harry held his hands at about a 3 foot spread "This big?"

"If it was Tom's," said Hermione. "It wouldn't have had much time to grow. A year, maybe two to find the chamber. Another year to gather these potion ingredients and then what does the potion say? It reduces the nine year incubation period to four years, right?"

"Yes," said Ginny.

I don't think it could have been in the chamber for a thousand years, do you?" asked Hermione.

"No," said Ginny simply, and Hermione continued.

Basilisks thrive in a magical environment and you need no longer shield them from magic. 

"AH! STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!" Cried Hermione. She picked up the stunned book again.

"This goes on to talk a lot about the baby basilisks," said Hermione. I think we're past where the stain is in Samara's book. We can look at this in a nice quiet book that won't try to bite us."

"Yeah, right," said Harry sourly, "It just makes one of us puke his guts out."

"It's got to be getting near suppertime," said Ron. "I'm hungry. What about you guys?"

"Ron," said Hermione." After looking at this book, How can you even think about food? I'm not really hungry."

"Well, let's put the book away for a while," said Harry. "I've had about all I can take right now, and I think Ginny has too."

Hermione put the chain and charms back on it. 

"Do your think we gained anything from this session?" Asked Harry.

"We learned that Salazar Slytherin was more of a weird git than He-who-must-not-be-named," said Ron.

The little group chuckled. 

"Do you think anyone made this potion since Salazar Slytherin?" Asked Hermione.

"Like Voldemort?" said Harry.

Ron cringed.

"I don't know if Tom made the potion," said Ginny, "But I think he read this book."

"How would you know that?" Asked Harry.

Ginny gave Harry a long-suffering sigh. "Harry," she said. "I know everything about Tom. I know he had a stuffed bunny at the muggle orphanage that the other kids teased him about. They called him brat boy and devil child. The stinking muggles beat him and locked him in the basement of the orphanage. I know his favorite teacher here at Hogwarts—Binns, and someone called Doogle who taught Defense."

"Binns!" Interrupted Harry. "You're kidding!"

"I know his favorite color, his favorite food, and even which wizard cards he never got in his chocolate frogs." Continued Ginny.

"He collected wizard cards?" said Ron. "I didn't know they made them way back--"

Ginny gave Ron a look that caused him to shut up. 

"The basilisk," said Ginny. "Was imprinted to Tom. The first time—The first time I called it, I remember allowing Tom—It was the first time I allowed Tom to completely take over my body because it needed to sense Tom, not me. It was—confused by my smell or sound and needed Tom to calm it. I—" She shuddered. 

"You don't have to tell us," Harry said. "If you don't want to."

"Thanks, but," Ginny hesitated. "I think I do have to tell you. Since I'm the only one that knows."

" I remember something Tom told me—or rather told that thing—when—when—" Ginny took a deep breath. He said—made me say. Ginny suddenly made several hissing noises—It means: "You're the best because you killed the rest."

"Devoured," said Harry "Devoured the rest and made them part of your power. It—the word-- doesn't translate well." Harry felt like he was talking in a dream. Surely this wasn't Ginny he was hearing. 

I didn't remember—until this year—and then –just certain—words—sounds—" Her voice caught on a sob.

"It's not like I'm a parselmouth. Just these words—his words." She started to weep in earnest, and Ron started towards her, but Harry got there first. "Why?" she murmured. "Why is he back in my head? Something is different."

Harry just held her and smoothed her hair. "I know," he murmured. He didn't know what to say. How could he comfort her when he felt no comfort himself.

She hissed twice more. The sound for "open" and the sound for "kill/devour/eat/death"

"I always remembered the sounds in my head," she said. "I knew what they meant, but I couldn't reproduce them without Tom. Why do I know how to do that now? I don't want to know how to open the Chamber of Secrets."

"I think it's just the flashbacks," said Ron. "At St Mongos, they didn't know what form they would take. Now we know. They'll pass. All the med-witches and wizards said they would pass." 

Finally Ginny stopped crying. "I'm sorry guys. I'm worrying you, but you don't know how good if feels to be able to tell someone. During my first year, you don't know how many times I wanted someone to talk to. Every time I thought of that first time I called the basilisk. I kept thinking if I were are real Gryffindor, I would have just kept control and let it kill me, and then everyone else would be safe. But I didn't. I was such a coward. I'm sorry."

"No, you weren't," said Hermione. "You tried. You were only eleven. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then later," said Ginny. "I could never wrest the control back completely—never--" 

"And now?" whispered Harry.

"He's always there," said Ginny. "He's locked in that little corner of me. Sometimes he scares me, but sometimes he's so—so—" Ginny blew out her breath and shook her head. "Never mind. I can't explain it."

"Does he hurt you?" asked Harry softly, his hand gripping Ginny's as if he could somehow protect her.

"No," said Ginny the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Not usually. Not anymore. I know he's capable of hurting me, but mostly—" she broke off the beginnings of a blush coloring her ears and she looked away from Harry's searching eyes.

"He's not capable of hurting you now, Ginny," said Ron. "Not with the diary destroyed."

'He's still—" she paused, biting her lip, as if searching for the right word. "Strong," she said at last.

A cold and heavy silence descended over the room.

"U-ummm. Want to play Exploding Snap?" asked Ginny brightly, trying to bring the room back to some semblance of normalcy.

"No." Harry replied "I don't think I can hold the cards."

"Oh right."

==++

Harry had never in his life felt such an uncomfortable silence with these, his best friends. He knew what Ginny was talking about when she said Tom was strong. That's how he felt Voldemort through his scar too. Stong. Frightening. What was most frightening was that Harry felt his own connection to Voldemort in his blood. It was like they were connected like family—no he wouldn't use that word. Not family. Is that why Ginny blushed, he wondered. Did she feel that unnatural closeness too, and was ashamed of it—

==

Hermione put the book down on top of her copy of the Daily Profit on her desk. "Hey Ron," she asked suddenly. "Have you and Ginny heard anything about Hogwarts' tuition going up?"

"I hope not," said Ron. "Mum and Dad are having a hard enough time sending us here now. Why?"

Some of the Ravenclaws in my Arithmancy class were talking about it. Apparently the school is having financial troubles, first of all because a lot of students didn't come back this year. Some of the main financial supporters, are pulling their funding or at least splitting it with another charitable organization."

"Who?"

"According to the Ravenclaws, Malfoy's one. Goyles. Avery."

"Slytherins!" Spat Ron.

"Well a lot of the old wizarding families are Slytherins, but actually Avery is Ravenclaw."

"Lauren Avery is in Slytherin," Ginny contradicted. She's in my Advanced Defense.

"But Marshall Avery, her father, was a Ravenclaw," said Hermione, "and his family is the one with the money. "

"So where's the money going then?" asked Ron.

Hermione shrugged. 

"Some humanitarian groups called "Earth Relief and Blessed Relief," said Hermione.

"Never heard of them," said Ron. "Is it time for supper yet?"

"I guess so," said Harry. "We'll be a little early."

"I'll see you in the Great Hall," said Ginny, as she headed into the bathroom to wash her face.

"Go ahead down to supper," suggested Hermione to Ron and Harry. "We'll be down shortly."

Once in the corridor outside the girls' room, Harry looked at Ron. "We have to go back to the Chamber of Secrets," he said. "As soon as this heals a little—" He held up his swollen hand. 

"Why?" croaked Ron.

"We have to be sure—" said Harry. "I didn't search the chamber. I was too worried about Tom and the basilisk, and then I just wanted to get Ginny and get out of there. If there were eggs, this is the third year since Ginny strangled the roosters—and—I'd rather smash the eggs than deal with live basilisks. We can take broomsticks to get back out."

Ron licked his dry lips, and nodded. 

"It shouldn't be too bad," said Harry. "It's just an empty chamber. After all, Tom's not going to be there this time."

==

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed. I would really appreciate a quick review—even just a one word review would be great. I need to know if you are still following the story. 

ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS: First of all thanks bunches. I really need you guys. I promise to review all reviewers stories if I can find them. If you leave a signed review. I will review yours. 

SPECIAL KUDOS TO FALLEN ANGEL OF DARKNESS: Thanks for reviewing every chapter since you started reading. CH 2 Glad you like the Tom stuff. CH 3 Misspelled words. "Gawd" was on purpose. I really didn't want to take God's name in vain, but on the other hand, evil characters, are EVIL, and teenagers swear. CH4 Are you the only one who noticed Harry's jealous? I think so. Yeah. Someone saw it. Don't worry about how long it is. Don't rush. You just started late. I update each week to 10 days. Thanks for the website ideas please email me them. Ladylestrange@hotmail.com CH6 I'll check the ending and try to make it more clear. Don't know what you didn't understand. Quotation errors? I don't know where they are, and I don't have a beta reader. I tried to get one for awhile, but gave up. Wanna volunteer? CH 7 mellow? Well, I had to give people a chance to catch their breath didn't I? CH 8 Don't' worry about catching up. I'm working slowly right now. Some really important stuff I have to get right in the next few chapters. CH 9 Romance between Harry and Samara. Nah. Sam's just a flirt. Anyway, Granma Lori said she's too young to settle down to one man. Just keep 'em guessing. Ch 10. Yes, I know Draco hasn't gotten his revenge yet. He will.

S. Nicolai: Thanks for reviewing. Thanks for saying it gets better as it moves along. I think I've lost some readers in the first two chapters, but I'm not sure how to fix them to make them bang up exciting right off. Most of us have read stories that take a chapter or two to get into. Keep reading. It gets way hotter than chapter 3.

Elfmoon: So glad you are still with me all the way to ch 22: Love your reviews. Love your stories.

Silverfox: Thanks for sticking with me to ch 22. WOW. Sorry you're not exactly sure what to make of it. All will be revealed. Read Silverfox, folks. Good stuff.

Whiteriver: I'm still waiting for your new fics. Glad you like mine.

Mara456 Enjoying your obsessively complex story. So glad you are still with mine. Please tell me if you are confused anywhere on mine, because if you are confused, I need to make it more clear. Can't wait for you to catch up.

THANK YOU THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU. 

Please review right now. Just say one or two words if you don't have a lot of time. LL


	23. CH 22 Ghastly Ghostly Dinner

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

A/N: You will be as bewildered as Ginny if you haven't seen Disney's Lion King and Bambi. A few muggle-born jokes here.

I noticed on advanced stats that some of you have skipped this chapter. Although the action is a little less—don't you need a breather??—DON'T SKIP AHEAD TO THE DRACO CHAPTER. You need to read this chapter first. Little clues are everywhere. Keep your eyes open—and your ears open.

Lady Lestrange

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 22

Ghastly Ghostly Dinner

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before—In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down twice. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. --Lady Lestrange

****

***

On to the chapter…

****

Ghastly Ghostly Dinner

At supper, Harry watched Samara float into the Great Hall. Although Draco was not touching her, he was still walking close to her, and from the dreamy look on her face, and the smirk on his, they had been quite a bit closer. Harry applied himself to filling his dinner plate with more mashed potatoes than he actually wanted. 

"Hi!" said Samara with an ear to ear grin. She sat down at the Gryffindor table between Beatrice and Ginny.

"Hey," teased Ginny, "First years aren't allowed to fly, especially without a broom."

"I'm not flying. I'm dancing." Said Samara.

Harry wondered what that was supposed to mean.

Ron summed it up with a cough that sounded strangely like: "Traitor!"

Samara ignored him and asked, "Isn't anyone going to ask us how our inner house relations visits went?" 

"No need," said Harry cooly. "It's pretty much written all over your face, and you don't even need to see auras."

Some of Samara's smile faded, but she still felt too good to be bothered by their narrow-minded attitude.

"Well, I'll ask, then," said Samara. "Edward how was your visit to Ravenclaw and Slytherin?"

"Interesting," said Edward. "Ravenclaw has the most amazing library you ever saw. I didn't really meet any Ravenclaws there though. There are little cubicles with silencing spells so you can study in peace, and the rooms are a very comforting shade of blue-gray—rather like an evening sky. I was so engrossed that I would have missed lunch, but I had told the Ravenclaw Head Boy that I wanted to visit Slytherin at lunchtime. Very effiecient: Ravenclaw. The head boy came and found me at lunchtime and introduced me to three of the Ravenclaw boys wanted to visit Slytherin, too. How about that, I didn't meet any Ravenclaws at all until I was ready to go to Slytherin. We chatted a while then on our tour of Slytherin. I missed you and Beatrice on the tour," said Edward.

"Oh Draco gave her a tour," interrupted Beatrice.

"Of his room," Ron muttered.

"He didn't, but that's none of your business," Samara snapped.

"Beatrice," Hermione said sharply. "Samara didn't leave you alone over there, did she?"

"Oh, no, I wasn't alone," said Beatrice. "Lauren and Pansy took me up to their dorm room. Do you know they have 40 step wards on their doors and, can you believe this—muggle door locks—And Lauren's dad made a combination magic and muggle burglar alarm?"

"Samara!" Hermione was appalled.

"The locks are to keep out the rapists, murderers and the Death Eaters," mumbled Harry. "Oh I forgot, they're all the same thing."

"That's really uncalled for." Samara glared at Harry, and then decided it was time to eat and try to ignore the barbs that were flying around her. She put her soup spoon into her soup and tried to take a bite. The soup slid off the spoon, leaving it completely empty. She tried again. With some trepidation, she picked up her fork and tried to eat her salad. Her fork also seemed to have a repelling charm on it. She tried several times to remove the repelling charm, but it was expertly placed. Frustrated, she pulled her wand from her hair and using the adhaera charm, stuck a bite on the spoon. She glanced around at the table. Ron was sulkily sipping his soup from the bowl as if it were a cup. Edward had taken the large serving spoon, which was obviously not charmed, from the mashed potatoes and was eating his soup with it. Beatrice was nibbling carrot sticks. Hermione had transfigured a quill into a fork, and was pushing her food around her plate, but Dean, sitting with Parvati and Seamus with Lavender seemed to have the best idea. They had taken to feeding each other bites off of their fingers and were happily sucking each other's fingers clean. They seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. 

One glance at the Slytherin table told her who was to blame for the repelling charm on their silverware. Not that she really needed to look.

"This is what your Slytherin friends have done," said Harry, not even attempting to eat. "They're positively vile and I can't believe you'd even consider kissing Malfoy."

"I think I said once, it's not your business," replied Samara. She was sure that Harry was aware that her wand was in her hand, even though she was only presently using it to put food on her fork. 

Beatrice, in an attempt to change the subject from open warfare said suddenly, "What did Malfoy think of your shirt, Samara?"

"Oh yes," remembered Edward. "There's a question I want answered too."

Samara blushed and stuck a bite of food in her mouth. 

"Samara," said Beatrice. "Samara? You didn't?"

"Right," said Samara. "I didn't."

"Oh, why not?"

"Self preservation?" suggested Edward.

"I was distracted."

"I'll bet you were," said Ron snidely.

With one last look at the group around her, Samara got up and took her plate to sit a few seats away from them, nearer to Parvati and Lavender. 

"You know, Ron," said Hermione, "I think you and Harry were a little hard on her. She doesn't know the Slytherins like we do."

"I think I'm going to go and sit with her," said Beatrice, gathering up her food. 

"You don't need to do that, Beatrice," said Hermione. "It's Samara who left you at Slytherin."

"Well, no, it really wasn't like that," said Beatrice. "I was talking to Pansy and Lauren first and then Pansy asked me if I wanted to go to her room and—Well, I just feel responsible that's all."

"You shouldn't feel responsible," said Ron. "It's her fault she kissed the slimy git, not yours."

"But if I would have stayed with her at Slytherin, you wouldn't all be shunning her."

"We're not shunning her," said Harry. 

"Yeah, we just want her to see the error of her ways," Ron said 

"I'll see you later," said Beatrice and she moved over next to Samara

"Where are you going, Ginny?" asked Ron as she stood up without a word, and followed Beatrice.

Samara was silently eating, sticking small bites on her fork using her adhaere charm when Beatrice sat down. "You didn't need to come over here," she said. "I'm ok. It's not the first time I've been ridiculed." 

"I'm sure it isn't," said Beatrice. 

"Where's Fred and George when you need them," said Samara. 

"I could use a good laugh too," said Ginny.

"I'm sorry," said Beatrice.

"For what?" asked Samara.

"I just feel like it's sort of my fault."

"It's not."

Ginny put a hand on Samara's arm. "Are you crying?"

Samara dashed tears away from her eyes. 

Ginny moved her hand to Samara's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Samara," Ginny said. "Slytherins are sometimes very charming. They're made that way, but they aren't always what they seem. I learned that in First Year. I don't mean to sound like Harry and Ron, but--"

"If you don't want to sound like them, Maybe you should shut up." said Samara, "Oh well, I think you are already too late. You just lumped everyone together didn't you? Maybe I should avoid everyone with the wrong kind of blood—giants or werewolves—not mudbloods surely because that's a dirty word. But I could cease to associate with purebloods—so many of them are Slytherin. Oh dear, Ginny, what would I do with you, though? You are a member of that pureblood group too. Or maybe I should be even more descriminating and avoid people with murky auras, or holes caused by some past disaster. Yes, that way I'd be safe. Is that what Gryffindors do? Play it safe?"

"No," said Ginny. "I'm sorry. It's your business."

"Aren't you just a little curious about the other houses?" asked Samara.

"I was," said Ginny. "But I found out that Slytherins were too different from Gryffindors."

"No, you found out ONE Slytherin was too different for YOU."

"Maybe. I came over to help you feel better, not make you feel worse. I'm sorry."

"It's ok," said Samara. 

For a few minutes the girls sat in silence.

"Sorry. I'm just a little homesick, I guess," said Samara. "It's making me a little testy. I miss my muggle friends, sorry lot though they were. I miss my Mom and Dad, even though when I'm home they drive me nutters. And they're getting a divorce so I don't even know if they will be in the same house when I get home this summer. And, I miss my brothers, even though they're jerks. Funny isn't it. They're all ok, just because they are familiar."

"I'll bet they're good looking—your brothers--" said Beatrice. "Lots of girlfriends."

"Ha! Yeah."

"Typical, said Beatrice, Muggle or Wizard, all the good looking ones are jerks."

That got a smile out of Samara. "Well, they're not always jerks," she said. " I just got tired of girls trying to be friends with me to get to meet one of them though."

"And what would they think of Draco?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, they'd hate him," said Samara. "But they'd also hate Harry and Ron and Edward any boy that talked to me. You have brothers. You know how that goes."

Ginny laughed.

"I thought that here at Hogwarts, I could find some friends without ulterior motives," said Samara. Someone to just like me for who I am."

"I like you," said Ginny.

"Me too," said Beatrice. "I really enjoyed helping to make your shirt in Hufflepuff today."

"So let's see this shirt," said Ginny.

Samara opened her robe, and Ginny gasped. "Oh, you should have showed that to Hermione. She'd have loved it.

"Maybe we should go back and make another one tomorrow." Said Samara.

"I'd like that." Said Beatrice. "And Samara, I really am your friend."

"Thanks," said Samara. "Especially after I deserted you at Slytherin and you didn't even want to come."

"Oh, no, you didn't desert me. I deserted you. Pansy and Lauren aren't anything like I expected Slytherins to be. They were really nice to me. Pansy did drop a few warnings though about Draco though."

"Oh? What did she say?"

"She said, 'What you see is definitely NOT what you get. Draco has a lot of secrets, and he's—well the word she used was--dangerous.' I think she was just trying to make conversation—"

"I think she meant it," said Ginny.

"In any case," continued Beatrice, "she had to expect that I would tell you."

"I think she was jealous," said Samara. "Didn't you tell me that Draco took Pansy to the Yule Ball last year?"

Ginny nodded. "But they broke up. Apparently something happened over the summer--" 

Samara's eyes glanced at the Slytherin table and caught Draco looking at her. She held his gaze for a moment, but eventually looked away and played with her food for a few minutes.

"You know what I think," said Samara. "I think Draco does have secrets, but I like a little mystery. Anyway, I have a few secrets of my own, you know."

"And the danger," prodded Beatrice. 

"I laugh in the face of danger," said Samara. "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Ginny looked bewildered.

Beatrice broke out into real laughter. "Oh gosh, I saw that movie. Right after I realized my animagus wouldn't be a tiger, I saw it and I thought it would be OK if my animagus was a lion." Beatrice's face sobered. "You know he won't get your muggle jokes. When are you going to tell him that you're muggle born?"

"I don't know," Samara admited. "I couldn't show him the shirt today. I didn't want him to tell me to leave."

"Do you think it will be any easier when he tells you to leave after you've fallen in love with him?"

"Maybe he'll change, Beatrice. Lighten up. You never know."

Beatrice broke out into giggles. "Sure," she said, "And maybe my animagi bunny will grow stripes and claws."

"Don't you believe that love changes things, Beatrice? I would have thought you of all people would believe that."

Beatrice looked at her in all seriousness and said, "Samara, you're twitterpated."

Samara looked at her for a moment before snorting and pushing her away playfully. "Run home to Thumper!"

The two of them leaned on each other laughing while Ginny looked at them in complete confusion.

Edward came over and put his hand on Ginny's shoulder. She looked up at him. "Are you going to the library after supper, or just up to the Common Room?"

"Common Room, I guess," she said. She took a last look at the hysterically laughing girls and then turned back to Edward. "I'll come with you. I'll see you guys later, OK?" 

After she left, Beatrice and Samara caught their breath and sat in silence for a few moments.

"What is it, Samara?"

Samara was figgiting . "Draco's looking at me again." 

"Of course he is after that display of hysterics," said Beatrice. "He'll probably ask you what you were laughing at—"

Samara snorted. With deliberate slowness She stuck two fingers in her triffle

Desert and pulled some of the whipped crème and berries off of the cake.

"What are you doing?" asked Beatrice.

"Giving Draco something to look at," Samara answered as she glanced pointedly across the table to Parvati and Dean and Seamus and Lavender who were still laughing and enjoying supper off of each others fingers. They had now progressed to the whipped crème dessert. They were a sticky mess, but having a grand time. 

Holding Draco's gaze, Samara slowly and seductively licked her fingers clean. Draco watched her with a cool unreadable expression that slowly changed to a smirk.

When Samara tossed her hair back over her shoulder, she noticed that Harry Potter was watching her too. Playfully, she winked at him, and then left the Great Hall.

"So are we going to Hufflepuff again tomorrow?" Asked Beatrice as they headed for the Gryffindor Common room.

Sure," said Samara. 

"Oh no." Beatrice said. "We can't. We don't know the password."

"I think I can manage," said Samara.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think I know what it will be."

++==

"Oh Dear, what's happened?" said Beatrice lifting her robes to wade through the water on the floor. 

"It looks like a toilet overflowed," said Samara. They could hear a sing song voice coming from the bathroom, and someone was crying.

"Maybe someone got hurt," said Beatrice. "Do you hear crying?"

"Yes," said Samara "Over here." She peeked into the bathroom, and a zooming poltergeist flew right through her head. "Oh yuck! Yuck!" she shouted. She shuddered as she felt the coldness of the spirit go through her.

She and Beatrice heard the poltergeist singing, but they couldn't hear the words. He was zooming away from them.

"AND STAY OUT, PEEVES!" Shouted another ghost who was hiding behind the door of one of the stalls. Only her head was visible.. "YOU AND OLIVE BOTH. I HATE YOU. DO YOU HEAR ME?"

She glared at the two girls. AND WHAT ARE YOU TWO STARING AT? She spat. DID YOU COME TO TEASE ME TOO?"

"No," began Beatrice, but the poltergeist drowned her out with his singing. Beatrice and Samara both ducked as he flew back into the bathroom.

"GET OUT," shouted the girl ghost.

Moaning Myrtle in the sky

Can't play quiddich. Tell you why

Flying on a quiddich broom

Spying in the tower room

In the dungeon underground 

Too few windows can be found.

"THAT WAS YOUR IDEA PEEVES. FLYING WAS YOUR IDEA," screeched the girl who floated through the door and then launched herself after the poltergeist.

Moaning Myrtle in the sky

Always blames the other guy

Myrtle started to cry. "PEEVES! YOU'RE HORRIBLE!" she said.

Peeves continued to sing:

Cry a tear and mope and pout

Teachers always let her out

"Let's go," whispered Samara as she and Beatrice sneaked out of the bathroom.

++==++


	24. CH 23 Dangerous Draco Malfoy and Friends

Disclaimer: All potterverse you recognize belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange 

Chapter 22

Dangerous Draco Malfoy. . .and Friends

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down twice. --Lady Lestrange)

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. 

Ravenclaw to come next weekend. The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. I won't tell you a single thing about that chapter, except that you HAVE TO READ IT. 

I have advanced stats and for some reason, people are skipping this chapter. There are little clues everywhere. Listen to everyone. If you don't, you will never know who is really on the side of Light and who is Dark. I know, you just want to get to the juicy Draco parts, 

BUT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE LAST CHAPTER, GO BACK AND READ IT BEFORE YOU READ THIS ONE!--Lady Lestrange

***

On to the chapter…

****

DANGEROUS DRACO MALFOY AND FRIENDS

"I don't know how we'll get into Hufflepuff without the password." Said Beatrice.

But Samara approached the door to Hufflepuff House with confidence. "Sunday," she said and the panel between the two suits of armor opened. 

Sally Anne was busily painting The Wall. She had already animated Hagrid and he was smiling a friendly smile at them, but it seemed a little inane.

I'm not sure what's wrong with him," said Sally "He doesn't seem to have a life of his own. He just stands there and smiles."

What spell did you use?" asked Beatrice.

"Innervate," said Sally Anne. "It should work, but maybe it's because he's so big. If that's the case, it's going to be even worse for the hypogrift."

"Maybe it's because the hippogrift is the only thing he's familiar with and it's not finished," suggested Samara.

"Maybe," said Sally Anne, "But there should be other creatures. I know Helga had a unicorn friend, so it should be here on the wall somewhere, but it's pretty shy."

"And they tend to show themselves for women more quickly than for men," said Samara.

"True." Sally Ann agreed. 

"Perhaps "vividus, would be a stronger animator," suggested Samara.

"I could try it," said Sally Ann. "Maybe it would be best to just wait until the hippogrift is finished."

"His name is Buckbeak," said Beatrice. "I was telling Hermione Granger about your picture."

"Oh, that's even better," said Sally Anne. "I didn't know he had a name. I should probably call him by name as I'm painting. That will help to animate him too."

Samara and Beatrice started to go to the craft hall, when someone entered the common room. 

Edward!" said Samara. "I didn't know you were visiting Hufflepuff too."

"Well," he said. He glanced at Sally Anne. "I guess I am. I was really looking for you-both of you. I'm glad I caught you before you got too far. Could we talk?" he added in a whisper.

Sally Anne had gone back to her painting and was not paying any attention to their conversation.

"What did you want?" Asked Samara softly.

"I need your help. Yours too, Beatrice if you want to come."

'What can we help you with," asked Beatrice a little louder than either Samara or Edward.

"Anything I can do to help?" asked Sally Anne glancing up from her painting.

"UH-I don't' think so," said Edward uncertainly, but his eyes finally noticed The Wall behind Sally Anne. "Bloody Hell," he said, "Is that your mural? It's amazing!"

"Oh no," said Sally Anne blushing, "And don't swear. I only have a very small part in it. The wall depicts all of Hufflepuff's history from the beginning until the present."

"It's so-so-idealistic," said Edward. "I never thought such a place existed even in someone's imagination. It looks like a Hufflepuff's idea of utopia."

"Well, it's hardly idealistic," said Sally Anne. "There is a vampire in the forest who once saved a Hufflepuff's life, and Justin swears he heard a werewolf third year, but no one's heard it since so I think it was just a regular wolf. Several Hufflepuffs have had wolf animagi. Wolves are very loyal creatures you know."

"So that's what the mural depicts? " asked Edward. "Hufflepuff loyalty?"

"Loyalty, perseverance, hard work. . . All the traits that are admired by Hufflepuff."

"I see," said Edward thoughtfully. "Well, it's very enlightening," he said.

"Now, Samara, do you know if there is a place where we can talk privately for a moment?"

Samara asked Sally Anne who shrugged. By now, the common room was starting to fill with other Hufflepuffs. "Unless you can find an empty craft room, which is doubtful at this time of the morning," said Sally Anne. "Some of the Hufflepuffs ask for privacy in their own rooms at times of course, but really, no one will care if you talk here-She shrugged again.

Edward pushed Beatrice and Samara into a relatively quiet corner of the common room and pulled out his wand. He proceeded to put up a privacy shield charm with fast and flawless efficiency. When he was finished, Hufflepuffs naturally avoided that corner of the room, although they could see what appeared to be an empty area. They could hear nothing of the conversation about to take place. Apparently, even Sally Anne forgot they were there, because she went back to her painting.

"I need your help," repeated Edward. "I want my pet back and my brother won't let me have her."

"That's awful," said Samara with sympathy. "Did he take her from you?"

"Not exactly." Said Edward. "But she's our pet together. We were supposed to share."

"Do Slytherins share?" asked Beatrice genuinely curious.

"Well, that's the problem," said Edward. "Ethan said if I wanted her back, I'd have to take her and today is the only day I'm allowed in the Slytherin dungeon. If I don't get her today, I'll have to wait until next weekend. He knows that, and he knows none of the Slytherins will help me. Draco's at Quiddich Practice and Ethan's already gone. There's only Crabbe and Goyle in the room."

"Are we talking about stealing from the boy's dorm?" asked Samara.

"Yes, but really, I just need a diversion."

"What about the Ravenclaw boys who visited Slytherin yesterday," asked Beatrice. "I really don't want to go into the boy's dorm."

"Oh them," said Edward. "They just wanted to look around yesterday. Today, they're at Gryffindor. The whole thing was just an intellectual excursion to check out the other houses. They know they belong in Ravenclaw and they wouldn't be involved in what looked like a prank or possible rule-breaking." Edward looked thoroughly disgusted with the Ravenclaw boys who had visited.

"OK," said Samara. "We'll do it."

"Wait!" squeaked Beatrice. "What kind of pet?"

"Um-Python," said Edward.

"Oh no," said Beatrice. "Count me out." Her nose was twitching and wiggling at the thought. "I don't like snakes. Professor McGongall got me almost able to touch an owl, but not a snake."

"Well, it will be great practice for you then," said Samara. "What does Professor McGonagall do-"

Beatrice had turned very pale, and took several breaths from her puffer. Samara noticed it was the first time she had used it this morning. "I don't think I can do it," she said. "What if I turn into a rabbit and it eats me?"

"She's not hungry," said Edward. "I just fed her yesterday."

"Oh, what did you feed her?"

"UH---snake food," said Edward.

"What if she decides to eat me just for the fun of it?" asked Beatrice.

"Oh snakes are so misunderstood," said Edward. "They only eat when they are hungry. You should have been much more frightened yesterday. You were in Millicent's room, weren't you? Cats hunt for pleasure; snakes don't."

"Millicent has a cat?" Asked Beatrice. "I didn't see it."

"Come on, Bea. We need you," said Samara. "It will be fun."

"I sincerely doubt it," answered Beatrice. 

"I have an idea." Samara leaned close to Beatrice and suggested, "Maybe you can tell Vincent who's in the Hufflepuff common room," suggested Samara. "And you could tell him the password. I don't know, but I thought his friend was a little sad today. Maybe a visit would cheer her up, especially if Draco's at Quiddich practice and can't interfere."

"How about this for a plan," Samara told Edward. "We will distract the two boys and get them out of the room. Then you can get the snake."

"It's in a cage isn't it?" Asked Beatrice. "It isn't crawling about the room?"

"Well, yes," agreed Edward, "but I can't take the cage. I'd never be able to smuggle it out of Slytherin Common room. Someone would see us. I can put the snake under my robes. She'll be quiet. As they left Hufflepuff, Edward paused. "I should have taken one of my brother's robes. It would have been easier if the Slytherins thought I was one of them."

"Would you like me to transfigure the crest?" asked Beatrice. 

"I thought of that," said Edward, "But I'm not very good at inanimate objects."

With a wave of her wand, Beatrice said. "viridorari serpentis" and the red lion on his crest became a green snake, the emblem of Slytherin.

The walk through Slytherin was uneventful. Everyone seemed to think that Edward was Ethan and that it was perfectly natural that he would be walking with a girl on each arm. Come to think of it, Samara noted that Edward did that quite often in Gryffindor, but the girls were usually her and Ginny instead of her and Beatrice. He went directly to the boys' dorm. The door was open and Crabbe and Goyle were sitting on their beds eating chocolate frogs. They had a game of exploding snap going and soot and chocolate fingerprints were on the beds and the cards. 

"Thought you were summ-"began Goyle, but Edward interrupted. "Delay of plans, I wanted to know if you would give these lovely girls a tour of Slytherin since I am otherwise engaged."

"Delay-" said Goyle with an incredulous look on his face. "You're making Him WAIT?" Goyle's voice went up an octave with a mixture of fear and awe. "How do you-do you-"

"Shut up, Goyle," Edward said in exasperation. "And wipe the chocolate off of your face."

Goyle didn't even attempt to use a spell to clean himself up. He just used the bedspread.

"Draco's owl just came," Crabbe explained. "Brought candy. Chocolate frog?" Crabbe offered a rather squashed and melted frog to Beatrice. 

"No thanks," she said, "But I know someone who would love a chocolate frog from you."

"Really?"

Beatrice, who had not actually entered the room, motioned Vincent Crabbe to the doorway where she stood. He practically flew to her, like a post owl, and Edward had to move out of his way, stepping into the room and closer to Samara. Unconsciously, she took another step closer to Edward and away from Gregory Goyle. How was she going to get him out of the room? She wondered. She should have taken the snake. It would have been easier, and certainly, less disgusting. 

Just then, an Alohomora spell split open the side of the dungeon wall and a thoroughly rushed and disheveled Draco swooped through the opening on his broom. "Forgot the new plays," he said to Goyle as he snatched up a parchment from one of the desks. Draco started to turn back toward the opening, which led into a corridor, when he realized who else was in his room. His broom ground to a halt, and his wand was in his hand and trained on Edward in one motion. Samara never even saw Draco reach for it. 

Apparently neither did Edward because his hand hovered above his pocket, but Samara saw no wand. "Touch it and you'll lose a hand," sneered Draco, "and I doubt that our 'mutual friend' will see to its replacement--no matter how many 'gifts' you bring him-And I certainly won't." 

"Draco," began Edward-

"Mutus! And I don't want to hear your excuses this time."

Draco moved closer with deadly purpose. "I thought that after our little talk about Pansy last night, you understood the consequences. I really didn't think you'd have the balls- Curtum!" a sharp downward snap of Draco's wand made Samara realize that Edward had just been cursed--That and the look of horror on Edward's face. Draco laughed. "You didn't believe me, when I warned you, that you would lose that little piece of your anatomy, did you, Ethan? Well, let this be a lesson to you. I-never-make-idle-threats. Now, get out of MY room."

Edward glanced at Samara, uncertainly.

"Draco," she breathed.

"This is Slytherin business," Draco said coldly. "It does not concern you." Neither Draco's eyes nor his wand ever left Edward's body. With the same cold voice, he continued: "Get out NOW, Ethan, before I lose patience with you and decide to make you hurt."

Without touching his wand, Edward backed out of the door. Draco slammed it with a wave of his wand and Samara was aware of several wards going up.

Samara just let her eyes leave Draco long enough to realize that Beatrice and Vincent were long gone and apparently Greg Goyle had sneaked out at some point during the confrontation. She was alone once again with Draco and she was not sure she knew who he was. 

She was shaking and her heart was pounding and she understood Pansy's warning to Beatrice that Draco was dangerous. His aura was vivid blood red and was so turbulent it looked like molten lava. She remembered telling him when she had first met him that he didn't look like a dragon. She was so wrong. Nonetheless, he put his wand away and enfolded her gently in his arms. She stiffened.

Draco put his hand under her chin and lifted her face until she met his eyes. "He's frightened you," he said. 

Samara couldn't bring herself to say that it was Draco who frightened her. Instead she asked softly, "What happened to Pansy?"

"Nothing. Just be glad that I had to come back for the Quiddich plays." He kissed her lightly on the forehead. "And my Quiddich team still awaits me. I have to go. As much as I'd like to stay here with you-" He swung his leg over his broom, and frowned. "Samara, why were you in this room with Goyle and Lestrange?"

In the split second of his hesitation, Samara thought of her answer-

++++

She could say--"I was helping Edward steal his snake back from Ethan."

It would take several seconds before Draco realized that he had cursed the wrong twin. Then he would laugh. "Score for Slytherin!" 

But even though Draco obviously didn't like Ethan, he wouldn't let a Gryffindor take his snake--

++++

"I was looking for you," she said, as she unloosened her clasp on her robe and pulled it loose. "I wanted to show you my tee-shirt. On it was printed: Dancing is an out of body experience.

He smiled a slow smile that chased away her fears. "That it is," he replied. "Meet me," he said. "After supper by the lake-"

She nodded and he turned his broom and flew out of the hole he had made earlier. The stone wall of the dungeon knit up behind him.

For a few seconds she looked at the blank stone wall. She was mercifully alone, and there was no reason why she shouldn't finish the job she had started. 

She removed her robe and stood in her jean shorts and tee shirt. Talking softly, she opened the door to the snake's cage. She was asleep. Samara stoked her cool scales before attempting to pick her up. "Hello, Sweet," she whispered. The snake stirred lazily from its sleep, and she picked it up. "Be still," she said. "I won't hurt you. Aren't you pretty? Edward will be so pleased to have you back." Still talking slowly and calmly, she started to wrap the snake over her shoulders but it was nervous and kept squirming away. 

With slow and patient movements she finally managed to wrap it around her shoulder and around her waist. Cautiously, its tongue flicked in and out tasting her essence and learning who she was. Once it was sufficiently arranged, and quiet, Samara put her robe over it. The snake stirred anxiously. "SS-hh. Still. Sweetling." The snake calmed down in a moment and Samara was ready to go. Without disturbing Draco's wards she left his room and closed the door behind her. 

Samara was only a few steps down the corridor when she heard whispered voices tight with anger. She slipped into an alcove and held her breath. The snake began to stir, reacting to her nervousness." AA-hh. SS-hh. Still. Sweetling." She whispered.

The owners of the voices appeared. It was Ethan and Pansy. He had Pansy's left arm at an awkward angle pulled up to the middle of her back. The sleeve was ripped and had fallen back to reveal several bruises on Pansy's sallow, but otherwise unmarked skin. To Samara's eye the arm looked broken or at least dislocated. In the same hand, Ethan also held a fistful of her hair. 

His other hand held his wand. Samara noticed another wand sticking out of Ethan's pocket, presumably, Pansy's. Tears were coursing quietly down her bruised cheeks. But Pansy's disarray did not concern Samara as much as the condition of Ethan's aura. It was not just murky; it was opaque. It had holes similar to Edward's, but nestled in the blackness of the aura, the holes almost looked like relief. Jets of other colors shot across the darkness like angry, jagged lightening bolts. To look at it almost made Samara physically sick, and yet she still looked. She couldn't drag her eyes away. She didn't have to be a seer to realize that Ethan had some physical harm in mind for Pansy. She didn't know why or how--

Ethan said a word to open the door, but it remained closed. "That Bloody little ass did it again," he muttered as he kicked the door and then began to work to unlock the wards on his door. " Í'm gonna kill him." 

Samara didn't think it was an idle threat. She realized with a start that Ethan had killed before. Surely she was mistaken. 

"That rich punk thinks he can lock me out of my own room!" 

Pansy saw an opening and began to struggle, silently muggle style against his hold. Her knee came up hard, but he deflected it. Twisting, she managed to get her teeth on his arm and bit. She brought blood, and he released her, flinging her against the dungeon wall. With a klunk, her head smacked the wall, and he was upon her instantly. 

The absolute rage contained in his aura scared Samara and she reacted on instinct, drawing heavily on the most powerful energy--conveniently close-the air elemental surrounding him, which was contaminated with his hatred. Silently, she flung it back at him, with what she hoped was enough force to put him down.

Ethan dropped like a rock, a cry of misery on his lips. Almost before he hit the ground, Pansy had accioed her wand and was moving away, nursing her twisted arm. "Draco?" she whispered, but no one answered.

Samara watched in amazement as Ethan's aura started to clear to a murky gray. 

"Where are you?" Pansy whispered anxiously to the empty air. She hesitated a moment before looking down at Ethan who was writhing and clutching the ground. She kicked him. And kicked him again. 

Samara wanted desperately to leave, but she couldn't without being seen. She pulled even further back into the alcove when she noticed another person coming, A billowing cape of black unfurled behind him: Snape.

"Pansy. Enough." He snapped.

"No it's not," she snarled. "He-"

"I know," said Snape. He enfolded her in his arms in a shocking display of tenderness. "Lauren came and got me."

Pansy sobbed into his shoulder, and Samara wished to be anywhere but hidden a few feet away with an increasingly nervous snake wrapped around her. Its weight was starting to make her shoulder ache. She shuffled onto one foot and then the other, trying to see if it was possible for her to slip away. It didn't look like it. 

Snape let go of Pansy, urging her to go to Madam Pomfrey but she didn't move from his side. 

"Sir," she said softly. "I'd rather not. This belongs in Slytherin House." 

He nodded his agreement as he turned Ethan over to assess his injuries. The entire front of his robe was covered in blood. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth. Blood was seeping from under his fingernails. He had dropped into unconsciousness from the bleeding, but he was still twitching. "Bloody hell, girl, what were you trying to do kill him? Or just put yourself in Azkaban? Agmen Cogere!" Snape said to slow the bleeding and bent to check Ethan's vital signs. 

"I didn't do it," said Pansy. "I sure as hell wanted to though. I thought maybe it was Draco, but-"

"Not Draco," assessed Snape. "Too messy. And he knows better. Draco's been protecting you from Ethan, then?"

Pansy nodded. "What spell was that? I don't think I've ever seen-"

Snape raised an eyebrow as he looked at Pansy. She froze her mid-sentence. "Pansy," he said softly. "You've been in Slytherin for five years and you can't recognize a Cruces curse?"

Samara gasped, and then covered her mouth against the sound. She couldn't have done that! She didn't. She didn't say the spell. It couldn't be-She hadn't meant to-not like that-She had drawn so quickly on his hatred and just flung it back at him. It was almost instinctual. Almost-but she was still responsible-Ohmygod, she could go to Azkaban!" 

"Are you sure?" Asked Pansy. 

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Internal bleeding. Badly done, but still Crucio."

"I always thought that one seemed rather tame." Said Pansy. "I've changed my mind."

"Don't judge by this," said Snape. "There should be no external blood. If the person who cast this was focused, he would have contained the bleeding within the body where it would have continued to cause additional pain without an external sign." 

"I see," said Pansy.

"Of course, the fact that we see actual external bleeding was a mistake on the part of the caster. The whole objective of the crucious curse is to cause suffering without death-indeed without any real physical harm."

They were turning this into a classroom lesson! Samara was horrified.

"Do you recognize the magic signature?" Pansy asked offhandedly. She seemed totally unconcerned about Ethan's condition. 

Snape frowned. "I'm not sure, I believe I know-But it couldn't be--" He looked around, his black eyes, searching. If Samara ever wanted to sink into the floor and disappear, now was the time, but unfortunately, she hadn't learned to apparate yet.

Snape couldn't know she did that! He can't know. He can't. He can't. The snake wriggled furiously with Samara's nervousness. "S-h-h- be still," she whispered to it sharply. 

Surely Snape wouldn't be able to tell. She had never thought that someone would be able to trace who did a certain spell. She didn't mean to be so brutal. . She just wanted to stop him. It was an accident. No one would believe that, Samara realized so she remained quiet and in hiding. 

Although the snake had stopped wriggling, it was still heavy on her shoulder. She shifted it gently away from her neck. 

"I didn't see anyone curse him." Said Pansy. " I looked. It was like they were hidden, or invisible."

"Well, there's not time to look for him now," he said. "And they're probably gone anyway. Ethan's going into shock from the blood loss and Ethan's not worth your going to Azkaban. I can't do anything else for him here. I'm going to have to take him to Madam Pomfrey. Go to my office. I'll get you a potion when I return."

She nodded and started to turn away. "Miss Parkinson," Snape interrupted at last seeing the awkward angle that she held her arm. "Is your arm broken?"

"I think so."

"Well, I can't remedy that with a potion, you idiot. You'll have to come with us to the infirmary. I'm not as inept as Lockhart with bones, but Madam Pomfrey will want to see you."

I don't want to. Ethan is Draco's cousin. If I tell, I'll be in trouble at home-especially since my parents-- agree with him," she added in a whisper.

"Agree with him about what?" Samara wondered, but Snape seemed to understand. 

"I see," said Snape slowly. "I believe it is your choice, not your parents' choice." 

"Sir?"

Snape did not repeat himself. Instead he said shortly, "You'll want to fix you sleeve then, before we walk through the common room." 

Pansy just stared at Snape.

"What did you do, by the way?" asked Snape, as he bundled Ethan's robes around him.

Pansy still didn't answer.

"I assume Ethan had some reason for breaking your arm-your wand arm. Did he try to persuade you-"

"Do you think he needed a reason?" whispered Pansy.

"No, but did he have one?" asked Snape, as he levitated Ethan.

Pansy's silent tears turned to sobs. "Everyone will know-"

Snape suddenly turned back into the person Samara knew. "Stop sniveling," he ordered. "No one will know unless you tell them! And fix your sleeve, now! Madam Pomfrey will not ask questions. Volunteer nothing. Say nothing to anyone about the other person who cursed Ethan. I will take care of that."

"I'm scared," Pansy whispered. "Ethan knows."

"I know he does," said Snape, "But it will be to your advantage to let the others think that you are capable of defending yourself without Mr. Malfoy's help. Especially since Ethan had your wand. He'll think twice before bothering you again especially if he thinks you managed to send THAT curse without your wand." Snape's lips turned up in what Samara assumed was Snape's variation of a smile.

Pansy nodded. "Yes sir," she said.

They began to move out of earshot, and Samara couldn't hear Snape's answer. She only heard the sound of their voices, but couldn't distinguish the words. 

As soon as Snape left with Pansy and Ethan, Samara sprinted in the other direction. She wanted nothing more than to get back to Gryffindor Tower as fast as possible. Once out of the dungeon, she slowed to a walk and tried to calm the snake under her robes.

She nearly ran into Edward as he approached Gryffindor Tower from Madam Pomfrey's.

"Samara!" cried Edward. "Are you alright?"

Samara wasn't sure if she would ever be all right again. "I think so," she managed. "What about you?"

"Oh. That." Edward brushed off her concern. Actually Draco's curse was rather tame. My brother's done the same curse with much less finesse. When he first learned it, he cursed me twice a day. I can't believe I didn't see a curse coming. A week away from my brother and already I'm getting slow. My own stupidity, I guess and we didn't even get Kauket"

Guess again," said Samara reaching under her robe to reveal a small portion of snake scales.

"Oh Samara, you're wonderful!" said Edward catching her in a quick hug, which Kauket didn't appreciate. Edward was laughing as they fell into the common room.

"That was quite an adventure, wasn't it?" said Edward.

"Yes," Samara answered flatly.

==++

Samara sat on her bed and tried to analyze just what had happened today at Slytherin. She was scared and angry-scared she would get caught and scared for Pansy and angry that she had somehow gotten herself into that position. Her intent was to stop Ethan from hurting Pansy-no that wasn't exactly right. Her intention was to hurt him-to get him out of the way so she didn't have to face him with HIS pet snake over her shoulder-but of course she was concerned for Pansy-not as much as she was concerned for herself --if she was honest-but concerned nonetheless.

She had purposefully pulled magic from a questionable source-the air elemental surrounding Ethan. Once again she analyzed what she did. That wasn't right either. She could see Ethan's aura. She could see his magic. She knew he held the intent of a spell. She didn't know what spell though-she never would have thought it was crucio. Still, she knew he meant physical harm to Pansy-but crucio? He was reveling in it, and she still chose to pull from the contaminated air elemental--not a questionable source, but an unquestionably dark one.

So, she began to summarize in her mind. A dark intent-to hurt. A dark source-plus her own anger. And she let that all run straight through her-wandless. She fell right into the trap so many Dark wizards and witches fell into and now she understood why they didn't stop-it felt powerful-like The Room. It was incredible to feel that power flow through her body. She could almost pretend that she could control it. It was the most exhilarating experience of her life and it was dark. And she didn't care. She would do it again in a heartbeat, just to feel the power.

Samara buried her head in the pillow and sobbed. "No. No. No." The wizards and witches who did this kind of magic lost their humanity. 

Humanity is over-rated, she argued with herself.

A sob caught in her throat. She couldn't. She could go to Azkaban. 

She found herself weighing whether it would be worth the risk-She hadn't gotten caught so far. Maybe just a few times she could feel it. If she was careful-

Samara was appalled at where this line of thinking was taking her. She had to stop. She understood what had happened. Intellectually, she understood, but that didn't make it any easier to reject. 

She had sucked the darkness through herself, and she was like a straw that is dirtied by the contents sucked through it. Then she thrust it back, at the spell's maker, Ethan. She hadn't expected it to hold itself together. She had expected a magical backlash of energy to knock Ethan out. But it hadn't happened that way. 

Crucio. She found herself congratulating herself. She had held that spell together, not Ethan. It was awesome. She thrust the thoughts away. She had to purge herself of this dark magic-and yet-perhaps she didn't need to do it just yet. Perhaps-

"Samara?" It was Ginny peering into the darkened room. "Are you coming down to supper?"

"Samara?" She moved over to the bed and put her hand on Samara's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"No."

"Are you sick?" asked Ginny.

"I must be."

Ginny sat on the edge of the bed. "Do you want me to bring you something from the Great Hall?"

"No. I'm not hungry."

"Samara," said Ginny. "What happened at Slytherin today?"

No answer.

"Was it Draco?"

"No." Samara hesitated. This should be secret, but she wasn't a secretive person.

"I've done something-" Samara whispered. "Something bad."

"Can I help?" asked Ginny. Sitting on the bed next to her.

Samara shook her head, still hiding her face in the pillow.

"Maybe you should talk to Dumbledore," suggested Ginny.

"No!"

Silence.

"I'd be expelled. At least."

Ginny sat silently on the bed for a while. "Dumbledore's pretty forgiving," said Ginny. "I doubt he'd expel you for a first offence."

Samara raised red, teary eyes to Ginny. "Even if it's unforgivable?"

"Samara?"

Samara lay her head back in the pillow and spoke the next words in a muffled monotone. "Do you think it is possible to do an unforgivable curse unintentionally," she said. "Would anyone believe that?"

"Well, no. I don't think so," answered Ginny. "You raise your wand. You say the word or words. I don't think you can do it by accident."

"Wandless," said Samara.

Ginny sucked in her breath.

"And drawing on another's power," said Samara. "Reflecting it back-"

"Then the curse originated with the recipient," said Ginny. "We were just talking about that sort of thing in ADADA: reflective wards."

"Not a ward," corrected Samara, "A curse. But still, tell me. What did Professor Snape say about reflecting an unforgivable curse. Who is responsible?"

He didn't say-I-" Ginny got up to look at her ADADA notes. It just kind of cuts off," said Ginny. That must have been when we went outside to draw power." Ginny frowned. "I remember, I was going to ask him-"

"Oh good," Samara interrupted. "Let me know what he says."

Ginny nodded.

"Come on. Come down to dinner."

Dinner was a tasteless affair. Samara played with the food on her plate while Ginny and Beatrice tried to engage her in conversation. After a while, she excused herself. 

"I'll come with you," said Beatrice, but Ginny put her hand on Beatrice's arm.

"No. It's ok," said Samara shortly.

"Let her go," Ginny said. "I think she just needs some time to sort out her thoughts.

Beatrice sat back down with a worried glance at Samara. 

++

It was a typical fall evening. The air was still warm, but a breeze was blowing that made the evening comfortably cool. There was a crisp smell of leaves in the air. As a child, she had always thought she could smell magic in the air in the autumn. Her parents had thought she had eaten too much Halloween candy. No one believed her. It was just one more reason she was different.

She had never wanted to be different. She felt the tears welling up again, stuffing her nose and threatening to spill out onto her face. Now at Hogwarts, that scent of magic was even stronger. She wondered, was it really possible to smell magic? Was it some other talent like her seeing auras? Or was she just a misfit? She didn't belong with the muggles. She knew that. Now, she was beginning to feel like she didn't belong with the wizards either. Maybe she should ask Professor McGonagall-something-what? 

Her steps took her down by the lake. She didn't mean for them to. She wasn't sure she wanted to see Draco again right now. She considered retracing her steps. She didn't know what she felt about anything especially Draco, but when she looked toward the castle, she realized she was too late. Even at a distance she recognized the swagger that was Draco's and his pale blonde hair shown in the evening sun as he crossed the wide expanse of open land that separated the castle from the lake and the forest beyond. He still had his robe on, but it was open, billowing out behind him, revealing the shorts and shirt he wore beneath it. His tie was loosened and hanging around his neck.

She sat down at the water's edge and took off her shoes. She wanted to feel the grounding of the earth beneath her feet. She hoped it would calm her nerves. So far, nothing else had. After a few minutes of rubbing her feet against the Earth, she hiked up her robe and dipped her feet in the lake. There were a few other students scattered along the lake, some couples, some studying, but none of them were close to her and she felt like she had this little corner of the universe to herself. She leaned back against a tree and closed her eyes. The water was comfortably warm. 

"Careful," warned Draco. "Something might take your toes off in that water."

"Hmm."

Draco settled himself beside her. "I'm serious," he said. "giant squid, gryndolows, merpeople, some large fish, all sorts of nasty plants."

"Worried about me, are you?" she asked opening her eyes and looking at him.

"No," he said holding her eye contact. "I think you can take care of yourself."

A splash of fear shot through her. What did he know? "Damn right," she answered, still holding his stare and daring him to look away first. He didn't. He held her gaze for another moment as a confident grin grew on his face. Then he bent and very softly, placed a kiss on her lips. Her eyes closed as she melted into it.

"Not fair-" she murmured against his lips as he settled beside her and pulled her on to his lap.

"I never said I played fair," he whispered back as his lips trailed down her neck. 

She just enjoyed the sensations without returning them. "Draco," she asked. "Why do you hate Harry Potter?"

"Oh, there's a question and a half," he joked, shifting his weight so that he could lean against the nearby tree. He pulled her up against him. "Do we have to talk about Potter?" he murmured against her ear. "I could think of better topics." 

"I'm just trying to understand why he hates you so much. He won't talk to me about it."

"I tried to be his friend, First Year," said Draco, his eyes narrowing with the memory. "I offered him my hand, and he wouldn't even touch it. He looked at me like I was scum. I told him some wizarding families are better than others, but he chose the Weasel-"

"The Weasel?"

Ron Weasey. They're dirt poor."

"I like Ginny," said Samara. "I told you that."

"Yes," said Draco. "I saw what happened. I noticed Potter kicked you out of his little group. His loss. But Ginny stuck by you-Ginny's different though--"

"Why? Because she dated a Slytherin?"

"When?" said Draco surprised.

"She told me-Never mind," said Samara. "They must have kept it pretty secret."

"Nothing happens in Slytherin that I don't know about," said Draco importantly, but Samara doubted he was that much in control of things in his house. Obviously, he didn't know about Ginny. She held his gaze for another moment wondering if Draco was still talking about Ginny, or was he referring to her own actions, earlier this afternoon."

"Anyway, they can't help it they are poor, can they?" asked Samara changing the subject.

"Sure they can. Too many kids. Arthur and Molly needed to exercise a little self-control or learn to brew a contraceptive potion."

Samara felt a warm blush tingling her face and she was glad that since she was sitting in Draco's lap, he could not see it.

"When you're that stupid," he continued. "You deserve to be poor. Plus Arthur Weasley is a Muggle lover, not that anything you would do for one of those would do him any good -financially or otherwise."

"Why is that?" asked Samara trying to figure out just what Draco was talking about. 

"Because the stinking little parasites are ruining the planet, that's why," said Draco, suddenly wrapping his arms around her and shifting away from the tree. He fell backwards against the cool grass, taking her with him.

With a little screech, she found herself sprawled out beside him, one of his warm legs pinning hers and his robes billowed out, half covering both of them. His mouth descended upon hers and conversation stopped.

For a moment he just kissed her. His lips were warm and wonderful, his tongue exploring her mouth. She pulled him closer and suddenly; she was awash with Draco. His magic just cascaded over her filling her, setting every nerve ending afire. She felt like she was drowning in his magic. She panicked for just a moment and then realized she needed to release his magic from her. Once she realized what she needed to do, the magic completely over shadowed what he was doing with his tongue and lips. It even overshadowed all of today's worries. There was nothing but his magic. She felt like she could never get enough-

But suddenly, Draco stopped and held her at arm's length. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Wrong?" Samara echoed. She had just been kissed like she had never been kissed before. He exploded her world and he asked what's wrong? What could possibly be wrong?"

"You kiss like a muggle," he muttered against her hair.

And you've kissed one of those?" asked Samara with a laugh in her voice.

"Ugh! Of course not. It's just an expression."

"And not a very kind one," said Samara.

"No. I guess not." He breathed in her hair and nibbled her neck making shivers go up and down her spine. Obviously, that was the closest to an apology she was going to get. 

"Will you kiss me back, my precious?" he murmured between chaste kisses. "I want to taste your magic."

Samara considered as she played with the silky strands of his hair. She wasn't sure if she knew exactly how to let him feel her magic. She knew how to heal with it, but that wasn't what she wanted to do. However, she knew what she DID want to do. So, intent is everything, she thought as she nestled closer to him and pulled a trickle of magic from herself. She let it flow tentatively through her fingers and cascade down his neck and shoulders. Another trickle as she rubbed her hands up and down his back. She wanted to be very careful not to over extend or lose control.

He sighed and pulled her close again. "I see I'm being rationed," he said. "Do you intend to torture me, or does it just come naturally," he murmured against her hair, before he opened the floodgates on his own magic and pulled her tightly into his magical embrace. 

==

A/N: Please be a responsible reader and REVIEW. Your thoughts and opinions will help to make this story better. I know it's very easy to just click to the next story—I've done it myself. However, if you review I'll probably get the next chapter up more quickly. Just a word or two will help me. It only takes a minute of your time.

If you have a fanfic, I will be glad to return the favor and review yours.

Thanks,

Lady Lestrange


	25. CH 24: Cool Shirts and Warm Cookies

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Cool Shirts and Warm Cookies

Chapter 24

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize, belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down twice. --Lady Lestrange)

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? --Lady Lestrange

"I'm sure I have another shirt that will do," said Hannah. "I just made it last night thinking—well there's a Gryffindor I might give it to eventually, but I'm not ready to give it to him yet anyway."

"Are you sure?" asked Samara. "I don't want to take the shirt if you made it for someone else."

"Who did you make it for?" asked Beatrice.

"Nosy little bunny aren't you?" said Hannah playfully.

Beatrice wriggled her nose and laughed.

"Do you really think Hermione will like a shirt like this?" asked Samara holding the 'muggle born and proud' shirt in front of her.

"I think she will," said Sally Anne. "There are some Hufflepuffs that would wear it, even though they are not generally as brave as Gryffindors. I don't personally know Hermione, but I'm sure a Gryffindor would wear it. What do you think, Bunny?"

Beatrice nodded. "I think she'll like it."

But you know," said Samara. "It wasn't really Hermione who was being awful. It was Ron and Harry. I don't even know if this is a good idea or not. I feel like I'm trying to bribe them into friendship with me."

"Of course it's the right thing to do," said Susan Bones. "You're sorry that you disrupted that new friendship aren't you?"

"I am," said Samara. "But I don't think they have the right to tell me not to be friends with Draco either—"

"Of course not," said Sally Anne. "Trust us. And it's not a bribe, it's a gift. Say you are sorry for upsetting them, and then be more discreet in the future."

"That seems dishonest," said Samara.

"It's not dishonest," said Hannah. "You don't have to tell them every little bit of your business. It's not like it concerns them."

"I really think they should apologize to me," said Samara.

"Of course they should," said Beatrice, "But I don't think they will."

"You're right, Bunny-B" said Sally. "Gryffindors are just as stubborn as Slytherins. Just be glad that Gryffindors won't make you beg, and grovel."

"I wouldn't do that," said Samara shortly.

"Oh, well," said Sally Anne with a dreamy expression on her face, "Sometimes it's worth it."

Hannah Abbot gave her a playful push. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Sally Anne."

"My mind isn't in the gutter," retorted Sally. "It's right here. In this room." She flung herself back on her bed and closed her eyes.

Susan Bones' mouth fell open. "Sally! What happened? When was this?"

"Opps," said Sally covering her mouth. "Didn't mean to say that in front of the prefect."

"I'm your friend first," countered Susan.

"Well, in that case--Earlier this afternoon," said Sally, with a slight blush. "Vincent brought me some chocolate frogs—wasn't that sweet of him—" Sally continued to smile as Hannah turned back to the trunk to look for the shirt that had brought them up to the room in the first place.

"You shouldn't have allowed him up to your room," admonished Susan.

"But it's not like your dorm-mates should know every little bit of your business." Sally Anne said, echoing Hannah's words. "It's not like it concerns them. Especially if they're prefects--"

Samara sighed. "I do want to be friends with the Gryffindors again, but I just don't know about giving them gifts. I feel like a should be able to talk to them—get them to see reason—"

"Not about Malfoy," said Susan. "Gryffindors are completely blind about Slytherins."

"And vice versa," added Hannah. "See, if they were Ravenclaws, you could logic your way out of this one. But Ravenclaws are actually much more difficult to get around to your way of thinking." Said Hannah. "And they'd never even notice a tee-shirt. If you gave them anything, you'd want to give them a book—"

"Hopefully one that would engross them for the next three days," added Susan. "And then they would be so happy that you found that particular book, they would forget that they were mad at you."

"But books don't always work," said Hannah. "You might just have to engage them in a puzzle to solve."

"Sounds like you've done this before," said Samara with a smile.

"Loads of times," replied Sally Anne. "Of course Slytherin's the slipperiest. So count yourself lucky you're not fighting with Draco."

What about Hufflepuffs?" asked Samara curiously. 

"Oh," said Hannah looking at Sally. "Give them a chocolate frog and hug and they'll forgive anything."

"Ha! Ha! Very funny," said Sally sarcastically.

Here's the other tee shirt," said Hannah, pulling out a dark red shirt with an animated golden lion on it. The lion scratched his mane against his leg and stretched as if awakened from sleep. He suddenly opened his mouth and roared. 

"Oh, that's precious!" said Samara. "I wish I could draw animals, but I'm better at drawing caricatures."

Then the lion padded around to the back of the shirt. Only his flicking tail was visible from the front. Then he pounced around the front of the shirt, startling them all.

"Sally drew the lion. It looks great doesn't it?" said Hannah.

"Oh it does," said Samara. "What do you want for it?"

"Transfiguration homework for a week," said Sally Anne deadpan.

Hannah threw a stuffed badger at her. "You have been hanging around Vincent too long!" she said. 

"OK, OK I'm not serious. If you like the lion, I'll draw one on another shirt for you right now for nothing. I like drawing them anyway. It won't take me long—I do wish I could do my transfiguration as fast—"

"If you need help with transfig," said Beatrice. "I'd be glad to help."

"Would you really?" asked Sally Anne. "I can draw the animals easily, but I have such a hard time animating them correctly. Hannah did that one." She pointed to the lion shirt. "Mine always look jerky and stilted. I can do the charm part of it, but to really make them alive, you need the transfiguration."

"I see," said Beatrice. "It's the same process that animates an object when you turn it into an animal."

"Exactly," said Sally Anne.

Samara could see that this conversation was going to go in-depth into transfiguration and she wasn't sure she wanted to go there right now. Besides, Sally Anne had bumped into her several times, moving around the small dorm room trying to find the right colors for the lion's mane and tail. It was the first time that Samara noticed that the Hufflepuff rooms were smaller than Gryffindor's and then, when she thought of it, she realized that the Slytherin's rooms were bigger. She wondered why they weren't all the same size. Then she realized that each founder would have chosen the size rooms for his or her house.

"They'll be engrossed for a while," said Susan Bones. "Do you want to go back down to the common room with us. I think there's cookies tonight."

"Would you mind if I went down and looked at The Wall for a while?" Samara asked Beatrice and Sally Anne. 

They both waved her away.

Once down in the common room, Samara settled herself on the sofa to watch The Wall. She found Helga almost immediately. She was stirring a potion and Salazar was trying his best to distract her by nuzzling her neck. Salazar was dressed in immaculate green and gray robes. Helga had her potion-stained yellow robe open to reveal an old-fashioned flower patterned cotton housedress like Samara had seen her Grandma Lori wear. Samara noticed that as long as she didn't actually stare at the couple, Salazar didn't scowl at her. 

Unfortunately, if Samara really wanted to look at The Wall, she was out of luck. Two other Hufflepuffs thought she looked lonely and came over to keep her company. They talked about the train wreck and the wizarding bank and the upcoming quiddich season. Then, Susan and Hannah brought the cookies they had offered along with the choice milk or hot chocolate. 

"These are wonderful," said Samara as she bit into a warm cookie. "Who made them?"

"House elves," replied Susan. "Don't they bring an evening snack to Gryffindor?"

Samara shook her head, her mouth full of cookie. "But I think they should," she said.

"Oh they always bring something," said Hannah. "Cookies or pastries or fruit—Sometimes we make requests too."

It was starting to get a little cool in the room and no one wanted to light a fire, so the occupants of the room brought out an assortment of afghans and quilts and fluffy stadium blankets. Hannah moved over to share a quilt with several other Hufflepuffs. "There's room for you too, Samara," she said holding up a corner of the quilt. 

Samara shook her head.

Then an exceeding boisterous game of exploding snap started on the other side of them. Susan tried to settle them down. She put a cooling charm on the smoking sofa, just in case--

When Samara glanced back up at The Wall, Salazar was sitting at the table near Helga. He was viscously grinding some roots that Helga had cut and another person had joined them. She was a petite dark haired girl and when she smiled at Helga, Samara realized that she was a vampire.

"Ohmygosh!" exclaimed Samara. "Is that a vampire?"

Several excited Hufflepuffs moved forward to look and apparently frightened, the vampire disappeared from view. Salazar scowled at the Hufflepuffs and shook his wand angrily.

It seemed to Samara like the whole of Hufflepuff house was in the common room. If there hadn't been so many students crowding around, maybe the vampire wouldn't have been frightened. She was disappointed that she didn't get a better look.

By the time the girls brought down the shirt, Samara had a headache from the noise and snap smoke, and she was shivering, but she had learned the rudiments of knitting from Calvin Anthony. Knit one. Pearl one. She had a rather crooked red and gold scarf started. A few more Hufflepuffs offered to share their blankets, but Samara wasn't sure she wanted that complication in the mix with Draco and her Gryffindor friends. Even though she liked Hufflepuff, she was glad to get back to Gryffindor Tower. 

She and Beatrice tweaked the animation a little making the lion lick his lips and yawn a great yawn that showed his exceedingly large teeth when he rolled his tongue. Samara suggested having one of the lions gnawing on a leg covered in Slytherin robes. "I can draw humans or human parts," said Samara. "Just not animals."

But after much giggling, they decided that neither Harry nor Ron would wear as shirt decorated by Slytherin colors even if they were on body parts eaten by a lion—at least they were sure about Harry. Samara wasn't so sure about Ron.

Draco, on the other hand Samara suggested would probably relish a shirt depicting Gryffindors being eaten by a snake. "I have the perfect idea," said Samara excitedly. "The snake slithers around the front of the shirt and swallows the Gryffindor—"

"Samara!" said Beatrice shocked.

"And all you can see," continued Samara, "Are the kicking legs sticking out of its mouth and the bottom of the Gryffindor Robes—"

"Kicking legs?" interrupted Beatrice.

"Yeah," said Samara. "Then I'll need a second drawing of the snake with a big bump in the middle of it."

"Maybe it should put its tail up to its mouth to cover a 'burp' if it's eaten a whole person," said Beatrice dryly.

"Maybe—" said Samara thoughtfully, completely missing Beatrice's attempt at sarcasm. "Do you think we could make it re-appear on the back and repeat the whole process?"

"Samara," said Beatrice slowly. "I thought the whole point of the shirt was to make up with the Gryffindors, not antagonize them."

"You're right," said Samara, still thinking about the snake shirt. "I wouldn't make the person look like anyone in Gryffindor of course—no black hair and glasses—no red hair—"

==

As they turned the corner, they met with Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore talking quietly in the corridor.

"Don't know—but something bigger than—" Snape cut off mid sentence and waited for the girls to pass them.

"Good evening, Professor. Headmaster," said Beatrice.

"Good evening," Samara echoed as they passed the teachers and headed up to Gryffindor Tower.

"I'll speak to you later, in the library," Dumbledore said to Snape, and he left the professor standing at the foot of the stairs, near the Slytherin Dungeon.


	26. CH 25: Choosing Sides and Family Ties

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH 

BY Lady Lestrange

Choosing Sides and Family Ties

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down twice. --Lady Lestrange)

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. --Lady Lestrange

***

On to the chapter…

****

Choosing Sides and Family Ties

Parvati's dream began ordinarily enough. Like dreams, it was a little disjointed and confused. It had no feel of a prophecy. It wasn't orderly enough to be a prophecy. Parvati was standing at the door of the Gryffindor Tower and Harry Potter was standing in front of her. She remembered the moment. It wasn't a prophecy.

"Parvati—wannacometotheballwithme?" Harry spat out in one breath.

She hesitated. If he were anyone else—not a champion—she would have said no. She wondered why she found herself saying yes. 

"OK, then."

Well, she knew the reason. She would open the dance. Pity it was with Harry. She would have preferred Cedric. Not that she didn't like Harry. It was just that he was always with Hermione and she was such a know-it-all. Besides, Harry was so serious all of the time. He never laughed at their jokes. He hardly even smiled or had fun. She and Lavender had laughed at loads of jokes from Fred and George's antics to some Slytherin getting some well-needed comeuppance, but Harry had no sense of humor. 

She considered him marginally good looking. Hopefully, he could do something with his hair—She wondered if she should ask if he wanted a spell—but he was a champion in the Tri Wizard Tournament and in his fight against You-know-who.

Harry Potter smiled and then he pushed bravely on—you had to admire that—bravery. Someone for Ron? He must be kidding!

"What about Hermione?" Parvati asked.

Parvati wracked her brain. Who owed her? Well, there was her sister in Ravenclaw. She never got her nose out of her books long enough to notice if she was going to the Ball with a troll or not—not that Ron was a Troll. He was just—well, Ron. And then she was saying she'd ask her sister.

The dream skipped ahead as dreams do: Alvin Nott asked her to go to the Yule Ball. He was darkly exciting and wickedly handsome. He was a little thin for her tastes, but it didn't matter. She had already committed to going with Harry. She told Alvin 'no'. She hadn't told anyone that the Slytherin had asked her. In truth, she had forgotten about it until just now.

Christmas day came and Parvati had to admit that Harry looked great, unlike Ron in his * robes. When they danced, Harry let her lead. Amazing that he realized that this was something she did better than him and unlike most boys he let her do it. He even managed to avoid stepping on her feet—most of the time. 

As they danced, she felt his breath, warm on her cheek. She could feel the racing of her heart. Why? Because she was in his arms? Because of the dance? Because—something was not right? She turned her body, just a little to settle herself a little closer against him. She knew he wouldn't push her away. She turned her head so she could snuggle a little with her head on his chest, listening to his heart. She moved her head again, just a little bit so that her cheek brushed against his lips. She turned her face up to him, her lips, just a breath away from his. She knew he would kiss her. But he didn't. He was looking across the room. The music stopped. All was silent. Deadly silent.

Drenched in sweat, she awakened and sat up, automatically reaching for her dream journal. "Harry?" she thought. "Little, rumpled haired Harry?" 

"No," she decided this wasn't a prophecy. It was just a stupid dream. It's important for a Seer to be able to tell the difference," she thought as she put the dream journal, unopened, back on the nightstand. She closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. 

==

It was impossible. Ginny, in a fetal position, had wrapped herself around her blankets, and was moaning softly. She seemed to be trying to get away from whatever was in the blanket, but at the same time, she clung to it. Her muttered, incomprehensible sounds, along with her thrashing about, finally drove Parvati to pull the pillow and blanket off of her bed and move to the Gryffindor common room in the hopes of getting a few more hours of sleep before it was time for class. 

Parvati froze as she noted the raging fire in the Common room fireplace. Her eyes unfocused as she sank down onto the sofa and stared at the fire. She found herself back at the Yule Ball. She had already left Harry and was sitting at the Beaubaton table when Alvin Nott came and asked her to dance. She realized, unlike Harry, he was leading, his arms possessively around her. She stepped the wrong way and she tripped. Suddenly, she felt his arms tighten around her, keeping her upright. She looked up to see his dark, unfathomable eyes. A Death Eater mask hid the rest of his face.

"I won't let you fall," he whispered. "I'll protect you." But his arms were not the skinny little Alvin Nott arms. They were strong arms—a man's arms.

"Say nothing." He whispered and it was not Alvin Nott's voice. It was a man's voice. A man she knew. Snape.

"Dance!" he hissed in her ear. 

She looked around wildly as the room filled with Death Eaters. People around her were dying. She had to help them. She started to struggle. She saw the Death Eaters coming—reaching out—their bare arms poking out of their robes—and around each arm was a snake. She wanted to close her eyes to shut out the sight, but she couldn't. Some morbid fascination made her continue to look. She could feel their hands on her. She could smell burning flesh. It was hot. So hot.

"Ignore them. Dance!" Snape's voice spoke in her ear. "You cannot help them unless you are strong."

She couldn't do it. She couldn't take her eyes off of the scene around her. How could she ignore them? They were her friends. The Death Eaters were moving through the dance floor pronouncing curses and killing Drumstrang students as well as Hogwart's students. While she watched, several of the Drumstrang students calmly got up from where they were sitting at the Slytherin table and went to join the Death Eaters. She blinked and there were Death Eaters sitting among the Slytherins—among the Ravenclaws—among the Gryffindors—and even among the Hufflepuffs. Was no where safe? 'Where were the teachers?' Screamed her frenzied brain. Why was no one here to help them?

The Beaubaton's table exploded in a rush of flames! "No!" Her legs would no longer dance. They would no longer hold her. She crumpled, the flames moving in, but Snape wrapped his cloak around her and picked her up. 

A part of her recoiled, but another part listened to his intense instructions.

"They must not know who you are," he said. "Tell no one. Do you understand? Do you understand how important you are? Do you understand?"

"Yes," she whispered, as she buried her face against his shoulder, "I understand" And she awoke. She was drenched in sweat and was shaking and she understood nothing. She stared stupidly at the roaring fire in the Common Room fireplace for several seconds before she even understood what she was seeing.

She rubbed her hands against her nightgown as if to wipe off the sweat. She had been dancing with Snape. She had her arms around his neck when he picked her up. Her fingers were in his hair—his greasy stringy hair. She shuddered with disgust and then raced to the girl's room to be sick because Snape was the best thing about the vision.

Afterwards she rinsed out her mouth and wiped her face. She wished disparately that she had planned a midnight lesson with Dean. She wanted his arms around her to wipe away the feeling of fear and violation that clung to her. 

Instead, she took her wand down to the Common Room and extinguished the fire. Then she took her dream journal and slipped out of the Common Room to begin the long climb to Professor Trelawney's rooms.

While she climbed she thought it was probably for the best. She needed to tell Professor Trelawney, not Dean. The last time she had told Dean one of her visions had been in second year when the Chamber of Secrets was opened. She had dreamed that Snape gave He—who—must—not--be--named a recipe for a potion to raise the Dark Lord from his near death state. Dean had nightmares about severed body parts for a whole year afterwards, especially the severed hand that stirred the potion. Actually, she had forgotten about it until Professor Lupin's class with the boggart. That's when she decided not to tell Dean any more of her dreams.

Parvati was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't see Snape until she practically ran into him. What was he doing on the seventh floor--------------? He was supposed to be in his dungeon!

"Who were you meeting tonight, Miss Patil?" he growled at her. Without waiting for an answer, he said. "20 points from Gryffindor and you will have detention tomorrow evening. Get back to your dormitory immediately."

"I have to see Professor Trelawney," she whispered. "I've had a vision."

"There's time enough for that nonsense in the morning," he snapped. "Likely that's just an excuse to get you out of trouble. Well, it won't work with me. Now. Get back to your dormitory, and if I see you wondering about these halls at night again it will be 30 points and a weeks detention. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?

His face was inches from hers and all she could think of is that he smelled exactly like he did in her vision—like smoke and some spicy potion ingredients that she couldn't place. Suddenly she remembered those eyes surrounded by a Death Eater's mask, and she turned and ran back to Gryffindor Tower.

"No running in the corridors!" Snape called after her.

==

Harry nodded as Hermione joined them. Beatrice moved down the table to where Samara was sitting. Ginny looked from one to the other, but eventually came over and sat next to Ron who was writing his final copy of his Defense Paper.

"You know," Ginny said. "You guys really hurt Samara's feelings yesterday."

"You can't say you agree with her kissing Malfoy!" said Ron, looking up from his work.

"No, but she has a right to pick her friends."

"Yep," said Ron. "And so do we."

"How can she understand what Slytherins are like, if we don't tell her?" asked Ginny.

"We tried to tell her yesterday," said Harry. "She wouldn't listen."

"You know," said Hermione, "I'm not taking Samara's side on this, but she doesn't know Malfoy. He can fool the casual observer. I'm thinking he probably is using her to get back at her for the curse she gave him last week or just to get to you, Harry. You shouldn't let it bother you. Don't give him the satisfaction."

"By not talking to her, you're driving her right back to Malfoy," said Ginny.

"Who cares where she goes," said Ron. "We've go along just fine without her for the past four years—"

Ginny sighed, but didn't say anything else about the argument to Ron. 

Edward, who came in a few minutes later, looked from one group to the other, and chose to sit with Samara and Beatrice.

==

"You know," said Hermione. "I've been looking over those papers you copied at the library again."

Just then, a late flying owl flew to Hermione and deposited an envelope on top of her breakfast.

"Is that from Viktor?" asked Harry.

She shook her head, puzzled, as she opened it. "I don't think so— It's only been five days since I owled him." A look of bemusement crossed her face as she read aloud the letter she received:

Congratulations!

You have won! You are invited for a 3-day, 4-night holiday in Sunny Florida, at Disney World USA—the _Real _Magic Kingdom. Walk our private, muggle-free beach. Free cruise to the Bermuda Triangle. Only 99 galleons. Free Portkey and Floo Passage.

"Let's send Snape," said Ron who was trying to finish his Defense Paper and eat at the same time.

"Honestly, Ron," said Hermione "Why didn't you finish that over the weekend?"

"Because I still have today," said Ron, scribbling frantically.

Ginny chuckled over an image in her mind of Snape's pale form on the beach, in undoubtedly black swim trunks—or perhaps breakfast with the Mouse—"

Still laughing, she shared her imaginings with a curious Hermione and Ron just as Joe, Lou and Neville joined them at the table.

Ron didn't look up from his homework parchment as he shoveled food into his mouth. "Tha-s nice," he muttered distractedly.

"Ron," Harry interrupted. "Why don't you either eat or do the Defense. You're going to get food on your parchment."

Ron looked up. "Wait. It's Monday isn't it? We have Divination first."

"Yeah," said Harry. "So?"

"Whew. I can eat," he said rolling up his parchment. "I'll finish this in Divination."

"Ron!" said Hermione.

"Just forget it, Hermione," advised Harry. "You've always said Divination is a waste of time anyway."

"But it's still a class," said Hermione. "Ron, you should—"

"Anything interesting in the Daily Prophet?" asked Harry trying to change the subject.

"Well," said Hermione. "Speaking of Disney--There's an article in the Daily Prophet about a muggle threat to bomb Eurodisney.

"Bomb?" asked Harry. "Are we talking about muggle bombs?"

"Actually yes," said Hermione. Apparently, the aurors didn't find it because there was no evidence of magic but the muggle police who disarmed it couldn't figure out how the bomb got in place. Eventually, aurors realized that a portkey was used—an old Disney souvenir cup. It says that the bomb was entirely muggle, but placed by magic. 

"That means some of the other muggle terrorists may have been helped by magic," said Lou.

"That doesn't seem like He-who-must-not-be-named," said Neville. "He has no use for muggles."

"That's true," said Joe.

"I think he has a use for anyone who does his dirty work," said Lou. "Muggles killing muggles is a bonus."

"Less for his Death Eaters to do, I guess," said Harry thoughtfully, as the group began to gather their things for class.

"We'll see you at lunch, Joe," said Ron, as the first years headed out to the grounds for flying and the older students went to Divination and Arithmancy.

Professor McGonagall had separated some of the first years out and put some of them with the Second Year Hufflepuffs, since classes were so small. She left Samara and Edward and Beatrice with the Gryffindors since they were older, and Lou stayed because he seemed to know the work even though he was younger, but the other first years had been removed from their classes. Ginny and Colin also stayed because McGonagall said there was no point in moving them into the Fourth year Ravenclaw class. The Fourth year Ravenclaws were nearly at the same point as the Fifth Year Gryffindors. Hermione was incensed. "How could Professor McGonagall let that happen?" she exclaimed. "We need to work harder to catch up."

"The Ravenclaws need to work slower," said Ron.

"Oh no," cried Neville. "We can't work faster. If we do, Professor McGonagall will probably move me too, and with my luck, she'd put me with the Fourth Year Slytherins!"

"Don't be silly, Neville. She wouldn't do that." Said Hermione, although Harry wasn't' too sure. If the enrollment kept dropping, all of the houses might get switched around.

As they passed the Second floor girl's bathroom, they paused. Several inches of water covered the floor.

"Oh no," said Harry. "Not again."

"I wonder what's wrong with her," Hermione said.

"We have time," said Harry. "Should we stop and see?"

"Oh I don't want to," replied Hermione.

Ginny said nothing.

"But don't you want to know who the new ghost is?" asked Ron.

"I guess. Come on, then," said Hermione, pushing the bathroom door open.

"We can't go in there," protested Neville. "It's a girl's bathroom!" 

"No one uses it," Hermione explained. But before they got to the door, they heard the shouting.

"It's MY bathroom! Get out! Get out! GET OUT!" Myrtle shrieked.

Hermione peeked in. Neville and Ginny stood in the doorway.

"Oh hi, Hermione. And Harry! You can come into my bathroom anytime," she purred in her nasal voice. "BUT NOT HER!" Mrytle pointed at the other ghost.

"Hi Myrtle," said Ron. "This is Neville and Ginny" Neville looked worried at peeking into a girl's bathroom. He was blushing.

"I know Ginny," said Myrtle slyly, but the other ghost interrupted her.

"I liked it at Hogwarts," said an older ghost who was wearing an elegant business dress and a neat coif of ghostly hair was piled on top of her head. She perched on the edge of the sink with the broken faucet.

Unconsciously, Ginny's eyes were drawn to the golden snakes etched on the faucets.

"And I'm staying," the ghost continued.

"No you're not!" cried Myrtle.

"Who are you?" asked Hermione.

"Olive Hornby," said the ghost haughtily peering at them through narrowed eyes. "Go Away."

"Olive Hornby!" shouted Harry. "I thought you died ages—um—er—You didn't just die, did you?"

"No," said Olive, "But I didn't want to be known as the ghost who haunts the empty lot on the hill."

"Lot?" said Ron. "What happened to your house?"

"Muggles tore down my house." Her lip curled as she spoke. "To build a place that makes E-Lek-tris-sity. The disgusting, rotten vermin, I'd like to tear them limb from limb. If I had my wand, they wouldn't have torn it down!"

Hermione was staring at Olive. "You're a Slytherin," she breathed.

Suddenly Olive flew straight into Hermione's face. "And you're a Mudblood!" she shouted. "What about it Gryffin Dung!" Harry could smell her putrid breath from several feet away. Hermione put her sleeve over her nose and tried to push Olive away. All she succeeded in doing is running her hand through Olive's cold ghostly form.

"Leave them alone," said Myrtle. "They're my friends."

"Gryffindors! Myrtle!" Olive laughed. "You always were such a poor excuse for a Slytherin, but I didn't think even YOU could sink that low. Look at you, Fifty years and you've never left the bathroom. You're disgusting."

"Oh she's left the bathroom," said Harry.

"Still spying on the Prefects, Myrtle?" Olive cooed.

"Well at least she left this bathroom," said Harry, a blush coloring his face as he remembered Myrtle in the Prefects' Bathroom last year."

"Honestly, Myrtle, look at him. He's hardly out of the cradle. You should be ashamed. You're old enough to be his Grandmother."

"I'm not," Myrtle spat. "You are. I'm preserved as sixteen, forever and ever!"

"Let's go," suggested Hermione. "I don't want to be late for Arithmancy."

The others nodded and backed out of the doorway, as the insults started to escalate.

"Oh Myrtle, grow up!"

"And get wrinkles like you?"

"At least I don't have acne!"

"Liver spots!"

"I never, ever would have believed Mrytle was a Slytherin," said Hermione. "She's so whiny."

"I believe it," said Harry. "I remember her smirking at me in the Prefect's Bathroom last year."

  
"Smirking?" questioned Ron.

"Smirking," Harry agreed. "And not just at me. Apparently, it's a hobby of hers."

Ron and Ginny looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" demanded Harry.

"Percy," choked Ginny and Ron together. 

"Perfect Percy," said Ginny.

"Prefect," croaked Ron. 

When they caught their breath, Ginny said, "He'd lock the bathroom door when he brushed his teeth. He'd be so embarrassed."

"And sa—sang---Sang in the shower, too," said Ron. "I'm sure, Myrtle got quite the show."

Harry and Hermione had to laugh too, but Neville interrupted, "I don't think that was very nice of Myrtle—"

And they all started laughing all over again.

==++

  
After their morning classes, Harry, Ron and Hermione met to walk to the Great Hall for Lunch. Ginny glanced at them as if weighing whether she should walk with Samara and Beatrice or with them. 

Samara turned, her eyes meeting Harry's, but he looked pointedly away, and Ginny, with a shrug, caught up with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Edward.

"You know," said Ron, I didn't think I'd ever wish to have a class with the Slytherins, but I'd have loved to see Malfoy's face when Binns was talking about Slytherin squibs today. It's a shame we have the class with Ravenclaws." 

"Oh you stayed awake for a change, did you?" said Hermione.

"I hated to miss a chance to learn something I could use against those Slytherin snakes."

"Only took you five years," said Ginny "Right Ron?"

"Well Binns usually is pretty boring," said Harry, trying to defend his friend from the teasing.

"If you ever paid attention, "Hermione continued, "You may have discovered some interesting things about History of Magic before this!"

"Nah—" said Ron, "If it was that interesting you would have told us."

Hermione gave him a playful push. 

"So, anything as interesting as finding out that Slytherin house has more squibs than any other house," asked Harry.

"Binns didn't say that," interrupted Edward. 

"Edward's right," agreed Lou. "Professor Binns said that continuous pureblood mating over the years caused genetic aberrations."

"Well what was that supposed to mean?" asked Ron. "I thought that part was specifically for the Ravenclaws." 

Hermione shook her head, as if to say, when are you going to learn.

"I really was trying to pay attention" Protested Ron. "It's just when they got to the long list of who begot who—

"Whom," corrected Hermione

"And then," continued Ron, "whether the Malfoys were second cousins with the Goyles on the Maternal side or the Paternal side or both-- and then, whether or not that Goyle grandfather married some nine year old Crabbe---What really was amazing was the three generations of Malfoy's marrying Malfoy's. How convenient! They didn't even change their names."

Edward burst out laughing. "Honestly Ron it wasn't that bad!"

"You know it reminds me of Dudley's Aunt Marge," said Harry.

"Why? Did she marry some nine year old, too?" joked Edward.

"No. She breeds bulldogs. She's always talking about inbreeding and how certain traits can be kept in the dog by breeding it back to the brother or the sire, but sometimes temperament suffers."

"Well, the Slytherins aren't that bad, anyway." Said Hermione. "Not many cases of incest."

"Not that Binns mentioned," corrected Harry, "And I don't know. I think Malfoy's temperament has definitely suffered!"

They all laughed. 

I think you've got it, Harry," said Hermione. "In the case of dogs, Aunt Marge says temperament suffers. In the case of Slytherins, magic suffers, thus the squibs."

"Wonder what they do with the magical misfits?" Said Ron. 

"Drown them?" Suggested Lou.

"Nah," said Ron. "Malfoy's still alive."

They dissolved into laughter.

"Is your Aunt Marge, the Aunt that you live with, Harry?" asked Edward. 

'No," said Harry. "I live in Surrey, with my Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon."

"Is that where you were born?" asked Edward. "Surrey?"

"No," said Harry thoughtfully. "I don't know where I was born."

"Godric Hollow?" Suggested Ron.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Aunt Marge really isn't my Aunt. She's Uncle Vernon's sister and my mother was sisters with Aunt Petunia."

"They're all monsters," said Ron. "They had bars on his windows! They were trying to starve him!"

"Ron!" said Harry warningly.

"Well, my grandmother used to lock me and my brother up—but—because—" Edward broke off, biting his lip.

It wasn't like our house was always a picnic," Ginny interrupted. "Do you remember the summer Fred and George tried to burn it down?"

"What!" shouted Harry.

"Yeah, let's see," said Ginny "I must have been 2, Ron was 3, the twins were 5—

"They were five!" said Edward.

"No, six" said Ron. "It was the year Bill went to Hogwarts, remember, Ginny?. — The twins had just turned 6 in April. Percy was 7, Charlie was 10 and Bill was 11 and finally going to Hogwarts. Mum was so glad to send one of us off--"

"She wished it was Charlie though," said Ginny, "Just to get him away from the twins. They were like triplets."

"Yeah," said Ron. "Triple the trouble. It was the year from hell. Fred and George used Bill's new wand to incendio _my_ bedroom curtains."

"They were bad enough before they got wands," added Ginny.

"Didn't the accidental magical reversal squad show up to stop it?" asked Harry.

"Oh, no," said Ron. "They gave up on us before Ginny was born. Dad said, they would joke about us at the Ministry. They'd say, 'there's another accident at your house, Arthur' and Dad would say, 'Molly has it under control.'"

I don't know," said Ginny, the next summer was pretty bad too. Remember, Charlie and the twins tried to teach Percy how to fly on a REAL broomstick."

"Not a toy," added Ron.

"Which happened to be Bill's brand new Comet 260," said Ginny.

"Last new broom in the family," Ron moaned.

"And Percy never wanted to go any higher than a toy broomstick anyway—"

"Even when he was 15," laughed Ron.

"That's because the last time he rode a broomstick higher than that was when the three of them pushed him off of the roof. They thought he needed a head start."

"Poor Bill, he never got to take his new broom to Hogwarts."

"Was Percy hurt?" asked Hermione concerned.

"Nah," said Ron. "He fell on his head."

They all laughed.

"Seriously, he was on a broom," said Ginny. "He didn't fall too fast—"

"Yeah," said Ron. "Not as fast as a rock."

"I remember the first time I rode a broom," said Edward. "I was three."

They all turned to listen, and Edward got self-conscious. He shrugged. "Not much to tell," he said. 

"Come on," said Ginny. "You were flying at three. You said you slept with your wand under your pillow. So what's your story? What happened with your brother?"

"Well, Granny didn't want to spend money on toy broomsticks, so she just bought us real ones, but we couldn't fly too much. It wasn't a good neighborhood."

"So, where did you live?" Asked Ron.

"Well, we moved around a lot," said Edward.

"Hey, don't feel embarrassed," said Ginny. "You're not in Slytherin, you know. Can't get too much worse than our neighborhood. I think we have the number one gnome infested garden in all of England!"

"I can attest to that," said Harry, laughing.

"Nasty creatures, gnomes," said Ron.

"The only thing that infests my parent's garden are potato bugs," said Hermione.

"So are you going to tell us where you were born or not?" Ginny asked Edward.

"Sure," he said brightly. "Askaban."

"Right," quipped Ginny, laughing. "And your garden's infested with dementers."

"Sure beats potato bugs," said Hermione.

"Oh no," said Harry. "A patronus can get rid of dementers. Nothing gets rid of potato bugs."

The group giggled at the comparison.

"We all have some quirks in our family, said Hermione lightly. "Do you know that the first time I tasted chocolate, I thought it was a medicine.  


"What!" said Ginny.

"Yeah," said Hermione. "My parents are dentists, remember? The first chocolate I ever ate was on the Hogwarts' Express. Remember Harry? Lupin gave us some after the dementers. And then I discovered Best blowing bubble gum. It's a wonder I wasn't a pushover for canary creams."

Edward dug in his pocket and pulled out a cream candy. "Here you go, Hermione."

"No thanks," she said. "Rots my teeth."

They all laughed.

Still laughing they headed into the great hall for lunch and ran headlong into the Weasley twins.

"Fred!"

"George!" 

"You're back!" cried Ginny and Ron together as they hugged their brothers fiercely.

"How did the 'field trip' go?" asked Harry anxiously. 

The twins seemed strangely quiet after their time out in the 'real world' with Lupin and Sirius.

"Well, well, well," drawled a familiar voice. "If it isn't the Weasley litter mauling each other."

For once, Ron didn't even answer Draco's taunt. He just looked at Harry and Hermione, and the whole class about the Slytherin inbreeding came flooding back to all of them. They burst out laughing.

Edward, still holding the cream candy said, "Do you think the twins could charm these to be dogs instead of canaries? We could call them Puppy Puffs," he sputtered.

"Puppy puffs?" said George.

"Why's that?" asked Fred, realizing that he was missing some sort of joke.

Edward started to explain.

With a sneer, Draco headed over to Slytherin table.

==

Ginny was still smiling as she walked over to the end of the Gryffindor table where Beatrice and Samara were sitting.

"So how's your Patonus, coming along?" asked Samara as she sat down with them.

It's coming," said Ginny.

"So what is it?"

"I'm not sure. It just looks like a little string right now. I hope it gets better."

Maybe it's a flubberworm," Samara joked.

"How horrible!" said Ginny. "What about yours?"

"Mine IS a flubberworm," said Samara straight-faced. "Or maybe it will grow into a blast ended skrewt."

"You!" Ginny laughed.

"Seriously, I can't get anything that looks like anything. It's just a stream of smoke. All the work I've done on this, it should be turning into something." complained Samara. "So tell me yours is better, Beatrice. Someone has to show Snape we can do this."

"Oh, well, my Blob got whiskers. It's probably a bunny rabbit."

Ginny started to laugh. "Have you ever seen a dementer?" she asked Samara. 

"No."

"Me neither," said Beatrice.

"I have," said Edward as he joined the girls. "Nasty creatures."

"Well," continued Ginny. "I just had this picture in my head of a sweet little bunny rabbit hopping after this huge, hooded monstrosity that can suck out your soul." Ginny continued to laugh, and Edward joined in with a loud guffaw. "Let's just hope it's a BIG bunny!" he added between gasps of laughter.

Samara and Beatrice looked at each other. Suddenly, their Patronus' didn't seem so funny to them.

==


	27. CH 26: Lions and Tigers

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 26

Lions and Tigers

Disclaimer: All Potterverse belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down three times. --Lady Lestrange)

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts? I do. 

--Lady Lestrange

And now, on to the chapter…

****

Chapter 26

Lions and Tigers

Divination was half over and Harry was trying to work on his assignment. The class was quiet: Colin and Trelawney both dozing; Parvati and Lavender for once simply doing their work without their incessant chanting. Dean was drawing doodles on his parchment and Seemus was finishing his charms homework.

Ginny was staring into space, her quill dripping ink on her parchment. Ron, who had run out of ink writing his defense homework reached across her parchment to fill his quill, and then continued writing, large round letters that filled the page quickly. Harry just shook his head. 

"I'm almost done," Ron confided.

Neville also had a quill loaded with ink and ready to write, but he wasn't writing anything. He held a trembling hand over the parchment and he looked like he was ready to cry. Considering his session with Snape last night, Harry wouldn't be surprised if he did burst into tears. 

Harry's mind wandered to recall what he had seen from his vantage point under the Invisibility cloak last night. Perhaps the repeated Imperio curses that Neville threw at Snape finally pushed Snape over the edge or perhaps it was just the combination of playing both sides of the war that caused him to get testy. In any case, as the Imperious Curses from Neville got more powerful, Snape's retaliations got more powerful. Instead of Neville forgetting that he did the Imperious Charm on Snape, he started to remember and therefore, each Imperious got more powerful as Neville consciously tried to hang on to them. Finally, when it was obvious that both were getting tired and careless, Snape's Expelloramus Charm failed to bring Neville's wand to his hand. It was knocked loose and rolled across the floor. Snape's Impedimentia Charm, was meant to keep Neville from reaching his wand, but Neville had flung himself forward and crashed headlong into the Impediment. He had dropped to the floor, and barely retaining consciousness, he focused murderous eyes on Snape. 

"I think we're finished for tonight," Snape had said, removing the Impedimentia Charm.

"I'm not finished," growled Neville, diving for his wand. He got it, and sent a stunning charm at Snape. Snape nimbly blocked it and two others before stunning Neville. Snape then levitated Neville to the Gryffindor Common Room, spoke the correct password, enervated Neville, and deposited him inside the common room. Harry had wanted to go to Dumbledore immediately, but Neville didn't want him to. 

"Please. Just let it wait until morning," Neville had said. "Then we'll talk about it. I'm too tired now." 

As far as Harry could tell, Snape didn't use any sort of charm to keep Neville from telling about the sessions, now that he was remembering part of them. 

Neville to bed at 7:30, but he still looked like he lacked sleep this morning.

Neville even approved of Harry secretly accompanying him. "It's not that I'm afraid of Snape," Neville said. "It's just nice to know that you are there if I need some help."

"Not that he's afraid of Snape," thought Harry. "Neville had always been afraid of Snape!"

There was a sharp knock on the door of the Divination classroom, drawing Harry out of his revelry.

The door opened, startling Trelawney, who lifted her owl eyes to the door—"What?"

"Excuse me," said a soft feminine voice. "Madam Hooch released me from flying lessons. I'm to join your class."

"Samara!" said Ginny, motioning her to a chair next to her, and finally noticing the mess of ink on her parchment.

"And why have you been released from flying and sent here?" asked Trelawney annoyed. "Divination is a very complex magic. Someone's destiny can be changed in an instant. This is a 3rd year class. You can't expect to waltz in here and—and—"

Trelawney's eyes narrowed and then rolled back in her head. She sank back into her pouf, and blinked. Her eyes cleared, but the anger did not go away. "Get out." She said. "I will not have a minion of the Snake in my class."

"But—" began Samara.

"Out!" Trelawney shouted. Bangles jangling, she pointed a finger at the door. "Go!" she hissed.

Harry was shaken. Only once had he seen Trelawney's eyes roll back in just that way and it was when she had gone into a real trance and told a real seeing, but when she spoke to Samara, her eyes were open. She was not having a seeing. Why had she said that to Samara, Harry wondered, and what happened at flying lessons. He glanced at Ginny and Ron. Both were sitting dumbfounded. Why had Trelawney reacted so badly to Samara's appearance at the door. Harry had a very hard time concentrating on Divination after that. 

Samara ambled her way back down from the tower. When she got to the seventh floor she looked for the walkway across from the North Tower to the East Tower, but unfortunately it wasn't available. "Stupid moving staircases," she muttered as she trudged down the rest of the stairs to the first floor and then crossed to the East side of the castle to McGonagall's office. At least Trelawney was honest," thought Samara. "She didn't want her in Divination and she told her so. Of course calling her 'a minion of the snake' was a bit weird." The first period class was half over by the time Samara found Professor McGonagall and told her what had happened. 

McGonagall pursed her lips. "Well," she said. "I could speak to Headmaster Dumbledore, but if you want my opinion, Professor Trelawney did you a favor. Divination is somewhat of an abstract magic anyway, even though many of my Gryffindors seem to like it. Do you have a second choice?"

"Ancient Runes, I think," said Samara. "I know some of the Ravenclaws from my Advanced History class who are taking it."

McGonagall nodded and began writing out the class transfer. "How is that History class working for you?" she asked.

"Oh wonderful," said Samara. 

"Not too difficult?"

"Oh no," said Samara. "And Professor Binns is just brilliant."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow as Samara continued. 

"I had read the textbook prior to going to class, but some of the nuances really needed a teacher to explain it. It seems really a shame to read a whole book and not be able to do all the magic, Don't you think?"

Samara went on before McGonagall had a chance to answer. "And it's amazing how much we find history repeating itself."

"So Professor Binns has told me," said McGonagall. "Is that the text that keeps biting students?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes, but mine hasn't bitten me, and I've had it for ages." Samara laughed. "In fact, Lisa Turpin wanted to trade with me. She said my book is much better behaved."

Professor McGonagall allowed herself a small smile. "Samara," she asked. "Are you happy at Hogwarts, in Gryffindor?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Samara, but the smile faded from her face. 

"What is it?" asked McGonagall. 

Samara hesitated. 

"It's too late for you to go to Ancient Runes today, anyway" said McGongall. "Sit down. Tell me what's on your mind."

"I guess I haven't been getting along too well with some of the Gryffindors. It upset them that I went to Slytherin this past weekend—and then what Professor Trelawney said about me--"

"Oh posh," said McGonagall. "Professor Trelawney predicts a student's death each year and with Harry Potter, she's predicted his death every month since he arrived. I wouldn't put too much weight on her comments. As far as the other things, well there has been a long standing rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. I believe it goes back all the way to the Founders. Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin always had an uneasy peace. Sometimes these things aren't really under our control, as much as we'd like them to be. Tell me, though, why _did_ you choose to go to Slytherin?"

"Well." Samara bit her lip. She wasn't going to tell Professor McGonagall that Draco had a lot to do with her going to Slytherin. "Who wouldn't want to visit the other houses?" said Samara. "It's awesome to see how the other houses are arranged and how they live. You can learn so much about people by observing their surroundings."

"Yes," replied McGonagall. "So you went to Slytherin. Did you go to Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?"

"Hufflepuff too," said Samara. "I wanted to go to Ravenclaw, but I didn't have time. Edward wanted me to help him with—um something. 

"Good. Good." said McGonagall. "How did you find Hufflepuff?"

"Truthfully—the people are very nice, but I was glad to get back to Gryffindor last night. Their common room gave me a splitting headache."

McGonagall nodded. "And the Slytherin Common room? Did you find that more comfortable?"

__

Comfortable? she thought. "No," she said emphatically. "Definitely not."

"Would you let me know how that Ravenclaw visit goes next weekend?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"We'd best get going," said McGonagall " Or we're both going to be late for my class. And remember, my door is always open to my students . If you want to talk, stop by."

==

"Ok. Thank you." Samara went out of McGonagall's office feeling a little better. She sat with Beatrice in transfiguration. "Did you read the transfiguration homework?" asked Beatrice excitedly. "It's all about animagi."

"I read it," said Samara, opening her book to the appropriate page. "But McGonagall said that we won't even be trying to be animagi this year. It's just background reading, so that we can understand animagi a little better."

"Would you want to be an animagus?" asked Beatrice softly. 

"Well sure. Who wouldn't?" said Samara.

Beatrice didn't answer, and Samara scanned her book while McGonagall took role.

Angimi must be Registered.

Unregistered Angimi are a danger to society in that they are intelligent as humans and yet can enter places as an animal that would be inaccessible to a human wizard. For this reason, as early as 1012, wizards were required to register their anigimi form. This has been a deterrent to crime and has helped to alleviate many accidents that happened when newly formed angimi went through the perfectly normal loss of control phase. Although Salazar Slytherin is said to have become both a venomous and non-venomous snake, in today's society that would not be accepted. It would be possible, at least in theory, for the wizard to look like a non poisonious snake and keep the venom, a potentially dangerous secret. Thieves have attained the angimi spell to further their career in thievery. Murderers have murdered in their anigimi form and thus have avoided detection. Angimi have spied on our enemies for centuries and are usually undetectable from the animal they represent. However, caution is still needed in spying since most animagi wizards can sense the wizard within another animagi even if the animagus wizard is not in his or her animagus form.

When to Register.

As soon as your animagus "settles" it is time to see your local ministry wizard or in the case of wizards learning this spell at a school, follow your school's procedures. Registering involves a physical examination to insure that the template is set properly in your body and will not change inadvertently. A set of rules which accompanies the registration informs the angimus of his responsibility for himself even in angimus form and also elicits a promise that the angimus will not be used to perform illegal activity. Furthermore, for his own protection if ever, he cannot return to human form, the template will be on file with the Ministry of Magic to allow another wizard to assist him in his transformation back to human form. 

Wizards tortured by the crucius curse or the imperious curse while in animus form have been known to not be able to return to their human form. Theory states they might think they are the animals, or they might not be able to effect the actual spell. Further study would be needed to ascertain exactly why this is true: however, for obvious reasons, this is not practical.

"Since you have an animagus in your class," said McGonagall, I would like you to understand some of the hardships of being an animagus—what can and cannot be done." 

Beatrice blushed under McGonagall's gaze. " A curse," continued McGonagall, "Any curse, even one as innocuous as jelly legs levied on Beatrice while she is in her animagus form can be devastating. Also, animagus often find it more comfortable to sleep in their animagi form. During sleep, their animagi senses are heightened, but also, their dreams are less vivid. Seers and diviners rarely are animagi. McGonagall continued for part of the class, explaining Beatrice's unique gift to her classmates. 

Finally, she moved on to the section of the book that the class was awaiting. She asked for their homework as well as a list of their pets. If they were going to transform a friend's pet for their next class, she noted that also and then brought out a selection of hedgehogs, salamanders and toads which could be used by those who didn't have pets. She wanted those students who were going to transfigure them to get acquainted with them. Some students didn't want to use their pets, but McGonagall was insistent. If you had a pet, she expected you to transfigure it next class. They spent the rest of the class studying the theory behind transfiguration of one animal to another unrelated animal. 

After lunch, Beatrice and Samara walked together. Ginny seemed to have joined Harry Potter's group again and Edward followed her. Neville and Lou were walking behind them on the way to Charms and Samara slowed her pace to talk to them.

"I'm nervous about my patronus," Neville told Lou. "I don't know if I can do it in front of Snape."

"Don't worry, Neville," said Samara putting a comforting arm around Neville. "When he finds out my patronus is a flubberworm, he'll forget all about yours."

Neville laughed , but didn't relax. Samara looked at his turquoise aura with concern. Her flirting with him didn't seem to help his nervousness, so she removed her arm from his, and he seemed to relax a little bit. His aura, however, continued to tell Samara that something traumatic, which had happened in his past, was about to break into his future. His aura was actually beautiful—similar to Beatrice's but with more green instead of blue and designs of earth tones. It reminded Samara of looking into the sea on a clear day when you could see the sand and water plants beneath the waves. Charms class was over all too soon and once again, the Gryffindors were headed to Snape's class.

"I really don't like him," said Neville, "And he wants me to come back after classes."

"But Snape's so intense," said Lou. "You just have to be around him for a few minutes to tell that he's brilliant. You should be honored that he'd take the extra time--"

Samara paused on the way to class and turned around, looking for Beatrice who she had thought was right behind her. Beatrice was several steps back, fumbling for her puffer. "I'd better do this now," she said. "You know how he hates this thing."

Samara waited for her and they sat together in DADA.

Professor Snape called the class to order and discussed his disappointment in the last class. "All of you know about as much defense as a second year student should know. That's the only reason why the new students can keep up," he snapped. 

Ginny Weasley raised her hand and Snape acknowledged her.

"But some of our defense teachers—" Ginny began

"Were useless," finished Snape. "And worse than useless, but that's no excuse. Tell me Virginia Weasley, do you think the basillisk would have let you go if you had explained to it that Lockhart was a spineless, arrogant git that never taught you anything?"

"No sir," Ginny whispered white faced.

"Can you believe him—" Ron started to complain to Harry, but was interrupted.

"And you three," Snape pointed to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Did you tell that troll first year, Oh excuse me, we haven't covered trolls yet?"

"No," they whispered.

  
"Well then, I don't want to hear any more murmurs and complaints under your breath about how you shouldn't have to learn this because the patronus is an advanced spell that some adult wizards can't handle. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

The class whispered a barely audible "yes."

Snape looked dead on his feet. Samara worried about the murky turbulence of his aura, which always looked bad, but today-- Something was very wrong. Her fingers closed around her wand, thinking of another cheering charm for Snape, but he glared at her. "I hope you are not planning any unauthorized spells, Donnally" he said. "Unless your trying for a record number of points lost." She let her hand fall from her hair as Snape turned back to the class.

"You've had a whole week to work on this, and some of you didn't bother—to make an effort. Well, I've given you a lot more time than a dementor would have, haven't I Potter?"

Harry jumped at the sound of his name. When Snape was in this kind of mood, no one dared step out of line. Unfortunately, it seemed as if he were in this kind of mood more and more. 

" And I promise you," Snape continued. "That some of you in this room will get to see a dementor—perhaps more than one--up close—Lestrange." 

Harry was pleased to notice that both Ethan and Edward also jumped at the sound of their name. 

"Well obviously none of you are up to conjuring a patronus with a dementer nearby," sneered Snape, "But maybe you can manage it in the unthreatening surroundings of your classroom with just your classmates and teacher nearby. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THAT?"

There was the soft spray sound of Beatrice's puffer. Snape's pearly white skin flushed red as he descended upon her desk, "Ellis!" he snapped as he snatched the puffer, flung it into the air and incendioed it. Ash fell to the ground. "Do you have any more, Ellis?" he asked.

"Yes," Beatrice gasped.

He wiggled his fingers in the air in front of her, and she took out another puffer.

"Is that all?" He asked.

"um—"

"Accio trash," he said and yet another puffer jumped out of her bag and into Snape's hands. He incendioed all three. Beatrice started to cry.

"She needs to breathe," interrupted Samara hotly.

"Mutus," Snape said with a lazy wave of his wand, "And five points from Gryffindor."

"Beatrice Ellis is a witch, and an animagus," continued Snape blandly while Beatrice struggled to breathe. She is an animagus! One of the strongest and most complicated magics. Do you know there are only eight registered animagi this century—nine I believe since that Skeeter woman-- This nonsense," He gestured to the fallen ash of the puffers, "This is necessary for muggles, but not for witches, especially not powerful witches like Beatrice Ellis. Now, stop your sniveling, girl." He had turned back to Beatrice. She was flushed and frightened, gasping for breath. "Any time you want to breath, you can," said Snape. 

She shook her head frantically, starting to turn blue around the lips.

Harry reached his hand into his pocket for his wand.

"Forget it, Potter," Snape growled without looking at Harry. "Ten points from Gryffindor, for even thinking about it."

"Thinking?" mouthed Ron to Hermione, but she shook her head, obviously not willing to antagonize Snape. 

"I want you all to think about those medieval witch burnings," said Snape as he paced a circle around Beatrice. "_Think_ Beatrice. What did those witches breathe when the fumes of the fire were surrounding them? What? Magic, Beatrice. Anytime you want it it's there for you. If you can control an animagus, you can control the magic to sustain you without breathing.

Beatrice collapsed. 

The collective gasp of the class seemed to have freed Samara from her hesitation. She pulled her wand from her hair and without a sound, began directing a thin stream of visible magic toward Beatrice. Harry could see tears on Samara's cheeks. 

"Ten points," said Snape.

Harry raised his wand, and added his stream of magic to Samara's.

"Ten more points from Gryffindor," growled Snape.

Hermione added hers and then Ron and Ginny. For each, Snape took ten more points, but he didn't remove the spells. 

"I want you, idiots to understand that she is already surrounded by magic. It is her nature, the nature of all of us who are witches and wizards. What you are trying to do--is making no difference at all. She has to _choose _to use it. Only she can do it. **Enervate**!"

Beatrice awoke with fear in her eyes. "If you were a muggle, you would be dead," said Snape, "But you are not a muggle. Your muggle mother placed these ideas in your head and they are wrong. You can go for at least ten minutes with nothing but your own magic to breathe. Wendola the Weird perfected the art. She could go for nearly an hour without breathing so she could bask in the witch burners' flames. Her flame freezing charm stopped her from burning, but did not supply her with air. 47 times she was burned. Do you of know her?"

Beatrice nodded. 

"Your friends seem to think that you have no magic. They are loaning you some of theirs," he sneered. As soon as you draw some magic—yours or theirs into those closed up lungs of yours, you will be able to speak. I'm going to take points away from your stupid little friends for their stunt until you tell me to stop, Ellis. From you Donnally, an additional 2 points. From Potter, 2 points. From Granger, 2 points. From Weasley—"

"Stop!" Beatrice croaked. 

"Tell me, Ellis," sneered Snape. "Do you need those muggle breathing devices?"

She looked at him. She was wide-eyed with terror, still gasping from fear and lack of oxygen, but she finally spoke in a hoarse whisper. "No Sir," she said.

"And did you need your friends' magic?"

"No Sir," Said Beatrice.

Snape paced the room like a hungry predator as he spoke. "As long as that feeling of suffocation is fresh in your mind, Ellis, I've been told that when a dementer sucks out your soul that's what you feel. First you feel cold. Very cold. And then you can't breathe. And unfortunately all the magic in your lungs isn't going to do you any good. The only magic that will help you is your patronus. Do you have a patronus, Ellis or are you going to be one of those who have their soul sucked out?" He turned back to face Beatrice.

"Leave her alone," Neville muttered so softly he almost didn't even move his lips. 

Snape looked at him. Snape couldn't have heard him, but he still stared at him with those fathomless black eyes anyway. "Did you want to say something, Longbottom?"

"No," he answered with the tremor in his voice.

"No? No? You have nothing to say? Nothing to do? Of course not," said Snape. "Look at your classmates." He gestured to Ron, Hermione, Samara, Ginny and Harry, all of whom had tried to help Beatrice earlier. "Look at them. Did they mutter and whine and hide? No. They jumped right in—Typical—foolhardy—impulsive---Gryffindors--Ahhh—that's it, isn't it Longbottom. You want to take her place. Do your patronus first?"

"No," he said much more audibly.

Beatrice expressed sympathy in her gaze, but there was nothing she could do to stop Snape at this point.

"I think you should do it anyway," he said softly to Neville.

"**Expecto Patronum**," muttered Neville and a shot of smoke came from his wand. It tried to become something, but sank into nothingness.

"So," said Snape, "Is that all the help you have for your friend and fellow Gryffindor?"

Beatrice hands were clenched into fists at her sides as she watched Snape torment Neville. Her eyes were alight and her soft blue aura was shot with the uncharacteristic hues of pink and purple. 

"What kind of Gryffindor are you Longbottom?" Snape continued. "Look at how Gryffindor's act to help their friend. Look at Potter and the Weasleys and Donnally and Granger. Stupid. Misguided. But totally Gryffindor." Snape leaned into Neville. "So what is that cloud of smoke supposed to be? A giant ameba?" He turned back to Beatrice. She was glaring at him. "So sorry," he said. He didn't sound sorry at all. "Neville couldn't save you. I guess you'll have your soul sucked out after all, unless of course you can come up with your own—"

****

"Expecto Patronum!" shouted Beatrice and a huge shape leapt from her wand. It grew larger and larger and larger. Some of the Slytherins jumped out into the hall to get away from the monstrous shape. When it stopped forming, it was a tiger, but not just any tiger, a huge saber-toothed tiger. Soundlessly it opened it's mouth and roared. 

Snape, backed up against the wall in front of it, said softly, "That will do, Miss Ellis. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Harry suppressed the urge to clap.

Once Beatrice patronus had vanished from sight, Snape wondered aloud if anyone else had anything that big. " Perhaps we should have gone outside." He said, and as he turned he saw Neville still struggling with his Patronus, which still just looked like a large cloud. Snape shook his head, and looked at the class. "Does anyone _know_ that they can do a patronus?" he asked. A few hands were raised, Harry's among them. Without the distraction of the dementer, he knew he could do it.

"Ok, Let's see what you can do," Snape said.

Samara raised her hand, and Snape undid her mutus charm.

"Professor!" Beatrice interrupted. "He's got whiskers. Neville's Patronus has whiskers."

"Probably a big bunny," sneered Ethan.

The Slytherins laughed, but their smiles faded as Neville's patronus slowly and laboriously formed into a full-grown male African lion.

"Must be why you were sorted into Gryffindor," Snape surmised. "I can't see any other reason. 5 points to Gryffindor."

"Five Points!" snapped Samara. "Why does he get only five and Beatrice got ten?" 

"Because he was too slow," said Snape. For the next week when someone from this class taps you on the shoulder and says 'patronus' I want you to _instantly_ form your patronus. If you get it, and then can replicate that performance in this classroom, I will give house points. If you cannot, I will deduct them. Like this, said Snape, touching Samara's shoulder. "Patronus."

"**Expecto patronum!"** said Samara and a squiggling mass fell out of her wand.

"What is that?" asked Snape.

"Flubberworm," said Samara, and the class dissolved into laughter.

Snape frowned at it. "If it is complete, it doesn't matter what it is, it will fend off the dementers, but—" The mass was already starting to fade.

Snape continued to go through the class asking for patronus, but he had only gotten partially through the Gryffindors when they ran out of time. Continue to practice with each other, he admonished them. There's no point in my wasting class time going over and over this. You know what it takes, you just have to practice. Trust me," he growled. "If you choose not to practice, you will wish you would have. Gryffindors are dismissed."

Samara was hugging Beatrice and congratulating her as the left class. "Lions and Tigers!" Called Beatrice pulling Neville into a hug. "Who's got the Bear?" 

"That's it, Ginny." Said Samara. I know what your patronus is—That 'string'—of yours--It's the tail of a flying monkey." 

They broke into hysterical laughter.

"Obviously they have they have the story wrong," said Beatrice. "It wasn't the Wicked Witch of the West. It was the Wicked _Wizard_ of the West!" 

"Snape?" croaked Samara. "Yeah looks like he's never had water on that hair."

Even Hermione joined in the laughter now. The boys were staring in bewilderment. "Oh, I guess you've never seen the _Wizard of Oz,_ have you?" said Hermione, trying to explain. Ginny interrupted.

"Oz, the Emerald City," said Ginny between gulps of laughter. "—Its—Its—"

"Ginny," Ron interrupted sternly. "There is no wizarding city called Oz and if it's Emerald, it would be Slytherin!"

Ron turned on his heel and went into potions class, followed by Harry Potter and a still chuckling Hermione.

It was only after they calmed down, that Samara realized that Snape hadn't dismissed the Slytherins. She and Beatrice and Ginny waited for them outside of Potions class. 

"Why did Snape keep you?" Samara asked Draco when he arrived. A glance into the potions classroom told Samara that whatever camaraderie that she had just gained with Hermione was now overshadowed by the fact that she spoke to Draco.

Draco just shook his head, and didn't answer Samara's question. Samara leaned close to him, to try to get a whispered answer from him, but instead he said, "Come to the Dungeon after supper. Near entrance to Slytherin House. Can you find it?"

Samara nodded. "I think so."

"I'll wait for you there," he said.

==

****

REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!

Come on, don't be lazy. I put a lot of work into this fic. You didn't have to pay for it like a regular book, the least you can do is give me a one or two word review. It doesn't take that long.

I have advanced stats now and can't understand why I have so many readers and so few reviews. Please tell me what you think of my fic. What about Snape this chapter? Have you figured out who the prophecy child is? If you've skipped "Ghastly Ghostly Dinner", as some of you must have, please go back and read it. 

****

If you have a fanfic, I will read and review it if you R&R mine.

Lady Lestrange

****

If you like "funny", check out my other fics.

DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (PG) (18 chapters, completed. All funny. All Draco. All finished.)

THE SLYTHERIN TRUTH: The real story of how Harry Potter Got His Scar and other things…(G)

This is a one shot, one chapter, parody of the whole "scar" thing. LOL funny. I promise.

DECK THE HALLS WITH DEVIL'S SNARE (G). As expected, a songfic, sung to the tune of Deck the Halls. The first two chapters deal with the first two books: Stone, and Chamber of Secrets. I will write the next two or three chapters before next Christmas. LOL funny.


	28. CH 27: Dragon Breath and Bludger Bats

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 27

Dragon Breath and Bludger Bats

Disclaimer: All Potterverse belongs to JK Rowlings. Thanks JK.

(Answers to reviews at the end).

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down three times. --Lady Lestrange)

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts? I do. 

--Lady Lestrange)

LIONS AND TIGERS,: In this fun and funny chapter, we see a very stressed out Snape both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snape and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. HMMMM. Wonder what the runes will help her discover? Was that another real prediction of Trelawney's or is she just faking us out? McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. We were left with a question: Why did Snape only dismiss the Gryffindors and keep the Slytherins after DADA. On to the chapter to find out—

****

Chapter 27

Dragon Breath and Bludger Bats

Ginny had struck up a conversation in the corridor with Lauren and Pansy who were in her Advanced Defense class, but they refused to tell her anything about why Snape kept the Slytherins in class after he dismissed the Gryffindors.. 

Beatrice stood to the side and looked a little uncomfortable, "I'm going up to McGonagall," she said at last.

When the Samara and Ginny finally went into potions, they weren't anymore enlightened, but during potions, Samara wheedled the answer out of Pansy. Apparently Snape had been having special 'patronus' classes in Slytherin between class time and dinner time. None of the Slytherins were very good at their patronus. As a matter of fact, Pansy said that no one had gotten any yet in front of Snape. About that time, Mrs. Figg complained about their talking and they decided they should work in silence.

After potions, Samara hurried back to her dorm room. She wanted to get her homework done so that she would have nothing hanging over her head later tonight. Her heart quickened a little bit and she had a hard time keeping her mind on her charms homework. Beatrice peeked her head into the dorm room. "Want to go to the library with me?" she asked. "It's too noisy to study in the common room."

"Ok," Samara agreed, and gathering up her work, they went to the library.

A few minutes later, Edward and Ginny came looking for her. "Samara!" Ginny called. "I thought she was here." Ginny shrugged. 

"Oh well," said Edward. "We can do it ourselves. We don't have a lot of time to waste. If you want to help me to setup the Dragon Breath Mints, we need to go to the kitchen now."

"OK" Ginny agreed.

---

==

When Ginny and Edward got to the kitchen, the house elves were busily putting out the plates for dinner. 

One of the elves rushed over and knelt at Edward's feet, kissing his robe. "How may I serve, Master Edward?" he asked.

Ginny frowned. "You've been taking midnight trips to the kitchen without me," she scolded. 

"Just continue with what you were doing," Edward said quickly to the elf. "I have made a few trips," Edward said to Ginny. 

Set up in the kitchen, were four tables that corresponded to the four tables in the Great Hall. When Dumbledore called for the food, it was sent by magic through the floor to the appropriate table.

Ginny left Edward to figure out how to distribute the Dragon breath mint powder to selective plates while she moved to discuss a surprise party with Dobby.

"You see," Ginny told Dobby, my brothers, the twins, always procure food for everyone else, so I thought that we should have something special since they just came back. 

"Will you help us?"

"Of course Dobby will help with party for the Weasley twins. Dobby likes the twins—both twins."

Ginny threw a glance at Edward who was slowly moving through the Slytherins' plates. 

"Too bad it's too early for their birthday," said Ginny loudly. "Yes. Did you know that muggles have a custom?" Ginny held up both hands, palm side up in front of her. They make a cake and make a wish and blow, like this." She demonstrated by blowing across her out stretched palms. And poof! On go the Candles."

"Oh no, Miss Weasley is not right," corrected Dobby. "The candles don't come on, they blow out," said Dobby.

"Really?" said Ginny as Edward cupped his hands and blew the Dragon Breath Mint dust across most if not all of the Slytherin table. "My mistake—"

"Anyway," Ginny finished, "you're busy with dinner right now. We just wondered if you would help us with the party for the Weasley twins later."

"Of course," said Dobby. "House elves always helpful."

"That you are," Ginny agreed.

"Sometimes, too helpful—" Dobby muttered.

"Dobby should take more pride in helping his master," admonished Winky, who Ginny noticed, looked like she was finally settling into life at Hogwarts.

"Professor Dumbledore is my master now," said Dobby sharply. "And yours too. And I do take pride in my work."

Ginny and Edward giggled while climbing the stairs back to the Great Hall. "Blowing the dust was a great idea," said Edward. "How did you know about that muggle custom?"

"Oh they always had birthday cakes at the orphanage—no presents but—"

"What orphanage?" said Edward, stopping on the steps.

"Uhh—"Ginny paused, realizing what she just said. "Someone—someone I knew first year," said Ginny distractedly. "Lived in a muggle orphanage."

"A Mu--muggle born?" said Edward.

"Yeah," she answered, but somehow she couldn't leave it at that. "Actually, half-blood." But Edward was no longer listening. 

==

Most of the students were already at their tables when Edward and Ginny joined them. 

"What's up?" Samara asked curiously.

"Fire," said Edward.

"Look. Look." Ginny nudged Samara and motioned discreetly to the Slytherin table.

Samara looked across the room to see who was missing from the Slytherin Table. Draco was there, glowering at Ethan. Ethan didn't bother to put anything on his plate. He just took a sip of water. With a yelp, he spouted flame and without thinking, took another drink. Once again, flame sprouted from his mouth. Ethan was only the first, to spout flames. Most of the rest of the Slytherin table also was caught by the Dragon breath mints. Snape moved down to his table and began sending those with fried mouths to Madam Pomfrey. 

Edward and Ginny were clinging to each other in hysterical laughter. She glanced at Fred and George, who were laughing and clapping. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked like they were enjoying the sight too, and when they glanced over at Ginny and Edward; Ginny caught Samara and pulled her into their embrace. 

"We thought it was time you made up with Harry. He likes you, Samara." Said Ginny. "He's just too shy—"

"He can go straight to hell," spat Samara. "And so can you!" Samara turned and stalked out of the Great Hall.

Behind her, she heard Dumbledore clapping for quiet. "There will be no more of these dinner-time pranks," he said using a sonorous charm to get above the noise. "And furthermore—"

But Samara was already in the corridor and out of earshot.

==

"Great," thought Samara "Just Great." Now the Slytherins will be mad at me too. And Ginny was just trying to help, but what is wrong with her! She had to know, I didn't want to be a part of this. Samara dashed the tears away that began to spill down her face.

She went into a bathroom to wash her face and try to get control of herself. Another girl was in there crying too. "I hate them all," muttered Samara. "Why don't they just mind their own business."

"No one ever does," sniffed the other girl.

"What do you care?" snapped Samara. "Go away," 

Suddenly the girl's cries rose to a howl. "This is _my _bathroom! You get out."

With a start, Samara realized the other girl was a ghost. "I'm sorry. I was just not thinking. Of course, you can't leave."

"I can leave if I want to," said the ghost. "I just don't want to."

Samara tried to turn on the tap to wash her face, but no water came out. 

"That tap is broken," said the ghost. "It's never worked."

"Oh—" sniffed Samara, as she moved to wash her face at the next sink. "My name is Samara," she said.

"And I'm Myrtle," said the ghost. "I'd say pleased to meet you, but I probably won't be—"

"Why's that?" asked Samara. 

"Well, most people aren't very nice to me."

"Most people aren't very nice to me either," said Samara sulkily. "The Gryffindors all think I'm a whore because I like Draco, and now the Slytherins think I played a nasty trick on them, because of Ginny Weasley—"

"Oh, Ginny," said Myrtle. "I could tell you things about that girl that would make your hair curl. What sort of nasty tricks is she playing now?"

"Well, I—" Samara sniffed. She wasn't sure she wanted to tell a strange ghost what had happened, especially a ghost that had chosen to haunt a bathroom.

Suddenly, another ghost flew into the bathroom. It was the poltergeist. "Oh, girltalk," he said. "I love girltalk." He perched above the sink to listen.

"I was just leaving," Samara said. 

"Oh, don't go just because HE came in," said Myrtle flying in front of the doorway. "You get out Peeves. This is a _girl's _bathroom!"

"Never stopped you did it, Myrtle? You've spent enough time in boy's bathrooms—and boy's bedrooms of course—"

"I never—"

"Oh I don't know about never—" said Peeves. "Of course, maybe it was never. You always were such a tease, Myrtle---And then you were so ugly."

"Get out. Get OUT. GET OUT!"

"Did I say WERE UGLY—You ARE UGLY!"

"GET OUT!"

Well if you're going to be so nasty," said Peeves. "I think I'll sing. I just made up a new song," said Peeves flying into Samara's face. "Want to hear it?"

"No, I—"

"Oh, very well then," said Peeves, "An oldie," and he began to sing:

I heard Mytle yell one day.

Monster boy, come out and play—

"I never said that, Peeves. Stop lying!"

Peeve's voice changed into the nasal whining that was so like Myrtle's:

Monster boy don't yell at me

I see a box where they can't see

Under your bed with lock and key

"I never was in Reubus' room, Peeves, and I never said that. You're lying!" Myrtle was at her moaning best.

Peeves sang on, undaunted:

I'd keep your secret for a fee

For a kiss, I'd even keep it free

Peeves made kissy sounds that made Myrtle dive at him.

Samara decided it was time to leave the bathroom, just as an older ghost came in through the ceiling. She shouted at Peeves to get out or she would call the Baron. It seemed to work, because Samara didn't hear the poltergeist any longer.

Samara hadn't eaten much at supper, but she really wasn't hungry. She wondered down by the lake, where she and Draco had sat together—a few short days ago. He'd never believe that she wasn't involved, not after Ginny hugged her in the Great Hall, like they shared this victory. She was still so mad that she wanted to curse someone or something. She took out her wand and twirled it through her fingers. Several little minnows swam along the shore of the lake, but Samara knew that cursing them wouldn't make her feel any better. It would only make her feel worse. 

She couldn't go to Hufflepuff like this. She would probably strangle one of them—or curse them into oblivion. She didn't feel like studying. She probably couldn't keep her mind on her books now anyway.

She watched a Quiddich practice going on over the hill at the Quiddich pitch. There were only a few people there. It must be a special teams practice. She couldn't see which team it was. Samara wished she could go flying. Flying helped her to settle her mind. It was so like dancing. It just took her away from her problems. Dancing! Would Draco EVER allow her to come back into the Room? With something like a sob, Samara pulled herself to her feet. Where would she get a broom? She always borrowed Ginny's. Oh well, she thought. There were always school brooms.

She began the long walk from the lake to the Quiddich Pitch. Her anger seemed to burn more fiercely with each step. By the time she got there, the practice was breaking up. It was Gryffindor, Samara noticed, but apparently it wasn't the whole team. It was a special practice that Fred and George were holding. Even with their typical perseverance, it didn't look like much was getting done. As a matter of fact, after Samara thought about it for a moment, she realized that it was Fred and George who invented the Dragon Breath Mints. She wanted to hit them with something.

Just then she saw Joe touch down on the pitch with a school broom and a bludger bat in his hand. He was grinning from ear to ear. No one had the right to be that happy, thought Samara.

"Gimme that," said Samara sharply. "And the broom too."

"Sure," said Joe. "And you're Welcome."

Samara ignored him. She mounted the broom and flew over to the supply cupboard, which was open. The balls were left in the trunk. There were the bludgers, but she didn't know if she could catch them when she was finished, the snitch—way to small for her purposes and the quaffle. Oh well, she thought, the quaffle would have to do.'

Samara lobbed it in the air and took aim at the unsuspecting twin whose back was turned to her. Telepathic as twins often seem to be though, the other twin saw the quaffle coming and swooped around to catch it. He threw it back to her. She batted it back with all of her might. This time he wasn't quick enough and the quaffle hit him on the upper arm, nearly unseating him with its force. 

****

"Accio!" she called and the quaffle turned and speed back to her. 

"Hey, that's illegal," said George. "You can't accio any of the quiddich balls."

"So sue me," replied Samara as she batted the quaffle at the twin again. She started to get into a rhythm and both twins were dodging well. Finally one of them caught the quaffle. 

"Stop!" shouted Fred. "We're looking for a new beater. I think you are it."

"The only one I want to beat is you for making those miserable fire mints. **Accio!"** The ball jerked out of the twin's hand and flew to her. "I have no friends because of them, and it's YOUR FAULT." She lobbed the ball again and it struck Fred squarely between the eyes.

"Oww! Quit it," said Fred. "It was just a joke."

"Well, here's another joke!" said Samara batting the quaffle at him again. George caught the quaffle and locked his arms around it. "We didn't set the mints on the whole damned Slytherin table," said George. "You can't blame us for that."

"I can blame you for making them though," said Samara.

"Anyway," said Fred, "They're just Slytherins."

To their horror, Samara burst into tears. "Hey, don't cry," said George. 

"Stay here. I have an idea," said Fred.

"What?" called George as his twin swooped down towards the ground. 

"Something to get her mind off of her troubles—" A moment later, he called. "Bludgers up!"

George pushed away from Samara and shouted at her. "This is the ball you should have been hitting. It hits back!" 

She whacked it at him just as Fred flew up to join them. The three of them couldn't concentrate on anything but staying out of the way of the murderous bludger balls. After an hour of chasing the things, Samara was sweating and spent. Her arms ached and although she still felt sad, her anger was a dim reflection of what it had been. As they landed on the ground, Fred held out his hand. "Congratulations," he said. "And Welcome to the Gryffindor Quiddich team. If you would like the spot, you are our new beater. You will replace us when we go on our 'field trips'."

"Us? There's supposed to be two beaters," said Samara. "Who's the other one?"

"Joe Foresmen,"said Fred. "He's a little slow, but he has good aim and a strong batting arm."

"We've been wracking our brains trying to think of what the team would do if we weren't there. Up until you arrived, we were thinking they would have to forfeit. No one stood a chance to keep Harry from getting beat up by bludgers, and we can't let our Seeker get killed—"

"Harry." Said Samara. "That's what beaters do—Keep the Bludgers off of the Seeker—"

"And the chasers too," said George, "But—"

"No thanks," said Samara, dropping the bludger bat and handing her broom to Fred. "I don't want the job." 

She turned and walked off the Quiddich Pitch.

==

(A/N: Next Chapter: **Wish it Real; Wish it Not**. Look for more Draco. More Ginny/Tom. Ginny and Samara "discuss" their differences, and Harry, Ron, Hermione rejoin the fray. They are of course, diligently working on the plan to stop the Dark Lord. Can they do it? This chapter is finished and ready to put up on fanfic, but if I put up two at once, people don't read them both. It will be up very soon though. Couple days or 10 reviews: whichever is first—Lady Lestrange)

****

REVIEW. DO IT RIGHT NOW. Be a responsible reader and review. It beats paying for the book, doesn't it?

****

ANSWERS TO MY DEAR REVIEWERS:

Love you all.

****

Motley: I'm your favorite? Really? OH JOY. You've made my day.

****

Fallen Angel of Darkness: Missed you. Thanks for the long review. Glad you like my Neville. Wait till you see his awesome folks.

****

PyRei: You get the award for the most faithful reviewer. I love that you got my humor. Sometimes in a story this intense, the humor is a good place to breathe. Sadly, some people seem to skip those lighter chapters. I have advanced stats and can't understand why people skip them?? 

I want that t shirt too. Anyone know someone who would make it for us all??

Yeah. I like chapter 20 (fanfics #) too. Go Neville. 

I just got so excited when you said I characterize Draco "perfectly". A pound of Honeyduke's best chocolate to you!

Glad you are reading Peeves. He has a lot to say.

****

Trillium: Bunny from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail!~ Ha Ha. LOL Glad you like the twins. They get better. Keep reading. I haven't said what Draco's patronus is, but I know it. Sorry though you won't get to find out until he's faced with the dementers, much later.

****

LIZ: Sorry it wasn't really a bunny, but Beatrice so wanted a tiger! Also, please note this update was up in 10 days. OK, so it's late, and fanfic might get it up after midnight then it will be 11 days. Oh well. It was worth the wait wasn't it? 

Thanks for alerting me to the mix up calling lions and tigers the wrong title. I fixed it.

****

Silverfox: (love your stories! Go reads something of silverfox's as soon as you have reviewed this!)

Glad you like my Hufflepuffs. More Hufflepuff coming and RAVENCLAW ROCKS. Coming soon. Sevi and Albus aren't telling what they are talking about until after Halloween.

Thanks for the comments on DADA.

****

Whiteriver: You have to go back to the hospital! OH NO. Everyone send good thoughts and prayers to whiteriver! Thanks for taking the time to R&R, and the rest of you WHO ARE WELL—WHY HAVEN'T YOU REVIEWED? Don't you feel guilty? You should. Now review.

****

David. Nope. You're wrong. Read the book. In the movie every spell threw people backwards. That isn't what the book says. If you had signed your review I would have explained this better in a personal email and maybe even reviewed your stories if you wrote any.


	29. CH 28: Wish it RealWish it Not

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Wish it Real-- Wish it Not

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times. --Lady Lestrange)

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS:We see a very stressed out Snape both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snape and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses. 

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

****

Chapter 28

Wish it Real—Wish it Not

As Samara left the Quiddich pitch, she checked her pocket for her tie and her wand and unloosened another button at the top of her shirt. She twisted up her hair and stuck her wand through it. She wished she knew how to do a cooling charm on her clothing. She was hot and tired and sweating after her impromptu quiddich match with Fred and George.

Suddenly, she spied Draco in front of her, walking up to the castle with Vincent and Greg.

"Draco! Draco! Wait!" she called, and then she wondered what she could possibly say to him.

Vincent stopped. "Hi Samara," he said.

"Crabbe, stop talking to yourself," Draco said without turning around. "Dumbledore will be shipping you off to St. Mongos."

"But Draco," said Vincent.

"I know," said Draco, looking at Samara with disdain. "I thought I heard a friend calling too, but it just turned out to be one of those annoying Gryffindor cats. Ignore it." He turned back to the steps and Samara was afraid he would just go into the castle, and she wouldn't even have a chance to talk to him.

"Draco, I didn't do anything to deserve this."

"There it goes, caterwauling again," said Draco.

"That's not fair," cried Samara.

"Fair?" repeated Draco.

"I didn't have anything to do with the Dragon Breath Mints."

"Dragon?" Draco said turning. "Should I be flattered?"

"I thought we were ignoring her," muttered Greg.

Vincent punched him and the two of them got into a shoving match.

"Draco glared at Samara. "Even Potter has more sense than to try to play on both sides of the fence. You have to choose. Slytherin or Gryffindor. Oh dear—I forgot. You already did make your choice."

"I didn't. I swear to you this wasn't my fault. How can I make you believe me?"

"There's a potion," said Draco. "Actually several-- potions that would have you spilling all your pathetic little secrets to me in seconds—But" he sneered, "They're all too expensive to waste."

Samara didn't answer.

Draco leaned in close to her. She could smell his cologne, feel his breath on her face, see his molten red aura. She knew he felt angry, but more than that, he felt betrayed—hurt. Involuntarily, she leaned into him and he grasped her shoulders, speaking softly for her ears only. "Do you remember my telling you that some wizarding families are better than others? Some are more powerful too. You shouldn't cross them unless you want to be hurt. I was willing to forgive the curse. Willing to overlook your foolish games with Potter and Weasley. Willing to share—" his voice dropped to a whisper. "Things that should not have been shared with--"

Samara caught her breath, thinking of the Room. "Draco?" she interrupted.

"Shut up," he spat. "I haven't asked you to talk."

Samara's dark eyes flashed fire. She pulled out of his hands and reached for her wand, but Draco was quicker. Almost as a reflex, he pinned her wand arm, causing her to drop her wand with the force of his grip. His own wand was out and trained at her throat. She turned her head away. Draco slowly ran the tip of his wand down her face, from the corner near her ear, down her neck, and to the cleavage that was visible because she had two of her shirt buttons unloosened beneath her open robe. 

She weighed whether or not she dared try to draw power from the Earth with his wand trained on her. She was breathing fast, and her palms were sweating. He could hurt her if he wanted to.

"Scared?" Draco whispered.

"No," Samara answered defiantly meeting his eyes, although she could feel her legs shaking.

"You should be," he said, slowly putting his wand away. Without warning, his mouth descended upon hers and suddenly he was kissing her. There was nothing romantic about the kiss. His magic was not warm and inviting. It was cold and brutal, taking instead of sharing. He pushed her against the castle wall. Although his aura was nothing like Ethan's, Samara could sense a great amount of darkness.

She pulled suddenly from the air elemental and thrust him away from her.

He staggered backwards several steps and glared at her. For a moment, she thought he would go for his wand. Then he turned on his heel and started to walk away.

She picked up her wand.** "Adhere!"** shouted Samara and he turned to block too late.

"Ah Ha! A backstabbing Gryffindor I should have known that you'd throw that spell at my back. Want me to stick around, do you?" He asked, his cool gray eyes on Samara. 

"No, she said softly. "I just wanted to tell you it was a real hoot to see a dragon breath fire."

"You've never seen this dragon breathe fire," Draco said in a low voice, his aura flashing various hues with his anger.

"And," Samara continued rolling her wand in her hand. "I've been offered the job of the new Gryffindor Beater. It will be great fun to smash that handsome face of yours with a few bludgers." She paused before saying: **"Finis incantatum!"** which released his shoes from the ground.

"Humph," he said as he turned away, but Samara noticed that his aura had mellowed to the same soft, dusty rose that it was at the lake. 

"What did I say?" thought Samara. 

She didn't even attempt to put her hair back up. She headed back to Gryffindor, with it trailing down her back in a tangled mess, her whole body shaking with anger and tears. Even though magic had meant everything to her, she found herself wishing desperately for her normal muggle family with all of their imperfections. She wanted to go home.

==

When Samara got back to the common room, Ginny was in a heated conversation with Harry, Ron and Hermione. As soon as Samara stepped foot across the threshold of the common room, all conversation stopped. Their four auras flickered with varying degrees of unease. 

"Oh, don't stop on my account," Samara spat. "I'm just passing through."

"Samara, it's not what you think," said Ginny.

"And what is it, I was thinking?" Samara asked in a low voice. "Are you telepathic now, Ginny?"

"Well, that we were talking about you."

"Weren't you?"

"Yes, but—Samara—let us explain," said Ginny.

"Us?" interrupted Ron. "Ginny, I think _you_ should explain. After all, you're the one who stood up for her—otherwise, she'd be in Slytherin and we wouldn't have this problem."

"Come on," Hermione urged. "Let's go to the library. We have work to do." Hermione herded Harry and Ron out of the common room even though neither of them had any books. Samara supposed that the twenty or so books that Hermione had slung over her back was enough for all of them. When they left the room seemed strangely quiet with only Ginny and Samara in it.

"Good riddance," Samara muttered under her breath, but she was already feeling the familiar tightness in her throat, and tears flooded her eyes. She blinked them away, unwilling to cry in front of Ginny. She wanted to be angry at Ginny. "I can't believe you actually did that dragon breath mint stuff at dinner," said Samara. "And then you acted like I was in on it. Do you know how that looked to Draco?"

"Do you know how it looked to Harry?" countered Ginny.

"I don't care," said Samara.

"Harry and Draco are not even comparable," Said Ginny. 

"You've got that right," spat Samara.

"Sit down," said Ginny softly. "There are things I need to tell you. Things you need to know about Harry Potter. At least in that respect, Ron and Hermione were right."

Samara sat, but she was fuming. She was not willing to listen. She was waiting for Ginny to say something that would open the door for her to tell her what a two-faced, lying, friend she had turned out to be. "I thought you were my friend," Samara whispered.

"I am," said Ginny, But instead of explaining her own actions, Ginny began telling Samara the story that the whole wizarding world knew. The story of baby Harry Potter vanquishing the Dark Lord. "If Harry, even as a baby, hadn't defeated the Dark Lord, we would all be living in a very different world. We have to thank Harry for that."

"Yes, I know," said Samara. "I've read all about the great Harry Potter."

"I'm not talking about the facts you can read about him," said Ginny. "I'm talking about the real Harry—the person. You need to get to know him."

Samara shrugged.

"In his first year at school, when he was only eleven, he defeated the Dark Lord again. In my first year, Harry was twelve. That was the year I—I—" Ginny broke off, and Samara patiently waited for her to continue. She didn't, she stared off into space, as if she were a million miles away, her eyes clouded with tears.

"I suppose he defeated the Dark Lord again that year, too," Samara spat.

"Yes." Ginny replied. "Yes, he did."

Ginny sighed softly, and then continued. "Harry Potter is a very powerful wizard, Samara. Some say he is the most powerful wizard of the age, surpassing even Dumbledore, or at least he will surpass him when he's an adult.. But what most people don't know is what the confrontations with Voldemort have cost Harry. 

I'm not talking about scars on his forehead. I'm talking about internal scars. He knows that the only reason Cedric Diggory is dead is because he was standing beside Harry Potter. He knows his life is in danger and the lives of his friends are in danger, but he just continues to live as normal a life as possible. Some people think he wants this fame, but he doesn't. He's one of the most humble people I know. He has such goodness in him, Samara that you could fight with him today, and if tomorrow you needed his help, he would give it. He's like no one else I know."

"Saint Potter," muttered Samara.

"Those aren't your words," spat Ginny. "They're Draco's! Anyway--" Ginny's lowered her voice. "Is there something wrong with being good, Samara?"

"No. But no one is ever perfect, Ginny. No one."

"I never said he was perfect."

"Well, if you're so keen on Harry Potter, why aren't the two of you dating? He's just a guy, Ginny. Sounds to me like you never got over that crush you had in first year."

"Crush? Who told you that?" demanded Ginny.

"Harry," said Samara.

"Oh."

Silence descended upon the common room.

"Harry's very human," said Ginny softly. "But sometimes people expect more from him, because he's Harry Potter. I've seen how –how—" She shrugged, uncertain of how to continue. "I've seen him cry," she said softly. "My mother held him when he cried over Cedric, and he said, 'It's my fault', but it isn't his fault. He's always fought. Always. Always on the side of light, but terrible things just seem to follow him because of the Dark Lord. Everyone thinks he's so brave, so powerful, but he's really sensitive too, and—"

"Listen to yourself," said Samara. "Go for him, Ginny."

"No," said Ginny softly. "He's too good for me."

"What!"

"Harry wants to be your friend, Samara—" Ginny continued, "But Draco makes it difficult. Draco's father is a Death Eater. Maybe Draco himself is a Death Eater. Whatever else Draco is, he's on the wrong side in this war, Samara. It's dangerous being with him."

"You just told me that it was dangerous being friends with Harry Potter. Make up your mind, Ginny."

"It is," said Ginny. She paused, and her eyes misted over. She did not look at Samara as she continued. "But the question is not what your personal feelings are—It's what is _right_. You have to look at what is right, not what you feel. If you align yourself with Draco, you put yourself on the wrong side in this war." Ginny looked at her with an intensity that was frightening. "It's that simple."

Samara turned away. "It's not simple."

"You're right," Ginny said with a sigh. "It's not simple, but—" She hesitated and then continued as if immersed in a memory. "But it should be. I want it to be—" 

"Want what? Want life to be all cut out for you like some multiple choice test? Just pick an answer. This one is right. This one is wrong? It wouldn't be worth living."

It would," said Ginny. "Last year, after Cedric died, Dumbledore said something to the whole school that has stuck with me. He said_, if in the future, we are faced with a choice between what is right and what is easy, we should remember what happened to Cedric Diggory, a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, who died, simply because he strayed into the path of Voldemort._ * You cannot possibly know what evil Voldemort is—you cannot know."

  
"Draco is not Voldemort," argued Samara. "Every Slytherin is not in league with the devil. They aren't all the same, Ginny. You're wrong."

"If you think I'm wrong," said Ginny. "Answer this question. Why haven't you told Draco you're muggle born?"

"I can't," whispered Samara. "Not yet."

"Not ever," said Ginny. "He'd drop you so fast—"

"He wouldn't," protested Samara.

"Then tell him," Ginny challenged. "Tomorrow."

"No. When the time is right, I'll tell him. Not yet."

"And in the meantime, do you know what Death Eaters do for fun, Samara? They kill muggles. No. That's wrong. They don't just kill them. They torture them to death. Muggles, like your parents-- your brothers—your grandma—what was her name? Grandma Lori?"

"Stop!" Samara screamed at her. "Just stop!" The tears that she had been holding in, finally spilled from her eyes, and Ginny moved onto the sofa beside her. She didn't say a word, she reached out for Samara, to comfort her, but Samara avoided her touch. After a long while, Ginny whispered, "I understand—"

"NO. You don't--" Samara countered.

Ginny let the silence settle around them, but it was not a comfortable silence. At last, she spoke.

"You were sorted into Gryffindor," said Ginny. "I know Ron isn't sure you belong here, but _I am_. I know I did the right thing standing for you. If you had gone into Slytherin, who would have helped you to see the truth about Draco Malfoy?"

"The truth about Draco? Stop being so melodramatic, Ginny. You sound like you _really_ are living in the middle ages."

"I'm not being melodramatic, Samara. These are dangerous times. You came into Gryffindor for a reason, and I think it was to keep you away from Draco."

"Why? Because he's an evil dark wizard?" Samara laughed. "Come off it, Ginny. He's just a guy: a hot, sexy, guy and if you can't see that, Ginny—"

"He's in Slytherin!" Ginny interrrupted. 

"Oh, well, there's a reason to dump him." Samara shook her head. "I don't know what it is with you and Slytherins. Can't you see how unfair you're being? It's nothing but pure prejudice—you and Potter and his little group—"

"Potter?" said Ginny.

"I can't believe you're acting like this, not when you have advanced defense with almost all Slytherins, not after you dated a Slytherin yourself in first year."

"It wasn't exactly a date," Ginny interrupted.

"So what was it then?"

"I don't think that's your business," Ginny snapped.

"Fine. Think what you like," said Samara coldly. "It's all right for you to dig around in my personal life, but yours is a deep, dark secret." Samara dried her eyes and looked at Ginny. "I need to get my Advanced History Homework done." She stood and headed for the dormitory. 

"Are you--going to the library?" asked Ginny.

"What do you care?" said Samara, and then as she reached the door she turned back to Ginny. "I'm going to take a look at what's in the Ravenclaw library, that is, if Parvati is upstairs. I'll need the password."

"It's a weeknight," said Ginny. "And you aren't supposed to go out after dark."

Samara rolled her eyes. "I'll try not to meet up with any evil dark wizards in Ravenclaw. I won't be long." 

Samara wasn't long. She was back in only about an hour. She was feeling much better though after an hour of intense studying with Lisa Turpin even though Samara didn't get into Ravenclaw itself. She found Lisa finishing a tutoring session with a Hufflepuff in the library, and although she saw Harry, Ron and Hermione in the library, looking for books, she studiously avoided them, and they left shortly after she arrived. 

After a short break Samara and Lisa began working on Advanced History. The studying took Samara's mind off of everything but Advanced History. It was wonderful to be so immersed in the laws of magic, and Lisa, whose mother was a muggle, appreciated Samara's comparisons of magic to electricity. It made Samara proud that she knew the laws of magic better than Lisa did. Of course, she had already studied this section of the book at home last year.

==

Samara came back to Gryffindor feeling sharp and ready to take on the world—that is, anyone but the three musketeers who sat in the corner working on some parchments together. Harry looked up when she came in, and gave her a small smile, but Ron and Hermione pointedly ignored her. Samara turned her head away, and didn't speak. 

She was too keyed up to go to sleep, so she foolishly challenged Lou to a game of chess. The game had barely started when she realized that she didn't have the concentration to do this well now. Lou was a very good player. Samara kept glancing over at the corner where Harry sat with Ron and Hermione. Lou beat her soundly in half dozen moves. 

"Rematch?" He suggested.

"I don't think so," said Samara. "Maybe tomorrow. I'm going to bed." She crept silently into the room. Neither Parvati, nor Lavender were there and Hermione was still in the common room with Ron and Harry. Ginny, however, was already asleep. At least she was as asleep as she got without a dreamless sleep potion. Her blanket was on the floor and she was lying diagonally across the bed. She was thrashing about as usual. Samara sighed and got ready for bed. By the time she was ready to crawl under the sheets, Ginny's pillow had joined her blanket on the floor. She was moaning softly and clutching the corner of her night robe, which was now hiked up, around her middle. Samara reached over and pulled the covers up over Ginny's shivering form.

==

Ginny was asleep. Yes, she was supposed to be asleep. The medi-witches and medi-wizards were bustling around her. 

__

"Did you increase her potion?" asked the medi-witch.

"Yes. As much as I can. I'm using somniferum potion. _She won't wake this time. Not until we need her participation." The medi-wizard smoothed her hair. "This poor child has been through so much. Are you ready?"_

"Yes," said the medi-witch.

"No," muttered Ginny. "No—please don't—" They didn't hear her.

Ginny felt the smooth edge of a wand at her temple. The first thought was examined without trauma, and the second and the third---

Eleven-year-old Ginny was writing in the diary. **"Oh, Tom, Hogwarts is so exciting. I can't wait to learn everything—"**

"Would you like me to teach you some things?" Tom wrote back, the letters appearing across the page in his beautiful flowing script.

****

"Oh yes—But what about you Tom? We should be trying to free you from this curse. Who was the evil wizard?"

"Don't worry about me," Tom wrote.

__

"We aren't deep enough," the medi-witch commented. "Just innocent conversations."

By the time the medi-witches and wizards were changed twice, Ginny was starting to sweat, and the conversations were no longer innocent.

"Virginia. You promised to free me. Do you understand the importance of Intent in magic?"

****

"I didn't know," Ginny whined. "Please. I don't want to have any more nightmares—Don't make me, Tom."

__

"Found one we can remove," said the medi-witch. 

"OK." 

Ginny whimpered as she felt the binding spell of the medi-wizard holding her still as the medi-witch untangled the memory from those around it. Her blood pressure and heart rate began to climb. "I've never seen such a tangled mess," commented the medi-witch. "It's almost as if the person who created this diary knew how to tie memories together. They are all wrapped around common themes. If I pull one, I risk pulling some of her good memories. Ah, I got it."

__

The medi-witch brushed Ginny's hair back again. "Poor child. Her vitals are still good, but I think she's feeling some of these."

"Can't be," commented another medi-witch. "She's on the highest amount of somniferum potion 

we can give her.

"Found another one," commented the medi-wizard who was sorting through Ginny's brain. Ginny whimpered as he tugged on it. "I think it's in pretty tight. We may need a severing charm to remove only part of it."

"No," commented another medi-witch. "I don't like to do them that way. It leaves incomplete memories and later can give way to other sanity problems.

"Did you see what this girl went through?" commented another medi-witch. "I doubt if she could ever hold on to her sanity anyway."

"We want to give her every chance," said another medi-wizard.

The memory began easily enough. The Diary wrote: "Happy Birthday, Virginia. We should celebrate getting back together. 

Don't—you--think?"

Ginny began to thrash and moan in her hospital bed. **"No,"** she muttered.

"I have present for you, Virginia." Scrawled the diary.

Ginny broke out in cold sweat. She struck out her hand and magic glistened on her fingers.

__

"Get a hold on her," shouted one of the medi-witches.

"Increase her somniferum," _said another one._

"I can't," said a third, "She's already on a dangerously high dosage."

A fourth medi-witch wound the thought around her wand and picked at it to disentangle it from the other thoughts. 

"Can't get it," the medi-witch complained.

"Well, what is it?" asked another. She sucked in her breath as she viewed the memory. "Take it out!" the medi-witch demanded.

"I can't," hissed another medi-witch in frustration. They worked silently for a few minutes together. To Ginny it seemed like hours, and to no avail. Finally the witch stopped. "I think it goes back to a hub. It's a consensual web," said the medi-witch rubbing her neck with fatigue. "I'm spent, and I think Virginia needs a break too. The pain is bleeding through the somniferum potion and we can't give her any more yet. 

"Can't be. It's never bled through somniferum." 

__

"Can we give her a sleeping ward charm?" Asked another.

They tried the sleeping ward charm and for a few minutes Ginny relaxed. Different wizards and witches were with her when she awoke. She was in agony. 

The medi-witches were talking again. "It's an intricate web, and because she gave consent, there is nothing we can do to remove it. We can't remove the parts we really want to remove."

__

"Where is the consent?"

"Everywhere," said a medi-wizard pointing out various memories of Ginny writing in the Diary. "And at every point of consent is another knot. Whoever enchanted this diary was a master. Look. This is what she wrote."

****

"Of course, I'll help you get out of the Diary, Tom, but who is this Dark Wizard that put you here?"

"I want to help you break the enchantment so you can live free."

"You're my best friend, Tom."

__

"And later," said the medi-witch with a sigh. "She wrote this:"

****

"Yes, I know you explained the power of Intention, but I didn't understand!"

__

"If she didn't understand—" began one of the medi-wizards.

"It doesn't matter," interrupted another. "Ignorance doesn't negate the spell. Her Intent was to free him, even though she didn't know the cost. See. Look at this entry—"

****

"I know I said I would free you, but I don't want to die—please—Tom, is there another way_?"_

"This one is about as open ended as you can get—"

****

"Anything—Anything you want Tom." Wrote Ginny.

__

"And here it is," said the Medi-witch. "This is the hub. This is where it really solidified."

Ginny remembered her absolute terror when she realized that Tom had called the basilisk and it would kill her unless it sensed Tom within her. 

****

"I'm scared, Tom. It's going to kill me, isn't it? ISN'T IT? I don't want to die. I'm scared. . . I want you to go away. . .I want my Tom. . . What do you want me to do, Tom? . . . I understand. . . It needs to sense you, not me. How can I let you control me? I don't understand. Yes, I remember what you said about Intent. . . . OK. . . . Will I get to come back—I mean after—you won't just—just—yes, of course I trust you, Tom. Where will I go? OK --You can control my body –but just to control the basilisk—WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T PROMISE ME THAT?"

__

"That last was scrawled and the quill had ripped the page. 

"It looks like some parts of the conversation were skipped," interjected one of the medi-wizards.

"Yes. Some parts ceased to be written. She was communicating directly, mind to mind with him at least part of the time here," said the Medi-witch. "She seems to be hysterical."

****

"OK! OK! Whatever you want Tom. I don't care. Just do it. Just don't let it kill me! JUST DO IT!"

__

"And you can't get that memory out?" asked the medi-witch.

"I can try again," said the other medi-witch shaking her head in dismay. "You can see that she gave consent to him—numerous times."

Ginny's head felt like it was splitting open. Magic was dripping from her fingertips, burning her. She didn't know how she knew it was magic but she did. She tried to shut out the pain.

__

"She's hurting," said one of the medi-wizards. 

"Do you think so?" questioned another. 

"Yes. Can you feel the magic in her hands?"

"Wandless. Is it hers, or the thing that's inside of her?" 

Ginny wanted away from these memories. She tried to go back to when she was little, but the only reality she could see was a dark corner in a basement. She sought that solitude desperately. 

"If you can't apologize, you will have to sit here alone with the rats." Said the Orphanage caretaker. "You will learn manners, or I will beat them into you. Do you understand?" She tapped her stick on the palm of her hand.

****

"I didn't do anything," moaned Ginny, trying to roll herself into a smaller ball. "They lied. Alfred lied. Why do you always believe him, but you don't believe me?"

Tears were rolling down Ginny's face and soaking the pillow under her head. She felt a tear flow down and into one of her ears. She thrashed her head back and forth, hysterically. She knew what was coming. She didn't want to see this memory, but it was the only one she could access with the medi-witches in her head, and even it was better than facing the medi-witches.

The Orphanage woman laid the stick upon her, beating her legs, and back and buttocks—not once or twice like the other children got—this beating went on and on. Suddenly she couldn't stand it any longer. With a wish that was real the stick became a snake. It slithered in the woman's hand and bit her on the forearm. She shrieked and dropped the snake made from a stick. Slamming the door, she left Tom in total darkness with the snake and the rats. 

In the silence the present pain came back to Ginny. They were taking a memory—not this memory—but another one. One that was also about snakes—No—the King of Snakes. They were in the Chamber of Secrets. Tom was speaking to her, but she couldn't understand him because of the pain in her head. **"Stop! Please."**

__

"I think she's feeling this," said one of the medi-witches.

"She can't be—"

"Can't give her any more potion—"

Ginny wanted to scream and scream. Surely they heard her begging them to stop. Surely they heard her screams—she ran—trying to find someplace to hide. At last she found someplace. It was dark and quiet.

__

Far away she heard the medi-witches speaking. "She consented to this joining."

"She was eleven. She didn't understand."

"It doesn't matter. I wish it wasn't so, but we can't remove them. Not the consensual ones"

"None of them?"

"A few, perhaps. Not the ones that matter."

"Do what you can."

****

Ginny went back to her quiet place. She was holding a rat, running her forefinger from the tip of its nose, between it's beady black eyes to it's ears. She rubbed the soft hair inside of it's warm, fragile ears. She fed it from her meager supplies. "At least, no one will tease me here," she thought, wiping away her tears. A cold hard resolve began to form in her heart. "I hate them," she told the rat. "Someday, I'll make them pay—Someday, I'll be so powerful they won't be able to hurt me."

__

"I see something strange here," said one of the medi-wizards.

"What is it?"

"Is this possible?"

"What?"

"It doesn't look like her memory."

"Don't be ridiculous. It's in her head. Of course it's her memory."

"But look at the magical signature when she changed the whipping stick into a snake. It's not her magic."

Another wizard began poking his wand around in her brain. Ginny retreated further into the shadows, gritting her teeth against the pain.

"You can conquer the pain," said another voice in her head. "Let me help you."

"**No," muttered Ginny. "You are the bad wizard—the one that locked Tom in the diary."**

"There _is_ no bad wizard and good wizard Ginny. How many times do I have to tell you? There is only Tom Riddle and who we became—Lord Voldemort. One wizard. And if I'm telling you how to take away the pain, why do you think I'm bad?"

Ginny found the quiet spot in the basement and held her rat. No one could find her here. She had wished it real. No one will find me. She listened. The Orphanage people were talking about her.

__

"If they accept him at this Hogwart's boarding school, I think we should send him and good riddance."

"But we know nothing about it—"

"We know that Tom Riddle can more than take care of himself. Personally I'll be happy to be able to make the beds without wondering what he has hidden under them."

"When does school start?"

"September first."

"What about the tuition?"

"Well, that's what is strange. It says his tuition is paid for the entire seven years."

"It's decided then. Probably his mother paid it before she died."

****

His mother—he breathed—at least his mother loved him—Only until September first. Then he would never come back here. He would follow all the rules. He would be the perfect student. 

Suddenly the memory in which Ginny was hiding was shaken. Pain shot through her, as they tried to remove it. Think of something else—Ginny demanded of herself—choose another memory—

__

The medi-witches were talking

"I don't understand how it happened, but these definitely aren't her memories. We should be able to remove them. I don't understand why we can't--" 

"If we can't remove these memories then the only thing we can do is block them."

"Whose memories are these?

"Does it matter? They aren't hers. This is something from that Diary—I don't know how it was done—this is old magic."

"We can block them off with memory charms," suggested one of the medi-witches.

"Memory charms are not fool proof. The memories could return."

"They could, but they might not. In any event, she won't have to deal with them now, as an eleven-year-old. If she remembers as an adult, it might not be quite so traumatic."

"Maybe they won't come back at all. There's really no reason for her to examine this little corner of her mind."

"I believe that's all we can do."

"Poor child."

Ginny fell asleep in the quiet aftermath. She crept back to the memory that had kept her safe throughout the ordeal at St. Mongos. It was dark and quiet and there was no pain. It was a good place to sleep. The Orphanage people let her sleep here in the dark. She didn't care. She liked it dark. It was quiet then, and no one came to hurt you. 

It was a week before the Orphanage lady came back for Tom. He should have been hungry, but he wished food real from the things he found on the ground. He didn't like to think about what they once were, but they tasted fine when he wished for buttered bread or scones or trifle. By the time the Orphanage lady came back, Tom had let the snake turn back into a stick and befriended one of the rats. He kept it in his pocket when he came out into the light. 

__

"Have you learned your lesson?" The Orphanage lady asked sternly.

Tom didn't answer. He put his hand in his pocket and felt the tiny scratchy feet of his pet on his fingers.

"Are you hungry?" The Orphanage lady asked.

"No," said Tom. 

"Don't lie," spat the Orphanage lady. "You'll burn in hell for your lying, Tom."

"Would that be very bad?" asked Tom.

"Yes," hissed the Orphanage lady. "Very bad. The worst thing you can imagine." Her voice softened. "You really need to tell the truth, Tom. You need to be a good boy. Do you understand?

He didn't answer. He looked sullenly at his feet and felt for the rat in his pocket.

The Orphanage lady sighed in frustration.

"I'm thirsty," said Tom. It seemed like he totally ignored her sermon, but four days later, Alfred's hair caught on fire. Alfred spent two weeks in the hospital because of the burns, and the scars on his face were irreparable. The orphanage people thought the child must have accidentally knocked over the candle. 

But Alfred, he was a liar. He deserved to burn. The Orphanage lady had said so--

"I'm thirsty," Tom repeated.

==

Ginny wondered when they would give her something to drink.

The medi-witches and wizards finally let her sleep. Tom finally let her sleep. There were no nightmares. 

In her dream she was in a quiet dark place and she was happy here. There was powerful magic around her. She could feel it. She knew this place. It was a safe place. It was His place. No one would come to hurt her here. The place had a name. It was called the Chamber of Secrets. She put her head against the cool stone and fell asleep.

==

*Direct quote from JK Rowlings' Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

****

ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS

Alyse: So glad you think it gets better and better. Samara is 14 and Edward is 13. It said their ages in Hogwarts Express: Crashed and Sorted: Sort of, respectively. It also told the ages of the other new characters in Sorted: Sort of. 

****

Blue blond sorcerress: Glad you figured out how to sign up at fanfiction and what Samara's patronus should be, but it's not a shark. I hope you can figure out how to change your screen name, because you spelled sorceress wrong. Any help I can give, I will. Email me. RAVENCLAW coming soon.

****

Trillium: Drinking buddies? You have no idea. Wait until Halloween. Have you written any stories? Let me know. I'll R&R.

****

PyRei: Thanks for the award. Everyone who likes DBZ, go read PyRei's story.

****

Silverfox: So you don't think Samara belongs in Gryffindor? HMMMM. Where should she go? Ravenclaw coming soon. I promise.

****

Christina: Thanks for the glowing review. 

****

Whiteriver: I'm not sure exactly how many chapters because I keep splitting them when new stuff pops into my head, but it's not over any time soon. Thanks for saying you don't want it to end. Maybe I'll have to cut it in half and make the second part a sequel.

****

Fallen Angel of Darkness: Review answered by "Lady Lestrange" review on fanfic. Thanks for keeping me on my toes. Any British born: What do you think of the phrase, "What's up?" Email me.

****

Ilwinterhofal: Thanks for the spiffy review.

****

The Elemental Sorceress: Is Samara's patronous really a flubberworm? Sorry, not telling.

****

Melbell: (Missed you last time)Yes. More action scenes like Hogwarts Express: Crashed coming up later. Ravenclaw chapter is sooner.


	30. CH 29: The Spelling Bee

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 29

Spelling Bee

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers

and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS:We see a very stressed out Snape both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snape and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. 

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

Chapter 29

SPELLING BEE

When Ginny awoke on Thursday morning she was on the floor beside her bed. She had fallen out of bed! Again! It was so embarrassing. She scrambled back onto the bed and looked around at her roommates. Fortunately, it was still early and they were still asleep. Except for a stiff shoulder where it had been laying on the cold, hard floor, she felt more refreshed than she had in weeks. The dreams must have been better last night, she thought. It was strange that she didn't remember them. Usually Tom made her remember every disgusting detail. She closed her eyes again—just for a moment.

Samara's wind-up muggle alarm clock started ringing and when Samara didn't get up to shut it off, Ginny banished the thing to Samara's bed. "I'm awake," Samara muttered as she shut off the alarm, and sat up.

"Damn, it can't be morning yet," complained Lavender. "I feel like I just went to sleep."

Hermione waltzed out of the bathroom. She was completely dressed and ready for class. She tied her tie without looking in the mirror and slung her books over her back like always—"I'll see you later," she said cheerfully, and headed down to breakfast.

"I'm next!" Ginny dove for the bathroom, but Samara was faster, jumping off of her bed and knocking her perpetual rose from its vase.

"Wake me in ten minutes," muttered Lavender as she pulled the sheet over her head.

"Where's Parvati?" asked Ginny, as she reached down to pick up the lavender rose and put it back in its vase. Absently, she buried her nose in its petals, inhaling the sweet fragrance, and trying not to be envious. After all the rose was from Draco.

"Trelawney," Lavender muttered into her pillow.

"What?" Ginny put the vase back on Samara's desk.

"She went to talk to Trelawney again," said Lavender. She sat up in bed and faced Ginny. "Late last night," she said. "I'm worried about her. All the time she's spending with that woman, it's starting to creep me out—"

"I thought you liked Trelawney and Divination," said Ginny.

"I do. But as a class—a teacher—not as someone who is taking away my best friend."

"I think you're over-reacting, Lavender."

"No. I know Parvati admired Trelawney before, but half the words that come out of her mouth lately just sound like she's mimicking Trelawney. Professor Trelawney said this and Professor Trelawney said that—I feel like I'm talking to Trelawney most of the time instead of Parvati—It's like she's possessed—or channeling Trelawney--"

Ginny just looked at Lavender. 

__

"Well Virginia, you know what that's like, don't you?"

"Go away, Tom."

"You know I'm not going anywhere, Ginny Love—"

__

"And don't call me Ginny Love—"

"Ginny," called Samara. "Next for the shower."

"I'm sorry," she said to Lavender. "Gotta go." She hurried to get ready for class. Samara had already left for breakfast when she got out of the shower. 

In the Great Hall, Samara looked for Beatrice. She was sitting with Neville and Lou.

Just then, the post owls started to fly into the room. Samara was surprised that Grandma Lori actually wrote a letter back to her. Aggie flew to her outstretched arm and hooted as if to ask if she had any good food. Samara walked to the table and gave her a bite of bacon before shooing her off to the owlry. Samara immediately opened the letter, while Beatrice, Lou and Neville ate their breakfast and chatted about classes.

__

Dear Sam,

Samara suddenly felt very homesick. At home, she was "Sam", just one of the guys, as her brothers called her. Here, in the wizarding world she was Samara, and there was a whole new set of rules. She wanted nothing more than to feel Grandma Lori's skinny arms around her and to hear her voice telling her that everything would work out for the best. Samara blinked. If she wasn't careful, she'd end up crying, right here at the breakfast table in the Great Hall. 

She looked up, and caught Draco watching her. Immediately, she turned her attention back to Grandma Lori's letter. Ginny's words seemed to echo in her brain: "Do you know what Death Eaters do for fun, Samara? They kill muggles." Samara looked down the table to where Ginny was giggling over something that Edward had said, and then she looked back at her letter. 

__

Dear Sam,

Well, your owl almost frightened me out of my wits. He flew right in the window and sat on the television where I was trying once again to fix the color. I'm so tired of everyone being green. I suppose I'll have to get a new set soon. The color is a mess. At first I thought the owl was just a confused woodland creature and then I remembered he might have a message from that school of yours. He seemed very hungry. I fed him some sausage. He ate an awful lot of it. I hope that it won't make him sick. 

Your brothers are being hooligans as usual, but your Mom and Dad are coping. I think they will still be together at Christmas so don't worry. If they don't stay together because of love, I'm sure they'll stick together out of habit and laziness.

I'm very glad that you decided to write to me. I just was re-reading some of the old news clippings from your grandfather's obituary and remembered one reporter saying he died as if by magic. It gave me a chill. So I'm happy to hear that you're liking school, but it seems very lonely here without you. Next time write about your new friends. I will feel better knowing you have found some good chums to share things with. Have you told anyone you see auras? Or have you been silent and secretive like your grandfather used to be? Remember a smile will make you more friends than a frown will and try to say only nice things about people. I doubt that wizards are different from—regular people in that respect. 

As far as this boy you told me about, don't be too anxious to tie yourself down to one, no matter how nice he seems, especially since you barely know him. Get to know his friends and family. I know you are a good judge of character, so use those gifts wisely and remember, to whom much is given, much is expected. 

Love you. Miss you and looking forward to seeing you at Christmas. I'll tell your Mom and Dad that you are doing fine.

Love, 

Grandma Lori

Samara folded the letter and held it close to her heart as if that could make her closer to Grandma Lori. Tell her about her new friends! Ha! Samara glanced over at Beatrice. Well, maybe she had one new friend anyway--

Neville, Lou, Beatrice and Samara walked to the library together for their free period. "I wish Professor Dumbledore would have found someone to replace Hagrid," said Neville. "I miss Care of Magical Creatures. Although I shouldn't complain. I have more time to study my other classes."

"Especially since you have OWL's this year," added Lou.

"What animals did you study?" asked Beatrice.

"Let's see," said Neville, "And he began a litany of animals that Samara could only wonder about."

"Don't forget unicorns," said Ginny as she and Edward caught up with them.

"Hi Ginny," Samara said guardedly.

"Unicorns?" interrupted Lou. "I thought unicorns wouldn't stand still to let boys interact with them at all—"

"They didn't when we had the substitute, Professor Grubbley-Plank. But then, when Hagrid came back, he found baby unicorns and they let boys touch them," said Neville.

"That was the best class Hagrid ever had," said Ginny. "I really don't miss Care of Magical Creatures this year. With Hagrid it was more like care of Magical Monsters: screwts and hippogrifts and dragon eggs and werewolf pups."

"We never studied werewolves or dragons," said Neville, with a frown on his face. "Did you do them last year?"

"Oh that's right," said Ginny, putting a hand over her mouth. "And Ron swore me to secrecy. Don't tell anyone. I slipped. Norbert wasn't common knowledge—"

"Your secret's safe with us," said Beatrice. "Right Samara?"

"Sure," said Samara distractedly as they seated themselves at the library table. She glanced over at the next table, where the trio was trying not to allow anyone else to see what they were working on. It was obviously not homework. "Looks like the trio still has a few secrets," said Samara.

"Oh they're just working on Parvati's prophecy. They seem to think it has some significance in connection with the Sorting Hat not working," said Ginny.

"Did you really believe a hat could tell that much about someone's personality anyway?" asked Samara as Edward came over to join them at their table. 

"Hi Eddie—" said Samara brightly.

Edward frowned and pulled a chair between her and Ginny, with a sour look at Samara he said, softly, "I prefer Edward—the name of kings."

Samara giggled. "Oh yeah, you're a king alright," she said, "More like a knave." 

Edward laughed with her. "I guess those of us who never saw this Sorting Hat work have a little trouble believing in it."

Mrs. Pince hushed them and they each opened books and started to work on class work. Samara peered over her history book to watch the changing auras of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Whatever they were working on, certainly had them on edge. 

Samara asked the librarian for some information on curses and counter curses that she might have missed studying at home. Samara told Ms. Pince they were having a duel today in DADA class and she didn't want to be too far behind. Although Samara walked by their table several times in her search for books, she didn't see anything of what the trio was working on. She told herself it didn't matter--Ms. Pince was very helpful—that's all that mattered. Samara went back to the table with several excellent books, including one which told how to do an impediment curse which slowed down attackers and a shield charm. That was a particularly handy little charm that was supposed to deflect minor curses. Samara didn't want to have to rely solely on her curses to take down an opponent. The less people she sent to the infirmary, the more likely she was to keep some friends. 

Sadly, she opened her grandmother's letter and read it again. What friends?

Later that day, Samara found herself once again alone as she went into potions class. 

==

After the class had stirred their polyjuice potions and reattached their cauldron lids, Mrs. Figg had the class return to their lab areas. Reluctantly, Harry left his seat by Ron and Hermione and went to sit with Ethan.

"We are going to learn about an herb which we will be using in our next potion. The herb is called Brimstone Mirra

The potion is called Mirra Opening. Open your books to page 49.

The herb: It's a water plant—actually a type of kelp which only grows deep in the ocean, so it is kept in the cold and dark. Its caustic nature is increased, as its temperature is increased, so we will be doing cooling charms on the room. Let's practice that now, just for safety sake."

Everyone could do a cooling charm except for Samara, however, after several tries, she got it. Mrs. Figg dropped the temperature in the room and anyone who did not wear their sweaters under their robes got them now and put them on.

"I told you to wear warm clothing under your robes and bring your Dragon Hide Gloves to this class," complained Mrs. Figg. "Maybe if you shiver through this class, you will remember next time. If you have forgotten your Dragon Hide Gloves, you may accio them. I don't want you to get sap on your hands."

Mrs. Figg continued talking while several students, including Neville and Ron tried to accio their gloves. Ron got his, but Harry was quite sure Hermione accioed Neville's gloves and then slid them across the table to him. After numerous tries, Goyle still did not have his gloves and Mrs. Figg, finally running out of patience asked if anyone knew what they looked like and where they were. Draco raised his hand. "Get them," she said shortly, and Draco accioed Goyle's gloves. 

"Mr. Goyle," Mrs. Figg said, "Accio is an essential charm that you should have learned last year. Did your class cover it?"

"Yes," answered Goyle. "But I'm not very good at charms. This is potions, anyway—" he muttered. "Not charms."

"Five points from Slytherin for your cheek, and if you cannot accio any item I tell you to by tomorrow, you will remain for detention."

"But—"

"Accio is not an optional charm—"

"This isn't charms," whined Goyle.

Mrs Figg ignored his whining and turned to the class. "I was hoping to have this for you last week, but the shipment was delayed. I had to reorder it and it arrived yesterday." Mrs. Figg opened a large box and showed the class a bouquet of long blue sticks as thin as quills.

"This is the main ingredient in Mirra Opening Potion. It can be used in place of the reductor charm, but much more powerful, and much more accurate once it is in the potion.

"Are we making explosives?" Harry muttered.

"It appears so," replied Ethan, his face alight with glee.

"The potion doesn't actually explode, Mr. Lestrange and Mr. Potter," said Mrs. Figg. "What it does is eat through the rock, much like an acid would. It converts the rock and itself into an inert phosphorus based fog, which dissipates.

The reason we don't use the sap without the potion is because it would eat straight through the rock and through the floor of the dungeon also. Plus we wouldn't be able to control the liquid on a vertical surface."

"You mean it would drip?" asked Neville.

"Exactly. The potion acts like a glue which keeps it on the surface, exactly where we want it to be, until it evaporates. The gaseous state of the sap is relatively harmless unless it happens to rain." 

"What happens if it rains?" asked Hermione.

"Then it explodes," said Mrs. Figg. "That fact prohibited its being used as a drain cleaner, although before that particular use for dragon's blood was discovered, some wizards used brimstone mirra to unclog drains. As long as you wait for the gases to dissipate, it does work. It is much more economical than dragon's blood, but you cannot run water through the pipes for at least 24 hours." Mrs. Figg finished checking that each of the polyjuice caldrons were properly sealed and simmering.

"But we won't have to worry about explosions." She continued. " Professor Dumbledore wants the potion made to clear out the rocks which are blocking several of the old secret entrances to Hogwarts school." She winked at them conspiratorially. 

"I'll bet most of you didn't know there were several ways to make an emergency exit out of Hogwarts. Once they are cleared of debris, they will be escape passageways. In the unlikely event that the Hogwarts wards are ever breached, you will not have to rely on apparition skill alone to escape.

So you see, Miss Granger," continued Mrs. Figg. "This potion will be used underground, and there is no chance of it coming in contact with water."

"How many passageways are there?" asked Harry, thinking of his Maurader's Map on which were more than five if you counted the blocked ones, but that's just the ones that the Mauraders knew about. Add in the Chamber of Secrets and who knows what went out of the Slytherin dungeon--

"Oh dear," answered Mrs. Figg. "I don't believe I should tell you that; however, all of them lead out toward Hogsmeade or onto a known roadway, so you needn't worry about being lost. I don't know how much of this information Professor Dumbledore wants to be common knowledge, so I will not answer any more questions about the nature or whereabouts of these passageways. I'm only telling you to reassure those of you who are frightened by the prospect of Death Eaters entering through the floo."

Harry noticed that Malfoy had a particularly disgusting smirk on his face.

"Mrs, Figg," asked Edward. "If the passageways allow exits, what is to keep someone from using the passage to enter Hogwarts?"

"Ancient and powerful wards," said Mrs. Figg. "You need not worry."

Harry frowned thinking of the numerous times he and Fred and George had used the passageways. Nothing ever stopped them from returning from Hogsmeade So where were these so called wards? Even Sirius used the passageway when everyone wanted to keep Sirius out—At least it appeared that Dumbledore wanted to keep Sirius out. Maybe he didn't. Or maybe Dumbledore didn't know about all of the secret passageways and maybe they weren't all warded. 

Harry felt a cold fear in the pit of his stomach. Hadn't Dumbledore himself told Karkaroff at the Yule ball last year that there were many secrets about Hogwarts which he hadn't discovered. 

But if they were ancient wards, then they might have been placed by the Founders. They knew all of the secrets of Hogwarts. Of course, Salazar made a secret chamber that none of them knew about. What if he made secret passageways too?

For just a moment, Harry thought of telling Dumbledore about the other secret passages, and then he dismissed the thought. If Dumbledore ever decided that Snape was right, he might need one of those passages—even if he had to use one that went out into the Forbidden Forest.

"Mr. Potter?" Mrs. Figg's voice brought Harry back abruptly to the present and the potions classroom.

"Er—"

"Incendio ," muttered Ethan in a strangled voice that could have been holding back laughter.

"That's correct," said Mrs. Figg. "However, if I wanted you to answer, Mr. Lestrange to answer, I would have asked him. Please pay attention, Mr. Potter."

"Once the potion is brewed and cooled, we will add the herb. The potion protects us from its acidic properties unless the potion is heated past 150 degrees Celcius. As you know, we can get to that temperature either by heating the potion or by using a simple spell such as incendio. Even when cold," Mrs. Figg continued, "this herb is toxic. Most people will get a nasty allergic rash in reaction to the cold sap, so do not touch it without your gloves. It is in addition, of course, poison. The caustic nature of both the sap and the potion has also been used by dark wizards to cause a very painful death. I will be weighing the herbs before I give them to you to make sure we don't—lose any," she said, frowning at Draco and Edward who were obviously finding this class quite funny. 

Luckily class was almost over and Mrs. Figg didn't take any points from Gryffindor before it was time to go to Defense, but if looks could kill, Draco Malfoy would have been dead already. Apparently, even Draco realized that he had gone too far. Harry and Ron heard him go up to Mrs. Figg after class and apologize for his behavior.

"What a suck up," muttered Ron. "I guess he isn't so sure of his potions grade now that Snape isn't teaching it."

"So are you ready for this duel, Harry?" asked Hermione brightly.

"I suppose so." How bad can it be? He thought. "I reviewed a lot of the spells we looked up when I was studying for the Third Task."

"I just hope Madam Pomfrey's ready for this duel," said Ron as they entered Snape's classroom. 

==

"Today we will practice dueling," said Snape. "I know some of you have some experience from second year dueling club although I hesitate to call that a good experience. It may be more of a liability.

First of all dueling is not about how bad the curses are. That's a separate discipline. Dueling is about speed. If you can curse someone with one curse, it is likely that you can hit him with another. Secondly, blocking is of utmost importance."

"Wands out."

"Let's see everyone's standard block."

"Much too slow. Try again."

"Again."

"Again."

"There isn't one of you who is fast enough," Snape complained. "If you are attacked, I sincerely doubt that your attacker will patiently wait for you to remember which block you want to use." Snape shook his head. "Let's just try a simple stunning spell right now," he said. "I don't want to tax your miniscule brains by making you, idiots, actually think of a spell yourself." He hesitated, looking around the classroom."

"Potter, come here."

Why me? Thought Harry as he stood.

"I want you to block my spell, then immediately cast your own stunning spell." Said Snape.

Harry blocked Snape's stunning spell, which he thought was terribly slow, but hesitated about stunning Snape. In that moment, Snape threw a second stunning spell that hit Harry squarely. Harry crumpled.

"You're supposed to block, Potter, you stupid boy!" growled Snape, as if it was Harry's fault he was hit. "Never hesitate," said Snape. "And never take your eyes off of you opponent. Mr. Malfoy," Snape said, "And Mr. Weasley."

"He'll cheat," whispered Ginny to her brother. 

Ron nodded.

"I want to see good blocks," said Snape. "Begin on three."

"One. . . 

Ron, expecting Malfoy to cheat, was ready to block on two.

Predictably, Malfoy's curse was released on two, but Ron blocked it and said "**Calvitium!"**

Malfoy blocked.

****

"Tarantallegra!" said Malfoy. 

Ron blocked.

****

"Furnunculus!" said Ron. 

Malfoy blocked. And realizing that simple first level spells were not penetrating Ron's shield, he shouted **"Somnus!"** a third level spell. It went right through Ron's shield and Ron crumpled, asleep before he hit the ground.

"That's two Gryffindors down," murmured Hermione to Beatrice, who was struggling to breathe and obviously missing her puffer. 

"It's probably good Ron didn't hit Draco with that first spell." Huffed Beatrice. "Draco would have killed him."

"Baldness wasn't it?" asked Hermione.

Beatrice nodded.

"Five points to Slytherin," said Snape. "For defeating your opponent. Nicely done, Mr. Malfoy."

"Miss Donnally, would you care to take on Mr. Malfoy?"

"Any day," she said, standing and pulling her wand from her hair.

She knew his eyes never gave away his movements, but his aura didn't lie. It was changing slowly, the blues and violets swirling lazily among the red layers. Over it all was as always a haze of red. They circled each other slowly and cautiously. He was totally relaxed. He expected to win easily. The aura's flicker alerted her to his movement. He feinted to the right and then leaned left and fired off his spell. She blocked and fired immediately, hitting his wand hand with a paralysis spell. 

Deftly, he switched hands.

The Slytherins gasped as they realized that already Draco was at a disadvantage, fighting with this non- dominant hand. His right arm hung useless and stiff at his side. He fired several spells in quick succession. She blocked two with the shield charm she had just learned this morning, but the last one turned her hair a deep olive green. 

"Don't you know what color Slytherin green is?" she mocked.

Because her hair was black to begin with, it was darker than a true Slytherin green, but he did make the first point. 

Samara let Draco see her eyes look quickly to Snape as if to ask if they should stop.

Draco lowered his wand. 

In quick succession, she fired off freckles, red hair and a tickling spell. Draco blocked none of them.

The Gryffindors howled with laughter. Of course, so did Draco, much to his chagrin, but the laughter did not reach his steely gray eyes, and the colors of his aura deepened with his concentration. "You won't surprise me again," he said softly. 

Ron woke up from his curse in time to see a version of Draco that could have been another Weasley brother. "Wrong color robes," snorted Ron.

"Serpensortia," gasped Draco between gasps of laughter, and a huge snake appeared. His aura never changed. Draco certainly wasn't exerting himself in this duel. Maybe she should give him a little more competition--

"Grandis Mustela!" said Samara and the snake was faced with her mongoose. The two creatures immediately broke into a wild fight which made the giggling Gryffindors move back. Someone stepped on a Slytherin's foot and a fist fight broke out between several Gryffindors and Slytherins.

A moment later, Samara's front teeth grew to three times their normal size. 

Behind her, Samara heard Hermione's horrified gasp.

"The better to bite you with!" Samara lisped through the long teeth.

Well, you'd better stop backing away then," panted Draco between giggles. "You'd have to be quite a bit closer to bite me."

By now, both the snake and the mongooose had disappeared due to Draco and Samara's inattention to them.

"Come on-" Draco teased "I think you're afraid to get that close to me. Afraid I'll bite back?"

"Ha!" Samara launched herself at Draco, but he stepped out of her way and with a flick of the wand, she also convulsed into tickle curse induced laughter.

"Viridantis peplum," said Draco turning her robes Slytherin green.

Immediately Draco's robes turned Gryffindor red. "A Weasley---never had--- such new---robes," gasped Draco between laughs. Tears of laughter were now coursing down his cheeks and his face was flushed.

"Are you---com---complementing me?" asked Samara.

"You wish." 

Panting and laughing, they circled each other. Twice, Samara's shield charm blocked whatever Draco tried to send her way, but she felt the charm weakening. 

"Take 'em off," gasped Samara "My stomach's--hurting—from laughing--On three?"

Draco nodded, his aura lightening as he relaxed.

"One," said Samara. "Two . . .three" She removed Draco's curses.

He turned her face green to match her hair.

"You!" cried Samara.

The Gryffindors were not sure if she was ready to tackle Draco or curse him seriously now. In any case, the Gryfffindors erupted with cries of "unfair!" and "Cheater!" and came to her rescue by jumping on or cursing the nearest Slytherin.

"Occaeco!" said Samara, who had never taken her eyes off of Draco. She cast an invisibility spell on his clothes leaving him standing in boxer shorts- which she transfigured into gold shorts with large red hearts.

Draco looked down at himself and burst into laughter even without a tickling spell, but his aura was roiling. He was suddenly agitated even though he didn't show it in his facial expression.

"Oh Samara," he said. "These are awful. I'd never wear Gryffindor colors."

"I think they're kind of cute," she remarked, as she moved closer to him and simultaneously blocked someone's jelly legs curse that was thrown from behind her.

"Better move out of the line of fire," warned Draco as another spell was hurled in their direction. 

They backed against the wall beside Professor Snape who was watching the chaos with the detachment borne of waiting out similar "spelling bees" in Slytherin House. Samara had one hand on her stomach which was hurting from the tickle induced laughter.

"On three, we'll reverse the spells, OK" said Draco, holding his wand in his right hand and leaning his left against his torso, Samara noticed, in attempt to hide the small, but distinctive skull tattoo that marked his forearm.

I don't think so," said Samara. "You cheat."

"Come on Samara," said Draco. "I didn't do any real curses on you," he said reasonably. "Green hair isn't a curse. It's a joke. You know, we could have both hurt each other." Although his aura had mellowed to the dusty rose that she knew so well, he was still agitated.

"True," Samara agreed. "OK then," said Draco. "On three. One. Two. . ."

Draco was hit in the back of the head by something. "What?"

He turned and picked up a lump of flesh."

"Throw it here, Draco. Throw it here," begged Goyle.

"Gimme my NOSE!" snapped Eloise Midgin grabbing the flesh from his hand.

Samara's body, already convulsed with laughter from the tickling spell, couldn't possibly laugh any harder. 

Also stiffling laughter, Draco choked out "Three!" Both he and Samara used their wands. Draco used his to reverse Samara's green hair, face and clothes as well as to remove the tickling spell and shrink her teeth. Samara used hers to change Draco's boxers from gold with red hearts to green with lavender roses.

"Opps," said Samara throwing another spell in his direction. "I forgot the thorns."

But Draco was ready for her. With a deft flick of his wrist, he placed a reflective ward which caused her spell to rebound upon herself. She was immediately surrounded by coils of plant life that resembled Devil's Snare, but it had numerous inch long thorns jutting from the stems. Samara couldn't move without impaling herself on the thorns.

"Expelleramus!" He shouted, easily disarming her. "I told you I'd block next time," whispered Draco as he twirled her wand through his fingers. "And I have your wand." He closed his fingers around it, a frown creasing his forehead as he gripped it, and his aura deepening with his intense concentration.

Behind Samara was the rumbling of a strange sound.

"I don't need it to curse you," growled Samara.

Draco leaned close to whisper. "I know."

The rumbling behind them deepened and Samara and Draco both turned to look at Snape. So did most of the class-One by one the students stopped throwing curses at each other and looked at their professor in amazement. They were listening to a sound that no Gryffindor and few Slytherins, could ever remember hearing--The sound of Professor Snape laughing.

"I see you learned how to strengthen the cheering charm," whispered Ginny.

"Me?" said Samara innocently. 

After a moment, she glanced over at Draco who was still studying her wand with interest. "Are you going to take these vines off of me and give me back my wand?" she asked. She was beginning to be annoyed as the class began to disperse and she was still trapped in the vines. 

Still, Draco ignored her, his attention totally on her wand.

"Draco!"

"I don't know," said Draco, dragging his attention from the wand and leaning close to her. "I think your Devil's Thorn was a little harsh, and anyway, I said before, you look good in green. You're bleeding—just there--"

He touched neck where one of the thorns had poked her and a tiny drop of blood was welling up."

"Oh," said Samara, slowly taking in the sight of Draco still in green boxers, with lavender roses.

"Anyway," Draco drawled. "You're the one that thought up these little—toys—" He ran his finger around one of the thorns. I think you should stay put until you think of a way out—"

"Put your hands a little closer," whispered Samara. "Incendio, should do the trick, I think."

A flash of his red aura and Draco snatched his hand away. Then he smiled, touching her face. "No. I don't think so. You're afraid of fire—" 

"Ahem," Interrupted Snape. "**Finite Incantum."**

Draco and Samara looked around at the now empty class room.

"Class dismissed," said Snape, shooing them both out of the door.

==

Samara stood in the corridor, uncertain of what to say to Draco now that class was over. She felt the beginnings of a blush warm her ears, but she doubted that Draco noticed since her hair was loose and covering her ears. "My wand?" she whispered.

"Sure." He handed it to her. 

In the moment when both of their hands touched the wand, Samara felt a jolt of magic flash through her. She was aware that Draco felt it too. His aura was restless, but its color was the silky dusky rose that she recognized. All she had to do was move a little closer. Let her aura touch his—and then---what?"

"Draco," she whispered. "About the Dragon Breath Mints—"

"Forget it."

"But I didn't do it."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Do you think I don't recognize your magic?" he asked. "I know it wasn't you."

"Then you knew all along!" she accused.

"I knew you weren't involved with placing the spell; that was the Weasley twins, but I couldn't be sure you didn't just sit by and let it happen."

"I wouldn't do that," said Samara.

"Oh, no," said Draco. "You would be in the thick of things." Draco studied her for a moment, his slate gray eyes boring into hers. "Come with me," he said at last, stepping forward and wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked.

"Slytherin House. We have things to discuss."

"What?" asked Samara

"Will you tell me about your wand?"

"What do you want to know?" she asked.

"Everything," he said.

==

When they arrived at the Slytherin Common room, several sixth years were studying. A few first years were playing exploding snap. Draco walked directly to a green brocade sofa near the smoldering fireplace, waved away its occupants and sat down. Samara sat beside him. 

"Your wand is not from Olivanders," he said.

"No," replied Samara. "I made it."

"How?"

"Well," Samara began digging in her bag for her book. "It all started with this book," she said. "_Current Achievements in Modern Dark Magic_."

"Not exactly current," said Draco eyeing the yellowing pages with interest. 

"No," said Samara. "I guess not." She began leafing through the pages to the sections that were most yellowed. "There was something in the book on these pages," she said. "I knew it was magical, but I didn't know what it was. I think it was some sort of plant—"

Draco looked at the stains, and shrugged. "I don't know." He flipped back to the pages on wandless magic and forward to the sections on dark creatures. By now, they had an audience. 

"Let me see," said one of the sixth years. "That stain wasn't made by a flower. It was made by a snake or snakeskin."

"Maybe boomslang," said another of the sixth years.

"Definitely a snake," agreed another.

"Oh, everything is snakes with you, Slytherins," laughed Samara.

Samara soon lost track of her book as it was passed from one Slytherin to another. Each exclaiming over its complexity or the power of the spells or the difficulty of the potions. 

Finally Alvin Nott, the Fifth Year Prefect, arrived and looked around the crowded common room. "Aren't any of you going to dinner?" he asked.

"Who can eat?" someone muttered. "My mouth still hurts."

"Go and eat if you want to, Alvin. No one will miss you," called one of the second years.

Alvin shrugged and went out of the common room presumably to dinner.

A few of the Slytherins broke off from the crowd. 

"I didn't understand a thing in it anyway," said one of the first years. "We might as well go eat. I hope we have ice cream or sherbet."

"Will you bring the book back again?" another asked her on his way out of the door. "I want to copy down a potion."

"Sure," said Samara uncertain of whether or not she would be able to bring it back.

Finally only a few fourth year Slytherins were left, copying with frantic haste. "You can't take it yet," one of them said.

"I'm not," said Samara. "I just want to go to dinner."

"You could pick it up after dinner," one of the fourth year Slytherins suggested.

"No." said Draco. "We'll wait. Hurry up." A few moments later, the fourth year was still writing. "You're done," said Draco, accioing the book and handing it to Samara.

"But I was just—" She looked up at Draco, and stopped talking.

"Let's go," said Draco putting his arm possessively around Samara's waist. She looked up at him. "So, are we friends again?" she asked.

"Is that what you want to be, Samara—friends?" he whispered. The soft resonance of his voice seemed to touch her soul, but his aura was unreadable. "Sit at the Slytherin table at supper," he said suddenly.

"I don't know if I should," said Samara.

"Would you rather sit with Longbottom?"

"Well, there's Beatrice," said Samara. "She's separated herself from the others by sitting with me these last few days. I can't just desert her."

"I think we could find two seats at the Slytherin table," said Draco, his aura inviting her as well as his words.

Samara pondered how she could ask Beatrice to sit with her at the Slytherin table. She shook her head. "I can't. Why don't you sit at the Gryffindor table?"

His aura flashed a hot glowing red.

"Well, maybe not—" said Samara laughing.

"Don't you trust me?"

"Ha!"

==

Review. Review. Review.

(A/N: I've decided to add Eloise Midgin to Ginny's class. The book never says which house she is in, and since I thought of the funny little bit that concerns her here, I had to add her. At this time, she has no particular influence on the plot. I will go back and add her, making Ginny, Colin and Eloise in fourth year.) 

****

Ten reviews to the next chapter.

****

THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS:

****

Ilwinterhofal: Sorry Ginny's Dream was a little confused, but don't feel badly. Ginny's confused too! All will be revealed--

****

Motley: Thanks for reviewing both chapter 20 and 30 to get to those 10 reviews. You must be really anxious for the next chapter. Cool. More Neville coming aand more of Neville's awesome auror parents.

****

Christina: Thanks for the compliment on how Ginny's character is developing. Actually, if you hadn't noticed, she's not exactly consistent. MUAH-ha-ha-ha.

****

PyRei: Yes, you have to be careful about what Ginny says. She's not herself these days. As far as how mean the trio has been—well—Samara's a forgiving soul. And Draco, didn't he tell you, "You haven't seen this dragon breathe fire." But you will, dear readers, you will!

****

Whiteriver: Glad you like it. If you haven't read Whiteriver's fics, go read them—right after you review my fic.

****

Melbell: Glad you like Ginny and Samara.

****

Motley: Lots more Ginny/Tom. Special Powers? We'll see.

****

Slytherin's Silver Snake: Yeah. You're back! Go read Slytherin's Silver Snake's stories. Good stuff.

****

Trillium: Glad you like Samara. Ravenclaw is coming. Chapter 34 

****

Contraryterri: Glad you like Neville and his parents. Thanks for coming back. Missed you. Please continue to read and review.

****

Next chapter up in 10 REVIEWS.

Hey, don't complain. You didn't have to pay for this book!

Coming soon: Slytherin games in ADADA; The trio talk about the prophecy child: Draco gets his revenge; More Samara in Ravenclaw.

So how fast do you want them?

****

10 REVIEWS—

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW


	31. CH 30: Child of Gryffindor

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

****

Child of Gryffindor

Chapter 30 

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

****

Child of Gryffindor

Chapter 30 

After class on Thursday, Harry Potter donned his Invisibility cloak and went with Neville to visit Snape for another memory session. 

"Now, remember, Neville, don't talk to me."

"Neville smiled. Thanks Harry. I appreciate your coming with me."

Harry had decided to tell Neville what Snape was doing, because Neville didn't seem to remember the sessions and that concerned Harry. He felt somewhat closer to Neville now that he knew that if Neville's parents hadn't been put into St. Mongo's he might have had a very different life as Neville's adoptive brother. 

"I suppose you are pretty proud of that patronus of yours, aren't you," sneered Snape as Neville entered the DADA classroom for another memory session.

"Y-yes, sir," said Neville, unconsciously looking behind him for the Invisible Harry Potter.

"Well, let's see if it did any good, shall we?" said Snape taking out his wand and examining it's worn surface with feigned interest.

"Sir?"

"Sometimes, Longbottom, strong magics interfere with those little annoyances that one wizard can place on another."

"I don't understand," said Neville.

"I would be surprised if you did," replied Snape. "Memory charms. Blockages. Obliviations. Imperious." 

Neville stared blandly at him and Snape stared back. 

"Imperious. You do realize that is an unforgivable curse, don't you, Longbottom?"

"Yes, sir."

"And if you use it on another wizard, you go to Askaban?"

"Yes, sir."

"No exceptions."

"Sir?"

"So, let's see if you still have the urge to try to use the Imperious Curse on me—"

"What?" Neville looked horrified. "I couldn't—"

"That's right," said Snape nastily. "You couldn't. Remember that. Now. Let's make this a little more personal. Let's begin to unravel _your _memory charm," said Snape.

"Immediately Neville's wand was out. "Imperio!" He shouted, but before he could tell Snape to do anything, Snape had thrown off the Imperious curse and told Neville to sit down. Neville still held his wand and Snape did not tell him to put it away.

"Obviously, the magic of your patronus didn't interfere." Snape sighed. "I had hoped it would, but of course the wand muted the magic."

"Is that a—bad thing?"

"No, Neville," said Snape. "Today, I want to go over Memory Charms."

Neville sat quietly listening. 

"Specifically your memory charm," said Snape. 

Neville did not react at once. He and Snape just looked at each other. At last, Neville spoke. "A memory charm I should do for class?" he asked confusedly.

"No Neville, the memory charm that someone placed upon you," said Snape.

Instantly, Neville's wand was out and he tried to Imperio, Snape. Again Snape threw off the spell. After several more variations of ways to mention Neville's memory charm and several more Imperious curses, both Snape and Neville were sweating profusely. To Harry, it seemed like they were doing the same things over and over again. He had a headache. He wondered if he should really be here. Maybe he should just -

He was forcibly brought back to the present, when Neville shouted: "Get away from me!" and magically pushed Snape hard enough to cause him to lose his balance. Immediately Neville, flushed and sweating was standing over him. He continued with the Imperious curse and Harry realized that it took several minutes before Snape fought it off this time. "Well, well, well," he said at last, picking himself up from the floor. "I think we've finally progressed to the next level. Now that we know who the wizard was who placed this enchantment."

"Are you alright professor?" Asked Neville. "What were you doing on the floor?"

"I'll ask the questions, Longbottom," said Snape irritably. 

"Yes sir."

It was very strange to watch Neville fight Snape with Imperio one minute and the next be polite and respectful. He wondered how it seemed to Snape. It's a wonder he wasn't taking away house points.

"Shouldn't we get started?" asked Neville, a trace of confusion on his face as the memory charm worked against him. 

"Yes, we should," said Professor Snape. " Sit down please. Petrificus Totalis!"

Neville slumped and then stiffened in the chair. "I'm going to show you exactly who put the memory charm on you Neville," he said. "It was not Professor Moody as you supposed. It was Barty Crouch, Jr.--the same wizard who tortured your parents. I'm going to show you some things in my penseive—things that will help you to understand that you need to fight this enchantment." Snape grimaced. "That's fine," he said as Neville's body twitched in the chair. "You can try to fight the Petrificus Totalis spell. That should tire you out and weaken your imperio a bit."

Immediately, Neville got still. 

"I want to show you the events that followed the Tri-Wizard Tournament last year," said Snape. "You may or may not know that your friend, Harry Potter, was transported via portkey to Voldemort, but Dumbledore announced to the whole school that Voldemort killed Cedric Diggory at that encounter. Would you like to know who enchanted the portkey? It was Barty Crouch, Jr. masquerading as Professor Moody. Here he is, as I remember him, that night," said Snape.

Neville glanced down at the pensieve to see Moody freshly transformed into Barty Crouch, Jr. Then he listened to Barty Crouch, Jr. confess to using polyjuice potion to impersonate Moody so that he could serve Voldemort. He listened to the house elf trying to tell Barty Crouch to be quiet, and he listened to Dumbledore's pronouncements about Barty Crouch, Jr. 

Harry Potter listened too, seeing himself in that picture. He was looking worn and sick, like he was ready to collapse at any moment. Every inch of his flesh was hurting because of Voldemort's crucious curses. He remembered that day vividly—too vividly. It was unnerving to think that he had escaped Voldemort, only to walk right into his Death Eater's hands. 

Sweat began to bead on Neville's brow as he watched, and after a few minutes, Snape decided to remove the Petrificus Totalis spell.

Neville still did not move. He watched the pensive, seemingly engrossed in its contents. Finally, he turned to Snape. "I remember," he said simply.

"What do you remember?" asked Snape. 

"Last year. I was in class and Moody—um—I guess it was Crouch—put the crucious curse on spiders. When I saw them—them—" Neville twitched as if in sympathy.

"Go on," said Snape.

"I guess I was pretty upset. I couldn't talk right. I remembered Crouch doing that to my parents. I REMEMBERED. Then he—Moody took me into his office—we talked—but I was afraid to tell him—not because he was Crouch or anything. I just wanted to tell Dumbledore. I guess Moody—even being Moody scared me a little. I wanted to get out of there. He knew. He knew I remembered something. I don't know how he knew, but he did. He gave me some tea. I didn't drink it. I told him I wasn't thirsty, and he—he imperioed me—made me drink it and then, he did another spell. It made me feel very confused. Some sort of confoundus, I think. He told me if anyone asked me questions about that night. I should imperio them and tell them that they didn't want to know about it—"

Neville paused. "Why did he do that. I still can't remember anything about that night. All I remembered was that Barty Crouch was with HER. I remembered that Barty Crouch hurt my parents—but I didn't know that Moody was Crouch."

"That was enough," said Snape. "Barty Crouch didn't want anyone to be able to testify that he was one of the Death Eaters that tortured your parents. Did you practice imperio with him?" asked Snape.

"Yes," said Neville. "Over and over again." Neville's voice dropped to a whisper. "He had a device—a little hourglass with sand in it--that somehow made time go backwards."

"A time turner," said Snape sourly. "Probably Moody's. That changes things a bit."

"Why?" asked Neville. 

"Well, because it usually takes at least as long to break a memory spell, as it takes to make that same memory spell. Did he do anything else, besides imperio?"

"No Sir," said Neville. "I don't believe so—"

"Very well, then," said Snape. "I want you to fight my imperio, first. I want you to feel what it feels like to break it. Now, we'll proceed. No. Put your wand down. You'll need your will, not your wand."

Snape raised his wand. "Imperio!" he said. "Longbottom. Move to that chair over there." Snape gestured and Neville leaped up and began moving.

With a snort of disgust, Snape removed the imperio.

"Longbottom! You're supposed to fight it! I'm telling you now. I do not want you to move from that chair! Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," said Neville.

After ten tries, Neville was still jumping up to move as soon as Snape imperioed him. Harry could tell that Snape was getting angry and frustrated because Neville seemed to have no will to fight Snape. 

"I think I'm just so used to listening to you, Sir, and wanting to do what you tell me to—and—and it just seems so pleasant t-to pl-please you."

"When have you ever done what you were told?" growled Snape. "Please me? When?" Snape shook his head in disgust. "Let's just try Crouch's imperio." 

"I want you tell me everything you remember about the night your parents were tortured by Barty Crouch—" began Snape.

Neville was on his feet, wand in hand. "Imp—" he began, stuttering on the word. "Imper-" He was biting his lip. "Imperio!" he finally choked out. 

"Sectum!" spat Snape, and a deep bloody wound slashed across Neville's wand arm. He dropped his wand, to clutch the back of his wrist. "There are laws against using that curse, Neville. The cut I just gave you is child's play in comparison to the dementers of Askaban. Do you understand that you have to _fight_ this?"

"Yes, sir."

"Let's try again," said Snape. "The night your parents were tortured by Barty Crouch—"

Neville raised his bleeding wand arm, "Im—"he began. "Imp—" "Imperio!"

"Sectum!" cried Snape. "Do you remember your parents were tortured by Barty Crouch—"

By the fifth time Snape had cut Neville, he started to weep, but still managed to raise his wand for the Imperio spell, then on the sixth imperio, Snape switched spells.

"Ulceris!" cried Snape and angry yellow pustules broke out on Neville's hand, swelling his fingers until he could barely close them around the wand."

"Please, Please," Neville cried. "I can't help it. Crouch's spell is too strong."

"Crouch is dead," said Snape. "Worse than dead."

"Then, why? Why is it so hard to break," whined Neville.

"Because it is attached to the Memory Charm and _she_ isn't dead," said Snape. 

"I want you to look at something," said Snape, pulling the pensieve closer. 

"My arm," whimpered Neville.

Snape looked at the blood dripping onto his classroom floor. "Pergo," he said. 

"Sir?"

"When you get it right, Longbottom. Not before. There are dire consequences to Imperioing another wizard."

Neville sighed heavily. "Yes, sir." He switched his wand to his left hand, and tried to relax his swollen right fingers.

Together, Snape and Neville watched baby Neville in the penseive shatter the Longbottom's front window with his magic. "I want you to get in touch with the power that you had then. I want you to focus it on fighting Crouch. He's the one who is doing this to you. This has to be removed. Do you realize there are aurors who would send you to Askaban for much less than you've done to me here tonight?"

Neville blanched. "They wouldn't."

"Yes, they would." Said Snape, "And not so long ago, aurors were given permission to Avada anyone who performed an unforgivable. No exceptions, and often no trials. We have to eliminate this imperio to imperio anyone who speaks of the memory of that night, before we go any further. . . even if we don't get to the memories of your parents. . . even if we _never_ get to the memories of your parents. Let's try to look at the piece of your memory where your father takes the veritaserum," said Snape. "What did he say?"  


Neville's wand was back in his right hand, but he was sobbing too hard to get the word out. He stood, holding his wand and shaking.

Snape's wand was also drawn, but he did nothing with it.

At last Neville opened his fingers and dropped his wand.

Snape healed the ulcers on Neville's wand arm.

"I did it," whispered Neville in amazement.

"Don't congratulate yourself yet, Longbottom," said Snape as he asked yet another question about the Longbottom's torture, and Neville dove for his wand.

Snape banished it to the far side of the room.

Neville accioed it back.

Several more tries finally saw Neville fighting the imperio successfully, and Snape healing more of Neville's wounds.

When they were finished, Neville had successfully fought off the imperio to imperio Snape at least 20 times. Neville said softly, "I want to remember what happened here tonight."

"I have never put a memory charm of any kind on you Longbottom. If you want to remember, I'm sure it is in your capacity to do so. We'll skip tomorrow," said Snape distastefully. "I have other plans. Come back on Tuesday after double defense and we'll try to work on the rest of this mess."

"Yes, sir," said Neville. "Thank you sir. Sir—"

"Yes, Longbottom?" said Snape, rubbing his forehead as if he were suddenly very tired. 

"I just wondered—do you think that this has anything to do with the fact that I'm forgetful—and maybe—I would have been a better wizard if--"

"Undoubtedly," interrupted Snape. "But don't get too excited about it. I doubt that your memory is repairable."

"Oh." Neville left the room looking tremendously downhearted.

Harry Potter, under his Invisibility Cloak followed him. 

"Harry?" whispered Neville after a moment. "Harry? Are you there?"

  
"I'm here," said Harry, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak and stuffing it into his pocket.

"Did you see?"

"Yes," said Harry, "I wonder what he meant about strong magic interfering with the memory charm. What kind of spell?"

"I don't know," said Neville.

"And I almost hexed him when he started cutting you—That sadistic—"

"Oh. I'm glad you didn't," said Neville. "Then Snape would have been mad at you."

"But Neville—" began Harry.

"Anyway," said Neville, "When you are first imperioed, it's almost pleasant. There's a soft, floating feeling like you don't have a care in the world."

"I know," said Harry.

"You know? Who imperioed you? Oh right." Neville remembered. "Moody—or a guess we should call him Crouch."

"And Voldemort," Harry thought, but he said nothing aloud.

"Anyway," continued Neville, "The pain kept me from going into that trance-like state. Once I was there, I couldn't fight him. As long as I felt the pain, I remembered Snape was there and I remembered what I was supposed to do."

"Are you defending Snape?" asked Harry. "The same Snape who was once your worst fear?"

Neville blushed. "Can I tell you a secret, Harry?"

Harry nodded.

"Ever since Professor Lupin's class on the bogart, I always picture Professor Snape dressed in my grandmother's dress. It really helps."

Harry burst into laughter, but he wasn't laughing for long. When they entered the Great Hall, Harry spied Ginny sitting practically on Edward's lap. Although they had some schoolbooks scattered around them, it didn't look like they were intent on studying.

"I'll see you later," Neville said uncomfortably as he followed the direction Harry was looking. 

"Sure," said Harry shortly.

"And thanks, Harry."

==

Harry walked straight over to Edward and Ginny.

"Excuse me," he said quickly, before he could lose his nerve. "Ginny can I talk to you a minute." Edward shrugged, stood up, and gathered his books. "I'll see you at supper," he said. "I need to go up to the dorm before we go down to eat anyway."

Harry waited until he was out of earshot before sitting on the sofa that Edward had vacated. He reached out and put his hand on Ginny's arm. She turned toward him with the same open, trusting smile that she always had. She even had that open innocence in her eyes when she woke in his arms in the Chamber of Secrets. In fact, that was probably the last time he had laid his hands on her for any reason, and then, she was only eleven and he was twelve, but he was no longer twelve, and she was certainly no longer eleven.

"Ginny," he waited for Parvati and Lavendar to pass them on their way up to the girl's dorm. "Ginny, I really don't think you should—should—" What on earth was he saying? She was Ron's baby sister. Ron was like a brother to him. That made Ginny—what? "Ginny," he started again. "I've noticed that you have been spending a lot of time with Edward."

"I didn't do it so you would notice, Harry." she said softly.

"Well—" Harry took a deep breath. This was harder than he expected. "I don't think Edward is right for you." He said quickly.

Something like amusement passed her eyes or was it anger? "Why's that?" she said turning her innocent doe-like eyes on him. 

He squelched down any romantic feelings that he was entertaining. This was Ron's sister, and if they began a relationship and it didn't work out, it would destroy Ron's friendship with him. That couldn't happen. He remembered how awful he felt when Ron wasn't talking to him last year.

"I just," Harry fumbled for the right words. "I don't think—he—His brother's a Slytherin, for Gosh sakes!" 

"Considering Dudley," said Ginny, "I would think you would be more understanding. After all, you can't choose your relatives."

"You don't understand—" Harry began.

"Oh, I think I understand perfectly," Ginny said, as she dropped her book into her bag. "You have no right to say anything about Edward." She stood and started to walk away and then turned back. "I have enough people telling me what to do. I have six brothers, Harry," she said. "I certainly don't need another one."

Harry took several deep breaths and debated whether or not he should call her back.

"I don't want to be your brother," hissed Harry through clenched teeth, but she didn't hear him. She had already disappeared out the Portrait hole to the Great Hall.

Harry put his face in his hands. That did not work out the way he had planned. After a few minutes he headed up to his dorm to put his books away.

"Hey Ron!"

"He's not here," said Neville. "Maybe they already went down to supper."

"Maybe," said Harry. "Dropping his books and turning back towards the door." 

==

When Harry and Neville entered the Great Hall supper had already begun, but Ron and Hermione weren't there yet. Harry was scanning the Great Hall, when he saw a flash of red hair, but it wasn't Ron. It was Ginny—surrounded by Slytherins. 

"Great," thought Harry. Just great. He just warned her about Edward, and where does she go? The Slytherin table. Neither Edward nor Samara was in sight, but he had no doubt that it was their influence that put Ginny among the Slytherins. He hesitated, wondering whether he should remain here to see that she was all right or go and get reinforcements, namely Ron. Unfortunately, he didn't know where Ron was-

Harry moved hesitantly toward the Gryffindor table. "Does any one know where Ron and Hermione are?" Harry asked.

"They were at the library," said Lou, "But they left before me. Aren't they back?"

"No," said Harry, his eyes never leaving Ginny's fiery tresses. "I was hoping Ron was down here—"

Seemus followed Harry's gaze over to the Slytherin table, and Ginny. "Uh Oh," he said. "Does she look like she needs rescuing?" 

"Stay out of it, Seemus," warned Lavender.

Neville glanced over at the side of the Great Hall where Ginny was standing with the Slytherins. "Harry," said Neville with a frown. "I don't think she'd appreciate your rescuing her—"

==

On the other side of the Great Hall, Ginny had pulled together her courage to actually talk to the Slytherins when it wasn't class time. She caught up with Pansy and Lauren and their first years. They looked at her like she was obviously lost—on the wrong side of the Great Hall.

"I can't do this," thought Ginny.

__

"Sure you can, Ginny Love—"

"I just cursed them."

__

"It doesn't matter. They'll get over it—Unless you want me to help you—"

"No!"

__

"Lauren," called Ginny. "Um—mm. Professor Snape said for me to see you or Pansy to learn to pull power from the Elementals. U-m—mm. I was wondering if you could help me a little. I haven't been able to get it yet, and ADADA is tomorrow morning…"

"Don't beg, Ginny Love—"

Lauren looked at her with amazement. 

" I think she's having trouble speaking," said Pansy nastily. "Probably her mouth still hurts." She paused and looked at the curious first years. "Go and sit down," Pansy ordered their first years. "This isn't your business."

"Look, I know that was a pretty mean joke," said Ginny. "But it wasn't just me—in fact, it wasn't even my idea. It was Edward's."

Pansy and Lauren exchanged glances. "Too bad about not knowing how to pull from the Elementals," said Pansy. "Maybe you should drop the class. Oh, that's right, Snape wouldn't let you. Guess you'll just have to fail."

Lauren nudged Pansy anxiously.

"I never said I was quitting," retorted Ginny.

"Just you out of—how many Gryffindors?—managed to take Advanced Defense—You could ask Edward, couldn't you? Isn't he the only other third year Gryffindor?" interrupted Lauren.

"I'm fourth year," retorted Ginny.

"Oh, well, and you couldn't convince any of your classmates to join you in Snape's class—out of all—how many—"Pansy said.

__

"Careful, Ginny Love---"

"There's just me, Eloise Midgin and Colin Creevey in fourth year," said Ginny.

Pansy shrugged "Oh well, maybe you could ask Potter. He always manages to save the day, doesn't he?" Pansy said as she and Lauren moved off to joining the other Slytherins and Ron came up and put an arm around Ginny. "What was that all about?" he asked.

"Oh nothing. I just asked them," she stopped. "Something about Advanced Defense class. They weren't very helpful."

"I'll bet," said Ron as they headed over to the Gryffindor table together. As Ginny sat with her brother and Harry and Hermione, she avoided Harry's gaze by glancing at the other side of the table where Neville and Lou were sitting .

"It was incredible," said Neville. "I mean, I tried to imperio him and he didn't even take house points."

"Who?" asked Samara as she sat with them.

"Snape," replied Neville.

"Is this the same Snape I know?" asked Samara.

Neville began explaining exactly what had happened with the memory charm, although he still stuttered, when he spoke of it, he managed to tell them much of what he knew. 

"So did he remove the memory charm?" asked Lou. "Or just the imperio to imperio anyone who tried to talk to you about the memory charm."

Neville shook his head. "I know there are still things about my parents I don't know."

"I think this is a job for Madam Pomfrey, not Snape," said Samara. Her eyes narrowed. "He hardly seems the type to do this out of the kindness of his heart." 

"I agree," said Lou, sympathetically. "Memory charms can be powerful and destructive. Removing them can be even trickier. You could lose part of your magic, Neville."

"According to Snape," said Neville sadly, "I already have. I certainly don't have my parents' bravery—"

"But you were sorted into Gryffindor," said Samara. "With the Sorting Hat."

"Yeah, but sometimes I wonder if I really belong here."

"After that lion patronus? Are you kidding?" said Beatrice.

"That was good," said Samara. "I was really impressed."

"But my parents were smart. I never remember anything!"

"Well, that could be the memory charm," said Lou. "Once it is all off, you may not have so much trouble remembering your lessons."

"I guess, ," said Neville. "I'm almost as afraid to find out as I am to continue to be in the dark. I don't want to be an auror or a Ministry official. I'm nothing special. I just want to be safe. I don't even want to be too smart or too brave or anything. If you're too smart you have keep up those grades all the time, and if you're too brave, you could get yourself killed."

Samara had to laugh. He sounded remarkably like Draco, talking about the Gryffindors. "So brave—So dead—"

==  


After dinner, the trio had congregated in Hermione's room. Beatrice and Samara had gone to Hufflepuff—to make—tee shirts?? Lavender and Parvati were out with Seemus and Dean. Only Ginny was still in the room, silently studying her ADADA. She didn't bring up the subject of Samara or their continued estrangement. It didn't do any good and only annoyed her brother. Harry didn't seem so vindictive, but Ginny had stopped making assumptions about him years ago. She went back to her ADADA. 

The longer she looked at it, the more she realized that she needed help—either Samara's or Lauren's or Pansy's—as Snape suggested. Reading the theory was not helping her to do the magic. 

She closed the book with a sigh and looked at Harry and Ron, both sitting cross-legged on Hermione's bed. Crumpled papers were strewn out between them. 

"Yes," said Hermione solemnly. "I'm sure these are the enchantments that put the Founder's gifts in the Hat."

"I thought you were working on the prophecy," said Ginny.

"Actually," replied Hermione. "We think that if we solve the problem of how the Sorting Hat was tampered with, we might also solve the prophecy. We think that Salazar Slytherin planned for the Hat to fail on the year that the prophecy child came to Hogwarts. That way, it would leave the teachers guessing who the prophecy child was."

'Wait," said Ginny. "Salazar Slytherin couldn't know about Trelawney's prediction and only the teachers knew about it anyway!"

"And the people who were there when she first said it," replied Harry.

"There's ample evidence that Helga Hufflepuff was a seer," said Hermione. "But her predictions were never actually recorded in the library files."

"Helga, a seer, I don't remember learning that," said Ginny. "Who recorded her seeings?" 

"According to Hermione, they are mentioned in a number of Salazar Slytherin's writings," replied Ron. "She's still trying to find the actual predictions instead of Salazar's interpretation of them. It's creepy, but he apparently was the only one who believed her."

"Right, but—" Ginny paused, and stared open mouthed "Salazar and Helga?" she said thoughtfully.

"It doesn't appear that it was an equal partnership," said Hermione.

"Yeah," said Ron. "It was give and take: Helga did the giving and Salazar did the taking. Who are we working on, now?"

"Godric Gryffindor, of course," said Harry.

Ron Guffawed.

"Well, maybe we'll get some inspiration from Gryfffindor," said Hermione. "We certainly aren't getting anywhere on Salazar's."

"But seriously, we already know that the gift is a sword," said Harry.

Nonetheless, Hermione began to read:

****

When your bravery is such that you don't count the cost

And you press onward to Right; though all seems to be lost.

Oh Child of Gryffindor, then be brave and be bold!

The hilt joins your Heart to mine. Grip it. Take hold.

The ruby's asterism marks you as Evil's foe

The gemstone's clarity brings good luck from woe,

Peace through power, fulfilling love and restful sleep.

Those are all properties of rubies," said Hermione. "Love, luck, peace, restful sleep—"

"I could use some of that," interrupted Ginny.

"What's that?" asked Harry.

"Restful sleep."

"I wish I could help," said Ron.

"Don't worry about it," said Ginny. "I just have to practice Quiddich harder. I slept pretty well on Saturday night. Go ahead," She motioned to Hermione. "Keep reading."

****

Blade forged from Your Heart of past pledges you keep--

Hermione paused and looked at Harry. "Did you know the blade was forged of your magic?" she asked.

"Wicked," said Ron. "Way to go, Harry."

"I didn't know until afterwards," said Harry, rubbing his forehead absently. "If I had, I doubt I would have trusted it."

"Yes, you would have," said Ginny. "There was no other choice." They paused, their eyes meeting, each in their own way remembering their time in the chamber, but Ginny looked away.

Harry's face colored ever so slightly. "Keep reading," he told Hermione. 

****

"Magical core of Feather of Gryffin binds me to you—"

"It's a wand," said Harry. "I didn't realize—It's a wand and a sword in one weapon."

"It appears to be," said Hermione thoughtfully.

"Oh, Bloody hell, if I had known, it would have been a lot easier to kill the thing, by just saying **Avada Kadavra!**" said Harry.

She continued reading.

****

"But 'ware. In defense alone will this sword be true."

"It seems pretty straightforward to me," said Ron. "It's a sword with magical properties. It could even be used as a wand."

"And don't forget," added Hermione, "Godric Gryffindor trusted his Gryffindor's enough to include their magic in the spell."

"Isn't that open-ended too?" asked Ron.

"No," said Hermione. "That's not what we are looking for—In this he allowed his Gryffindor to make the sword fit them. He probably needed their magic to make the wand part work properly. He didn't allow that Gryffindor in anyway to tamper with the Hat itself."

"Well, we know it's Salazar anyway," said Harry.

"Why? Asked Ginny. "Isn't that a little prejudiced."

"Ginny, that Diary rattled your brain. Of course it's Salazar," said Ron. "Don't be stupid."

Ginny shrugged and went back to her reading, but the conversation about the Sorting Hat spells kept creeping back into her ears. She put the ADADA book away again. They were arguing about the Ravenclaw interpretation.

"It's a book," said Hermione. 

"Of course it's a book," said Ron, "But what else does it say?" He began reading. 

****

So Eagle seeks, when sar-ah-in-dip-ity lacks

When present spells fail you and ten-ten-e—

"Hell, it's not even in English!" shouted Ron.

"Of course it is," said Hermione.

"So what's it mean then?" asked Ron, throwing the parchment at her.

"Well, let's see—" Hermione began to read.

****

So Eagle seeks, when serendipity lacks

When present spells fail you and tenebrous are facts

"Stop," said Ron. "Explain."

"Ok, first it's a Eagle seeking, that's a Ravenclaw—"

"I got that part," spat Ron.

"Serendipity—that's when things just fall into place the right way—"

"Gee, I wish that happened once in a while," interrupted Harry.

"**And present spells fail you and tenebrous are facts**—I guess—facts that are easily misunderstood or mistaken."

****

Though ubiquitous magic may inspire you to proceed

"Magic, present everywhere, all around you—"

****

Perspicacious knowledge is only wisdom's seed.

"The best knowledge is only wisdom's seed—"

Hermione paused. 

"What's the matter?" asked Ron. "One of those Ravenclaw words got you stumped?"

"No, not really." Said Hermione. "I was just thinking that this next line allows the person who is getting the gift to participate again. It says:

****

Discerning that nothing dawns without thought

Ascertain and embrace what your mind has brought:

It's the Ravenclaw's own thoughts that bring the book to hand.

****

Gray Compendium whose pages augment and renew

Aggregate knowledge of Ravenclaw vouchsafe to you

A compendium is an encyclopedia of sorts—but why gray?"

"The Gray Lady," said Harry. "Isn't she Rowenna Ravenclaw?" 

"Oh of course," said Hermione. "I wasn't thinking."

"For not thinking," muttered Ginny. "You sure aren't doing bad—"

"Thanks," Hermione flashed her a smile. "It looks like this book continually updates and renews itself with all the knowledge of Ravenclaw—The Gray Lady is really something to think of this—"

"I don't know the whole legend," said Ron, "But Padma was telling me at the Yule Ball last year something about Rowenna refusing to leave her house defenseless—That's why she stayed on as a ghost. I can't remember what else Padma said. I wasn't paying much attention to her at the ball." He grinned sheepishly and Hermione grinned back.

"Ahem," said Harry.

"Let's see where was I?" asked Hermione. "OH—**augment and renew**. The pages keep updating themselves."

"Guess we have to wonder where it keeps its brains," said Ginny darkly.

"Well, I think there are some Ravenclaw books that could be considered, on the edge—" said Hermione.

"I know," said Ginny, looking directly at Harry. "Edward told me."

"Ginny—" began Harry, but Hermione interrupted him, her thoughts still totally on the book.

"I wouldn't mind having this one, though," Hermione's eyes were sparkling with excitement. Imagine all the knowledge of Ravenclaw in one book.

"Don't forget, she says that knowledge is only wisdom's seed, though," said Harry.

"Humm. I'd still take it," said Hermione dreamily. She continued to read.

****

"Opened at random for your intention

This book gives your progeny wise intervention"

"At random!" Interrupted Ginny. "Oh yeah, that book definitely has some brains of its own."

****

"Archaic Magic allowed to wither and wane

Will now in joyous profusion commence again!

And it looks like the book contains old magic that has been lost," concluded Hermione.

"Once again," said Harry, "Rowenna left part of the magic to her student. And we could have easily guessed that Ravenclaw would have a book, couldn't we?"

"Wow! But what a book!" said Hermione. She sat silently studying the poem.

"Could we move on to Hufflepuff?" asked Ron, taking the parchment. "Here, let me read it."

****

If you are a Hufflepuff both true and loyal

You've reached this point though effort and toil.

You've persevered in tasks hard and long

You've painted the story and danced the song.

When untimely Death does threaten your Lover True,

You've earned the right to give, what I've given to you:

Called Elixir of Power or Elixir of Life

This potion brewing brings war and strife.

But all that is past in the Gift that I give

Yet only once, when dying, your True Love may live.

And only if True Love for True Love is returned,

For All-That-Is—in the end—must be earned.

"That's beautiful," said Ginny. "It's so romantic." Ginny was staring misty-eyed into space. 

"No it's not," said Ron. "It looks like the Elixir of Life! How could she give that as a gift?" 

"That's what you read—" Harry moved to look over Ron's shoulder. "It's not for eternal life though. It can only be used once and it looks more like unicorn blood without the curse—It's a way to bring your true love back from the brink of death. Do you think Helga took the war and strife that comes with brewing the potion? Look at this line:** "**This potion brewing brings war and strife. But all that is past in the Gift that I give"

"—Poor Helga," muttered Ginny.

"What does she mean: All-That-Is—in the end—must be earned." How can someone earn something if they are on the brink of death?" asked Hermione. "This is harder to understand than the Ravenclaw one! Let's just move on to the Slytherin spell."

"No," said Ron. "We looked at it already. We aren't going to get anywhere with it until we get the translation. There's something missing."

"It was translated?" asked Ginny. 

"Yeah, weird, huh?"

"So what was it translated from?" asked Ginny.

"We don't know yet," said Harry. "Hermione owled Viktor Krum to see if the original is at Drumstrang. We hope he can find it."

"Oh come on, Harry, think," said Ginny. "What language do you _think_ Salazar would use?"

They were all silent for a moment, and then Harry whispered. "It couldn't be—It can't be written—you would need a different alphabet—"

"What are you talking about?" asked Ron.

"Parseltongue," said Harry. "But it couldn't be—"

"Ok," said Hermione. "There's no point in guessing. Let's just read it again. Ginny hasn't looked at it. Maybe she'll see something that we didn't—"

Harry spread out the parchment, cleared his throat and began reading—

****

What I put in the hat comes out in your head 

Speak with my gift. You've nothing to dread. 

Ginny was white-faced, clutching her ADADA book.

"What is it?" asked Ron. 

"Parseltongue," whispered Ginny. "You were right, Harry. He left them parseltongue as his gift."

"Yes," said Harry "We already figured that out, but after all, what else did Salazar have to give? In comparison with the other Founders, parseltongue isn't much of a gift—So his heir could talk to snakes. We already knew that." Harry continued to read, one hand on the parchment and the other holding his head. 

****

Slytherin who weakness abhors 

Power is here—say "yes" and it's yours.

"Didn't have to earn that? Did they?" commented Ron. 

Harry cleared his throat and continued. 

****

A familiar I lend you

"Harry," said Hermione. "Are you alright. You don't look like you feel well."

"Is your scar hurting," said Ron, noticing that Harry was holding his hand over it.

"A little," said Harry rubbing his hand over his forehead and then using both hands to hold the parchment, as if he was self-conscious about the scar. "It's nothing earth shattering; just a headache." He began reading again:

A familiar I lend you; close your eyes and you'll see

A powerful ally, to bind or set free 

Of evil and sloth your world she'll purge 

Abominations cannot endure ambition's urge. 

Open the door with your precious voice

When where and how, I leave to your choice

"No!" Ginny covered her ears. "I don't want to hear anymore. Stop! Stop! How could he leave the basilisk in the hat?"

"What?" said Hermione.

"Close your eyes and you'll see—Your world she'll purge—open the door with your voice—with parseltongue!" Ginny was shouting at them.

"He couldn't," said Harry. "He couldn't leave the basilisk in the hat. It's alive—"

"Directions then," said Ginny. "A way to find the Chamber of Secrets. We know--Tom found it."

"As bad as that is," said Harry, "And you may be right, it all happened in the past. It doesn't tell us why the Sorting Hat isn't working now."

"I don't want to hear anymore," said Ginny with a shiver. "Anyway, I have to study this ADADA. Is Edward in your room?"

"Yeah," said Harry "That's why we're here—He's painting the room."

"Painting?" repeated Ginny. "Edward?"

"He and Dean decided we needed a bit of a change," said Harry. 

"Well, I need someone to study this with me." Ginny picked up her ADADA book and headed for the door. "I'll see you later."

"Ginny—" said Ron, and she turned at the door.

"I'll—Ah—see you later."

She nodded, and left without a glance at Harry Potter, who was now sitting with four of his fingers gently rubbing his scar.

Silence descended upon the room. Harry and Hermione's eyes were still on Ron.

"What did you want me to say?" asked Ron. "_He is_ a Gryffindor."

"Nothing Ron," said Hermione. "There was nothing you could say. She's old enough to take care of herself." Harry was staring silently at the print in front of him. Go ahead, Harry. Finish reading it," said Hermione. 

"Never mind," said Ron, looking at Harry. "I'll read."

Ron picked up the parchment and began where they had left off. 

****

For I've left bilinguis in this Hat that Sorts

My instructions, My power, your brains and cohorts

"Bilinguis?" questioned Harry. "Why Latin now? It's not a spell—

"Not that I know of," said Hermione, "But I'm hardly an authority. It usually just means to allow someone to talk a different language, so it is exactly what we thought it was."

"No," said Ron, softly. "I has another more obscure meaning—it means 'two-tongued'. It could mean just two languages, but it could also mean, saying one thing and meaning another. I grew up with Latin. When it was spoken, it had slang just like any other language. Most of it is forgotten now, but a Slytherin—or an old wizarding family would know. 

"So we are on the right track," breathed Hermione. 

"Looks like—" muttered Harry as he continued to read.

Be brave as the brave and wise as the wise 

For with your toil, your ambition will rise. 

"Do you really think it's the basilisk?" asked Hermione.

"Yes," said Harry. "I don't know why I didn't see it before. It makes sense, but that word 'bilinguis' doesn't feel right to me. There's something more.

"Maybe that's it," said Hermione. "It means that the poem itself has two meanings, saying one thing and meaning another."

"Or maybe it is a spell," said Harry. "We still need the untranslated version," 

==

Ginny self-consciously made her way to the Gryyffindor boys' dorm, muttering to herself. "Shut up, shut up, shut up--I hate when you do that," she muttered.

__

"What? I thought they needed some help, Ginny Love."

"You've never helped anyone in your life, Tom."

__

"Yes, well—but I'm not alive."

"I keep reminding myself of that."

__

Why didn't you tell them the parseltongue?"

"They think I'm crazy already! Did you want me to prove them right?"

__

Tom chuckled softly.

"Now, be quiet. I need to study."

Ginny knocked on the door of the room that Harry shared with Ron, Neville, Seamus, Dean and Edward. 

Somewhat annoyed, Edward opened the door. He had green paint on his forehead where he had apparently pushed his hair out of his face.

"What are you doing?" asked Ginny.

"Painting. What's it look like," snapped Edward.

"Oh, Painting, I guess, but what are you painting?"

"The wall," answered Edward. "Painting and animating—"

__

Tom suddenly broke into laughter. "Like in Hufflepuff! That's priceless."

"Pardon?" said Ginny, trying to keep her mind on Edward.

"McGonagall gave me permission to paint the wall of our dorm room," said Edward.

"Why?"

Because it's –Just because. Are you coming in or not?"

__

"Oh, go in, Ginny Love. I want to see this wall."

I guess," said Ginny stepping into the room. "How long are you going to be?"

"Forever."

"No, I meant this evening. It's already getting late. Harry and Ron might want to go to sleep. I know Hermione usually goes to bed early and the boys are studying in her room, but they might like to get into their own soon."

"Oh, I didn't think about that. I'm not tired, and I wanted to get this part done."

"Well, I was going to ask for help with homework, but this doesn't look like the time. What picture are you trying to paint?"

"Just a forest. Lots of little animals."

__

"I'm sure you'll need help with that, Lestrange."

"Samara's good at art," said Ginny.

"So's Dean," replied Edward. He's helping me."

"What's that supposed to be?" asked Ginny.

__

"Don't you recognize a werewolf when you see one, Ginny Love?"

"A wolf," said Dean.

"They're very loyal creatures," added Edward.

__

Tom's mirth was starting to affect her. 

"Looks more like a werewolf," said Ginny laughing.

__

Tom was still laughing.

Stop it, Tom. Go away, she thought.

__

"Oh, no. I wouldn't miss this—"

Edward covered the werewolf with a swatch of green paint.

__

Tom howled with laughter. " Oh, That got rid of it."

"You don't think so?" asked Ginny in her mind.

__

"Ginny, Ginny, Ginny, How can you still be so naïve?"

==

==

THANK YOU MY FAITHFUL REVIEWERS. I LOVE YOU. YOU KEEP ME FOCUSED. THANKS FOR REVIEWING!

****

Ron Potter: I'm glad you like my stories. I haven't seen you review before. With a name like Ron Potter, I'm not sure which ones you would like best. Let me know.

****

Fallen Angel of Darkness: Whaz up? Is that the British spelling? Lol. Don't worry. Ginny's confused too. Sometimes it is MEMORIES of Tom and sometimes its—well, let's see—what was that diary anyway? A MEMORY of 16-year-old Tom Riddle, but sometimes, it just doesn't feel like a memory does it? Ginny said the same thing to me. I mean how did he write back when he was just a memory? It's magic.

Edward's description is in SORTED SORT OF, and I didn't tell you a lot about his looks. 

Two other students: Slytherins

Lift=elevator

No. Hostage has been done to death, and I think making Ginny "have to" face Voldemort would be anti-climactic. She's lived with him in her head for four years now. She faces him every time she wakes up and even when she dreams. Love your reviews. They are always helpful, but I can't always answer.

As far as only authors reading reviews. I always read reviews before I read a story—not a lot of them, but if the reviews all say: This sucks, I may not read it.

Spelling/ Grammar mistake: "comeing" lol

Let's see: Ghosts, soon. Fingernails, soon; the visions, bilinguis; Virginia as Voldemort's bride? Lol Don't you think he's a little old for her? I hope I break 300 reviews too. Cool.

Glad you liked Snape laughing. Thanks for the tip on fiction alley. Yes, more T/G also lots more Draco.

****

Ilwinterhofal: Thanks for reviewing. I think the same person who is making the tee shirts is making the boxers—anyone want to volunteer?

****

Motley: Hermione? Forget it—well, maybe just a little bit—just for you-- but she's too busy sneaking off with Ron. Didn't you notice?

****

Melbell: Well didn't you ever wonder what were the twelve uses for Dragon's blood? You think it is "hanging". I guess some of my clues of what is going to happen haven't been clear enough. You have to look for them, but some readers are finding the clues. Granted, Death Eaters haven't invaded Hogwarts yet—or maybe we just don't know about them yet.

****

Christina: Thanks for reviewing. Harry's specialness? Harry doesn't want to be seen as special, so when I'm in Harry's POV I can't say he's special. Samara doesn't really understand, remember, she's muggle born and although Ginny thinks he's special she doesn't think she's worthy. Then of course, there's Tom in Ginny's head POV, Potter? Special? Exceeding lucky, maybe, but special? NO. I hope I tie off all the loose ends too. I do have a storyboard, but it's getting out of hand. I hope I can really get it all back together. Crosses fingers. Crosses eyes.

****

Trillium: Of course you can review twice—three times—four times. Yes, even the funny stuff has a point. There are lots of little clues buried in the parts that some readers skip over.

****

Whiteriver: Thanks for the kudos. Go read Whiteriver. Awesome writer.

****

Py Rei: Glad you enjoyed the duel. Sorry I didn't drop Hermione and Ron into a pit—come to think of it—they might have liked it. Alone at last--without Harry. (evil laughter) And what will happen when they (especially Draco)find out she's a muggle born? HMMMMM. 

-**Silverfox**: Yes, her wand is special and so is her grandfather.

****

Fallen Angel of Darkness: Thanks for the review.

****


	32. CH 31: Slytherin Games

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

This chapter is especially for all those folks out there who haven't gotten their 5th Harry Potter book yet—yeah! It's coming in the mail tomorrow! But tonight, I still have fanfic. So here's this chapter early. I won't have time to update for the next 2 days or so—until I read JK's new book.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship.

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

****

Slytherin Games

Chapter 31

Harry was the first one to go to bed. Hermione was still pouring over books in the common room and Ron was playing chess with Ginny, both Lou and Edward were coaching. Harry's scar had been hurting and burning all evening, but he had no specific dreams or visions. When he told Dumbledore, the professor was thoughtful, but unconcerned. 

"We know that the scar acts as a kind of barometer for what is happening with Voldemort," said Dumbledore. "We know he is on the move, but until we know anything specific, I'm afraid there's little we can do. If you see anything specific, let me know, or if the pain is interfering with your studies or your sleep—"

"No," Harry assured him. "It's not that bad." But tonight it was. He didn't even want to go to see Dumbledore. He just wanted to go to sleep. Perhaps the headache was aggravated by all of the work that they were doing on the prophecy. All the thinking he had been doing about Salazar Slytherin was enough to give anyone a headache. Harry checked to be sure his trunk was locked and warded, put his wand under his pillow and his glasses on the nightstand, and pulled the blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes. Within minutes, he was asleep.

He was underwater—swimming. It was the second task. He had Ron and was trying to get to Fleur's little sister when the water began tasting very wet, and very cold. The gillyweed was wearing off. He had to hurry. He had one arm wrapped around the little girl and he was kicking with every fiber of his being. He had to get to the surface. He felt like his lungs were on fire—then he saw it—sitting right there in the middle of the merpeople's village—the Tri-wizard cup! It was a portkey. He could escape with them both, if he could just reach the portkey. He couldn't reach it, but he knew he could accio it. He opened his mouth to speak the spell, but only bubbles came out of his mouth, popping like Filibuster fireworks. He was choking on the water. Suddenly, the merpeople were all Death Eaters and Voldemort was standing in their midst. He pointed his wand at Harry. **"Crucio!"**

The searing white-hot pain felt like an explosion in his head, and he awoke, crying out. Ron was shaking him.

"Harry! Wake up!"

Harry took great gulping breaths of air while gripping Ron's arm fiercely. "Are you OK?" Harry panted.

"Me?" said Ron. "I'm fine. What did you dream? You were yelling."

"Oh—" Harry let go of Ron's arm and looked at the worried blurred faces around him—Dean, Seamus, Neville and Ron. Apparently Harry's cries didn't penetrate Edward's privacy wards.

"Here," said Dean handing Harry a parchment. "You should write it down."

But Harry couldn't see to write it without his glasses. He rubbed his face and started to tell them about the dream, but suddenly he felt self-conscious talking about his terror when he couldn't reach the Tri-Wizard Cup. "I'll just write it down," he said, reaching for his glasses on the bedside table. "I'm sorry I woke you." 

Harry rubbed his scar. Amazingly, it was almost painless now, just tingling. It seemed as if Voldemort had burned out a lot of his power in that one strike, but what was it? Merpeople? Something underwater? Dumbledore said to come to him if Harry knew something specific, but what did he know?

"Should you tell Dumbledore?" asked Ron as the others settled back into their beds.

"Not now," said Harry, scribbling notes about the dream. "It's nearly midnight. I'll tell Dumbledore—first thing in the morning."

==

In the morning, the Great hall was deathly silent as Harry and Ron entered. Hermione was already seated and waved them over quickly. Black hangings were the only decoration, and no food was on the tables. Harry felt like his guts had turned to ice.

"What's happened?" whispered Harry as he and Ron sat next to Hermione. Hermione silently handed him her copy of the Daily Prophet. The headline read:

****

French School Leveled in Freak Storm

"Oh hell, Fleur," muttered Ron. He leaned in to read over Harry's shoulder.

"She graduated," Hermione reminded him. "And her little sister is only nine." 

By Special Reporter, Yvette Gagnon

Edited by Lawrence Barrington, Daily Prophet

What originally looked like a typical evening thunderstorm is now being called the worst natural disaster of the century. The coastline, just southwest of the famous Wizarding School Beauxbatons, was basking in Mid September sunshine, totally unaffected by the inclement weather, while on the southeast coast, a downpour drenched residents. These brief periods of heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning are not uncommon in the area and originally, there was no cause for alarm. However, as the driving rain reached the school, lightening strikes became more frequent and a section of the northeast dormitory was hit by lightening at 11:45 PM. As the students and teachers evacuated the building, fire raged through the structure. 

Witnesses were unable to tell exactly what occurred at that point. Although according to the accounts of the eleven-year-olds who survived the storm, it appears that a typhoon struck the school even though the school is rather far inland for such a storm. The following is a statement from an eyewitness, one of the seven first year students to survive the storm.

I had sat down in the common room, and the deputy headmaster was saying, that we needed to go to the lower level. He said, "students take cover now." And when he said that, I just, I knew it was—Here, the student became hysterical and could not continue her account. Another student took up the story. 

The Deputy Headmaster called all of the teachers out onto the grounds—Madame Maxime isn't here—she's on sabbatical—If she were here—I know this wouldn't have happened. The student broke into sobs and apparently was so horror struck by the devastation that she was hallucinating. Another student continued.

We all could hear kind of a roar and we waited and then it got quiet so, Juliet, she's the senior prefect went up to the door and opened it up—She was just sucked out—right out of the door and we never saw her again. I got up and five other students and me got the door shut, but we couldn't get the wards back up. They were shattered. Just shattered, and we never learned how to place them yet--

I've never seen a sky like that. Never. We looked up and the sky was just black, but off to the right I could see these clouds swirling around. And so we slammed the door and we all ran to the lower level and I was calling my owl to come with me, because she had just delivered a letter. I was holding on to the wall. I never made it downstairs. Wind was blowing right through the common room. I just laid down there under the table. I was curled up around the table leg, but I was holding onto the side of the table as much as I could and I was just rocking back and forth, and I was just praying to God for him to save me. As the noise subsided, The Minister said it only lasted 5 or so minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. As the noise subsided, I uncovered and I looked up. I could see the sky and still hear that roar, but not as loud. 

And then all at once, I just heard these sounds; they were like-- Crash. Crash. Crash. It was the debris falling out of the sky. There were brooms and cauldrons and books—just everything everywhere. It was unbelievable. I got out of it, and I was the first one to make it to the grounds and there wasn't another living thing in sight. Not an owl or a cat—not even a rat. They were just gone, and everything was burning.

==

This wasn't a natural disaster," said Harry as he finished reading. "I dreamed –I couldn't save Fleur's little sister."

"Harry," whispered Parvati, tears streaming down her face, she grasped Harry's hands. "It was Death Eaters. I know. _I knew_, and I didn't tell Professor Dumbledore," she sobbed.

"Oh Parvati," whispered Ginny. 

"When did you have this vision?" asked Harry. "Mine was last night."

"It was a dream," she muttered. "No wait. I woke up and went downstairs, and maybe I went back to sleep. It was the Yule Ball, and I just thought it was a dream. Except that the Beauxbaton table exploded and—Oh—I can't remember. "

"But you wrote it down, right?" said Lavender.

Parvati shook her head miserably. "I was going to go to Trelawney and Snape caught me and took house points and threatened detention and then—I just forgot—"

Parvati," scolded Hermione. "How could you forget a thing like that!"

"I don't know. I'm just stupid, I guess." Parvati moaned.

"You're not stupid," said Dean reaching over to comfort her. "There have been lots of times when your dreams didn't mean anything. Remember that one in second year that had me so freaked out—no disembodied hands are stirring cauldrons—right? It was just a bad dream."

Harry looked up, staring white-faced at Parvati and Dean as Padma came over to the Gryffindor table to offer her support to her sister. Ron moved over and she sat by Parvati.

"Right," Parvati sniffed. "I sometimes can't tell—and Trelawney says to write them all down. She looks for certain symbols that indicate if the dream is prophetic or not—Oh --. All those people dead," she whispered. "It's my fault."

"It's not your fault," snapped Harry. "It's Voldemort's. Voldemort is the one who is doing this. You may have been able to give a little advance warning, but you didn't kill anyone."

Ron looked at Harry in surprise. "Yes," he said. "Harry's been over this same thing. When he was—after the Tri-Wizard Tournament—when he-who-must-not-be-named got his body back—It's not your fault Parvati."

"When did you have this vision?" asked Padma.

"Uh-Saturday—no Sunday night"

"Parvati," said Hermione. "Don't you have Divination first thing on Monday morning?"

"Yes, but," Parvati blushed furiously. "It just seemed like a dream—I was—I was—" She looked helplessly at Harry and dissolved into tears.

"Your attention please," said Dumbledore, using the sonorous spell, "I have an announcement of great sadness to make. As you can see the Great Hall is draped in black. Last evening, an event of unprecedented horror took place. The Wizarding School, Beauxbatons was attacked. The Daily Prophet tells us that this was a natural disaster, but there was nothing natural about this catastrophe. It was a pre-meditated attack on helpless children—I am sad to say, only seven, that we know of, survived."

"Seven?" muttered some of the students, in horror. "Only seven." 

I would like to read to you the account of this terrible night, as seen by Jacqueline, and eleven-year-old Beauxbaton's student, and reported to Rita Skeeter, Witch Weekly Reporter. I think you will notice some differences in her account and the Daily Prophet's account, and for those of you who would like a copy of Rita Skeeter's article--with a wave of his wand, there appeared on each plate a copy of the article, from which Dumbledore read:   


****

Destruction of School Wreaks of Dark Magic

By special correspondent, Rita Skeeter

Little eleven year old Jacqueline (names of the children have been changed to protect them from possible repercussions by dark wizards) is home with her parents, but she is one of only seven lucky students. Apparently, no teachers survived the attack. Little Jacqueline has never seen a sky like the one she saw over Beauxbaton's School on the night of September 14, 1995, she tells, Witch Weekly reporter, Rita Skeeter. 

The first thing that went was the protective ward. Some of the students—the veelas, especially, are sensitive to magic like that. They could feel when the wards went down. They could smell the Dark Magic in the air. They were panicking, and some of the younger ones were losing control of their veela powers. The Deputy Headmaster separated us. He told all of the girls to go to the West lower dormitories, and the boys to the East lower dormitories. He told the teachers to follow him. 

We looked up and the sky was just black, but off to the right I could see these greenish clouds swirling around. And we all knew who it was—It was you-know-who--so we slammed the door and we all ran to the lower level and I was calling my owl to come with me, because she had just delivered a letter. I was holding on to the wall. I never made it downstairs. Wind was blowing right through the common room. I just laid down there under the table. I was curled up around the table leg, but I was holding onto the side of the table as much as I could and I was just rocking back and forth, and I was just praying to God for him to save me. As the noise subsided--the Minister said it only lasted 5 or so minutes, but it felt like a lifetime-I uncovered my head and I looked up. I could see the sky and still hear that roar, but not as loud. 

And then all at once, I just heard these sounds; they were like-- Crash. Crash. Crash. It was the debris falling out of the sky. There were brooms and cauldrons and books—just everything everywhere. It was unbelievable. I got out of it, and I was the first one to make it to the grounds and there wasn't another living thing in sight. Not an owl or a cat—not even a rat. They were just gone, and everything was burning.

The students were safe underground, and I thought, where are all the teachers? I picked up one of the brooms that had fallen. I thought—if I could just see the teachers—I could tell the others when it was safe. So I flew up—and then— It looked as if everything was just melting. I wondered how a storm could do that—melt stone. I thought this was no natural storm because the wind was blowing and lightening was flashing, but it wasn't raining. I was having trouble guiding the broom, it was blowing so hard, but I flew closer to the building, the first dormitory that was hit, I was hoping to see Juliet or someone—and then it started to rain—not just rain—a sudden downpour. I was soaked in seconds. On the ground, it looked like water thrown into grease. It just started to spit and sputter and then—boom! The whole thing exploded. The fire went up into the sky and what was left of the stone crashed into the ground. I panicked. I started to fly away. I don't think it hit me yet, that they were all dead, crushed beneath the rubble. All of the people underground—And then I saw them. 

The circle. The circle of black around the school. The Dark Wizards. There were at least a hundred of them—all around the school and I saw some of the golden robes from Beauxbaton's among them. One of them saw me, and pointed. I turned and flew, so fast, I was with the wind and I just let it take me—I still felt the heat of the curse, and then I was out of range. I heard them following me, and I was thanking the Fates that had me pick up a Quiddich racing broom instead of just any old broom. I hid in the trees on the East Hill but it was still the scariest game of search and curse I ever played. I could still hear the explosions. I slowed down and flew stealth, south, to the sea. I realized that I wasn't the only one who learned to play search and curse on broomsticks. I saw another student in front of me: Danielle, and then, Marguerite. As soon as I got clear of the grounds, the sun was shining. 

But the sun is not shining in our hearts, writes Rita Skeeter, as we mourn the French children and teachers whose lives were lost because the short-sightedness of a few British officials. We mourn these children because some of those officials are still yet, too cowardly to tell the truth, to say: Yes, Voldemort has returned to wreak havoc upon our cities and our schools. We mourn these children because grown men and women, wizards and witches of note, have hid themselves behind desks and have hidden their faces in their robes and said He-who-must-not-be-named is dead. I say, He-who-must-not-be-named must indeed be named, because he lives. Let us name him for the vile evil thing that he is--Voldemort. Murderer of children. It is he who has turned our world upside down. I ask you, for the sake of these children, call him by his name—Voldemort—and rally to those who have sworn to see justice done.

In the silence following the storm, it is obvious that things will never be the same. At Beauxbatons alone, four hundred forty-four people are missing and presumed dead. Most are children. Several muggles, who lived nearby, have lost their homes and possessions. But for the wizarding world, the greatest loss of all was a sense of security. For many witches and wizards, the sight of foggy green skies will forever revive the dread of September 14, 1995.

This reporter has stood on the ground that was once Beauxbatons---one of the great wizarding schools. The ground itself is despoiled. The magic used was a combination of ancient weather magics and several dark spells and enchantments, in addition to explosives, which may be of wizarding or muggle origin or both. It is this reporter's belief that the wards were broken from inside of Beauxbaton's. As yet, we have not been able to accurately determine the casualties, because the intense flames left no bodies. Those not killed, we can only assume, are with Voldemort. We have been unable to get a statement from the headmistress, Madame Maxime, since she is on holiday abroad.

==

"I don't believe it," said Hermione. "We're trusting Rita Skeeter now?"

"It seems like Dumbledore is," said Ron.

Harry was scanning the Slytherin table, trying to decide who looked tired. There were several sixth and seventh years who were almost falling asleep. Adrian Pucey suddenly jerked awake with a snort as one of the seventh year girls nudged him. Some people were still absent from the table. Harry was sure that there were more empty seats than usual, even though Dumbledore had waited to make the announcement. Who was missing? Draco was there, with his perpetual smirk. Harry tried to see who he was looking at—probably Samara, but he wasn't sure. Ethan was there, unabashedly laying his head on his arm, presumably, bored or tired or both. Crabbe was chewing his fingernails since Dumbledore had not given them anything else to eat, but Harry noticed Goyle was missing. He couldn't see anyone missing from the Slytherin girls, but he didn't know them all well enough to be sure.

He spun around suddenly, looking for Edward, but Edward was at the table talking softly to Ginny. When had he come in to breakfast? Harry was trying to remember if Edward was in bed this morning when he got up. He wasn't sure—of course—Edward put that stupid privacy shield around the bed. He and Ron had joked about it: "It's not like he has any girls to be private with—" said Ron. "Just his books—"

"Except Ginny," Harry had interrupted, and Ron had turned almost as purple as Uncle Vernon did when he was angry.

"What?" Ron muttered. 

"In his dreams---" Harry had said. "Just in his dreams."

Almost as if Ginny knew he was thinking about her, she suddenly looked at him. Her soft brown eyes meeting his. For just a moment they looked at each other, and then, Hermione tapped his shoulder, and the moment was gone. 

"Are you going to eat, Harry? I know, I don't feel much like eating either, but it won't help anything—"

Harry reached for some toast. "I know," he said as he buttered his toast, and then he turned to Ron. "Was Edward out of his bed last night? Do you know?"

"Oh, Harry," said Hermione. "That's an awful thing to accuse someone of—"

"Was he?" Harry asked again.

'I don't know," said Ron thoughtfully. "Even if he was though, there's nothing to say that he wasn't just in the kitchen getting a snack. Fred and George says he's down there as often as they are." 

==

After breakfast on Friday, Ginny was seated, as was her custom in the back row of ADADA. She tried to be inconspicuous in this class. She was early. Students were still filing in. She had written her heading for her notes, ADADA Professor Snape, Friday, September 15, 1995, when she heard Ethan and Edward arguing in the corridor. "But I need her. My next class is transfiguration," said Ethan.

"Well great genius. What am I supposed to do? Go all the way back up to Gryffindor Tower to get her and then run to the greenhouse? Not today. Forget it."

"You could just accio her."

"Oh I'm sure the teachers would appreciate a 6 foot python flying down four flights of stairs."

"Well, some of the Slytherins are accioing their pets after this class." Said Ethan. "What's the problem?"

"Gryffindors," muttered Edward. "How do you think the first years are going to react to a snake flying over their heads, provided I manage to keep it over their heads—And I'm not doing that to Kauket."

"You've done worse," snapped Ethan.

McGonagall will have something for you to transfigure," retorted Edward. He stopped in the doorway as he realized that Ginny was already in the classroom. "Hi Ginny," he said twisting his face into a smile. "I didn't know you were here already."

"Hmmmm?" said Ginny. "I was reading my notes from last time. Did Professor Snape answer who is responsible for the spell on those reflective wards last time?"

"I don't think so," said Edward thoughtfully.

"I don't have it in my notes. They just seem to cut off--"

Ginny raised her hand, as Professor Snape entered the room, followed by Gregory Goyle who had orange goo on his right shoulder and his robe pinned to allow his arm to be free to use his wand. The sight of half of Greg Goyle's chest was not something Ginny wanted to see, especially when they had just talked at breakfast about Beauxbaton's burning. She looked away and caught Edward grinning at her. She looked back at Professor Snape.

"Yes, Miss Weasley," he said wearily.

"I was wondering about the reflective wards we were talking about last week. If someone were to use something like that and the person attacking suffered an unforgivable curse, who is responsible? I mean could the person who reflected the curse go to Azkaban even if he or she didn't originate it?'

"An interesting question," said Snape as the class filed in. "What do you think class?"

"I think it depends upon the curse," said Pansy. "One crucious curse is bad enough, but if it was repetitive and put someone in St. Mongo's or Avada Kedavra and killed them it would be a different story.

"Are we talking about you, Weasley?" growled Ethan, his eyes narrowed.

"Of course not," said Draco. "I doubt a Weasley could even reflect a jelly legs curse properly let alone crucious. It's just a hypothetical situation she's speaking of—" 

Much less send it wandless, added Crabbe.

"Who said anything about wandless?" snapped Draco.

"Right," said Goyle "She never even managed to pull energy last week, before we—"

Draco kicked him and he shut up.

"Let's stay on the topic," Professor Snape urged. "Is the reflective curse the responsibility of the originator or the reflector.

I say, it's the responsibility of who ever intended it—originator or reflector," said Pansy glaring at Ethan.

"You wouldn't know," spat Ethan. "You're only good for muggles' sport anyway."

Pansy yanked her wand from her pocket.

"Pansy," Snape said warningly, and she hesitated, then re-pocketed her wand.

"What makes you think Pansy couldn't send a wandless curse," purred Draco "Especially if she was drawing on your illustrious power."

Edward sniggered. "Someone cursed my brother?" he asked. 

"Not someone," said Draco lazily "Pansy. And she did it wandlessly." Draco leaned in to confide in Edward. "Crucio. Ethan's pissed."

"Congratulations," said Nott, patting her on the back. "I think Pansy gets the credit."

"She could go to Azkaban," cried Ginny. "This isn't something you should want to take credit for—"

"Gryffindors," sniffed Draco.

And several in the class laughed aloud.

"Whether or not a wizard goes to Azkaban," said Snape depends largely upon the jury hearing the testimony and--other things."

"Including how much money or influence the wizard's friends have," Nott added. "Look at the Malfoys."

"Watch it," sneered Draco.

"Or –um—" Nott ground to a halt staring at Snape.

"Or me?" suggested Snape.

Nott blushed a bright red. "No disrespect meant." He assured Snape. "I'm glad you're not in Azkaban, but you have to admit many incarcerations were just bad luck--lack of money--lack of influence." He glanced at Crabbe and Goyle. "Lack of brains," he said.

Lauren Avery burst out laughing and then covered her mouth. "Sorry," she muttered to Snape.

"So in answer to your question, Miss Weasley, there are no hard and fast rules about who is responsible for the spell itself when it is reflected. As far as Azkaban, well, once again, no hard and fast rules. So in actuality, there may be no dark or light—just varying degrees of twilight." 

"I think, leveling a school like Beauxbatons with magic, definitely classifies as dark," said Ginny.

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence and then Snape spoke, "Open your books to page 52, and begin reviewing the exercises there. We will begin this inside. If you're are still having trouble drawing power, Miss Weasley, I believe we will be going outside shortly anyway—"

"Thank you, Sir," said Ginny flatly.

I'm going to pair you with an ally, and then we will play 'Search and Curse'. 

Ginny sucked in her breath thinking of that eleven-year-old Beaubaxon student playing search and curse with Death eaters. 

"You will have some time to develop a strategy indoors before we go outdoors." Continued Snape. "I will let you keep your wands today, but try to throw the curses without a wand—only Earth elemental today. These are fairly simple." Snape's eyes rested on Ginny. "By October, you will be leaving your wands here," he said ominously. He began announcing the pairings.

Miss Weasley and Miss Parkinson.

Mr. Nott and--Miss Zambini

Mr. Ethan Lestrange and –Mr. Malfoy." Snape paused, looking at the two of them. "I trust that will be acceptable," he said, and then muttered something that sounded like "No unforgivables," but Ginny must have been mistaken.

Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle. Try not to get lost.

Miss Bulstrode and—" He glanced at Lauren and then turned away. "Mr. Edward Lestrange."

Miss Avery, you'll be with me—

Lauren Avery swallowed. "Yes sir," she whispered.

"Next week we'll switch partners—" After a few minutes of studying the exercises, Snape told the class to leave everything behind except their wands. "Put your wands in your pockets. Do not travel with them drawn. We will be going to the edge of the forest, and there we will separate to begin our game. If your partner is cursed, you have the option to reverse the curse or just return to the classroom with your partner."

The class murmured in readiness.

"Let's proceed then," said Snape as they went outside to the edge of the forest. As soon as Snape dismissed them to begin the game, Pansy took off at a dead run straight into the forest. 

"Slow down," Ginny called after her. "We're too deep into the forest."

"No," said Pansy. "We're not deep enough. Just a little further is a clearing—Ah, here it is." She sat down on the soft grass to catch her breath. A weak dappling of sunlight filtered through the trees.

"Why did you come here?" asked Ginny, who was panting and holding a stitch in her side. 

"Safe zone," said Pansy. 

"Snape didn't say anything about a safe zone," panted Ginny.

"Doesn't matter," said Pansy.

A few minutes later, Alvin Nott and Blaise Zambini entered the clearing. Ginny had her wand drawn and threw a jelly legs curse at Alvin Nott, which didn't seem to work. "Hey," he cried, drawing his wand automatically. "Expellaramus!' But Ginny's wand stayed in her hand. 

"This is a safe zone," said Blaise, sitting beside Pansy. "Didn't you tell her, Pansy?"

Ginny still held her wand with a death grip.

"Yes, but, I guess she didn't believe me," Pansy replied, pushing her thick dark hair out of her face. "Put your wand away. No one's going to hurt you here. These wards have been set up for years—Your wand won't work, Weasel—some Elemental magic still bleeds through though--"

"My name is not Weasel," said Ginny tightly. "It's Ginny."

Pansy shrugged. "So what now?" She addressed her fellow Slytherins and ignored Ginny completely.

"I can't believe Snape took Lauren as his partner. My heart about fell to my feet. Poor Lauren. Do you think he's—" Blaise broke off and looked at Ginny. 

"I don't think so—" said Pansy. "You didn't see him—after Ethan—"

"Did you find out who really cursed Ethan?" asked Blaise.

"No," said Pansy, "But Draco says he knows—"

"Draco thinks he knows everything," spat Alvin. "I think we should follow them. Just in case—"

"Who?" asked Blaise. "Lauren and Professor Snape? And if he—" Blaise looked at Ginny in exasperation. "You know if he wanted to_—take her anywhere_, there wouldn't be a damned thing you could do to stop him." 

"Don't worry," said Pansy, giving Alvin a little push. "Just because _you _wanted Lauren as a partner-- Snape knew better than to put the two of you together. You might not come back to class—"

Alvin Nott smirked at her.

'What's this about Snape?" asked Ginny hesitantly.

They all looked at her blankly. "Nothing," Pansy said.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be paired with Snape," Ginny commented.

"Right," Alvin said. "Do you think they're gone yet?"

No one answered. Ginny wondered if just hiding out and waiting for her Slytherin classmates to curse each other was the best procedure. She wanted to get a good grade, not just slide by--

"Look," said Ginny at last. "You might be going to blow off class, but I'm not. I—" She started for the edge of the clearing.

"Sit down, Weasel," said Pansy, yanking her back into the clearing. "We're not skipping class. We--I have a special assignment."

"What?" said Alvin.

"Yeah. Teach the Wea—Ginny," Pansy corrected, "To pull power from the Elementals. Don't want you embarrassing yourself in front of all of us. Although I can't imagine why Snape would care—"

"Ok," continued Pansy. "To pull power from the Earth—"

"Earth?" interrupted Alvin. "I think you should start with fire. She seems to have a liking for fire."

"You're still mad about the Dragon breath mints," said Ginny. "It was a joke."

"Yeah," said Pansy. "Some joke. I'm sure you haven't noticed that the whole Slytherin table has been eating nothing but warm soup and cool sherbets for the last two days—And Poor Millie got—" Pansy stopped and looked around. "Where is she?" said Pansy.

"Pansy," said Blaise softly. "I don't think she's coming."

"But," Pansy said, looking around at their faces. "She was paired with Edward, wasn't she?"

"So how's Millie's mouth?" Alvin asked at last.

"Better. Madam Pomfrey had to give Millie a potion to grow back her tongue." Said Pansy, glaring at Ginny. "It's just about as nasty as skele-gro and yesterday was the first time she's been able to speak since Wednesday," said Pansy.

"You have to admit it's been rather peaceful in our room," muttered Blaise. 

"Blaise!" admonished Pansy.

"Well, I wasn't the only one involved in the prank," replied Ginny. "I wasn't even the one who blew the dust over the plates." Ginny illustrated by holding her hands in front of her mouth and blowing. "That was Edward."

"Should have known," said Alvin.

There was another long silence, into which Alvin whispered. "I wish Lauren would get here." He turned to Pansy. "Were you going to study something?

"Pulling power from the Earth—" repeated Pansy. She glanced over at her fellow Slytherins, and then turned her attention to Ginny. "Snape specifically told me to start with Earth magic—"

"You have to connect with the power first, Ginny," said Pansy. "You know that the Earth is filled with energy. Think about it. A seed is placed in the Earth, and it grows. A plant won't grow from the seed unless it is in the soil. It will just wilt and die. We, too, need to be connected to the Earth. The Power of the universe exists in the Earth--the power for growth, attracted by the seed and the power for destruction, attracted by the earthquake

"Um-Pansy?" interrupted Blaise

"Hmm?" Pansy turned toward the tall, willowy blonde girl.

"We're going to go look for Lauren," said Alvin.

Pansy nodded and turned back to her explanation. "So, close your eyes and just feel the power. Draw it to yourself as if you were a seed, seeking to grow."

Ginny tried, but nothing happened. 

"You are way too tense," said Pansy. "This isn't something to be afraid of—I mean, the power of earthquake is there, but most likely you couldn't harness that. The most you are going to get is a bit of the growth power. Most three year old Slytherins can do this."

"I could do it when I was three too," said Ginny softly.

"You could?" Pansy looked surprised.

Ginny nodded. "The twins set the curtains on fire. I put them out—"

"The twins—"

"Fred and George, you know, the eternal pranksters," said Ginny. "Even at seven they were—"

"Seven," interrupted Pansy. "Seven and they were drawing on a _fire elemental_!"

"Oh, no," they had Bill's wand," said Ginny, "But I didn't have a wand. The fire scared me, so I flung water at it. Soaked the carpet two floors down." Ginny grinned sheepishly. "I was thinking of it—the fire—" Ginny stopped, uncertain of how to continue.

"I can't help thinking about Beaubaxtons either," whispered Pansy. "It doesn't help though. Nothing does. It's not like we have the power to—do anything."

Ginny stared at her.

After a moment, Pansy brought them back to the lesson. "If you could do wandless magic at three, why are you having so much trouble now?" asked Pansy. "Oh, I bet I know. Your parents forbade you to do wandless magic, didn't they? Did they punish you?"

"No," said Ginny. "They were upset, but they knew it was an accident. Mum gave me this big lecture about causing floods, and hurting myself, but I really don't remember what she was talking about."

"In a Slytherin household that would have been praised," said Pansy.

"I see—"

A rustling nearby caught their attention. Pansy pulled her wand.

"I thought this was a safe zone," said Ginny.

"Well," replied Pansy. "Sometimes Slytherins don't play by the rules. Anyway, whoever they are, they're still outside of the safe zone."

Ginny pulled her wand too.

A moment later, Pansy flung herself forward. "Lauren!" she cried. "We were so worried. What happened with Snape?" 

"I'll tell you later," Lauren replied. "Are you working on the wandless magic? How's it going?"

"Not very well," said Pansy. "We're going to have to work on this after class." She glared at Ginny. "Because I'm not going to tell Snape that I couldn't teach you—"

"Did you try pulling through her?" asked Lauren.

Pansy shuddered. "No," she said.

"Well, that should work. We know she's not a squib."

"What are you talking about?" asked Ginny. 

"It's a game that I used to play when I was little with Draco—"

"With Draco?" repeated Ginny surprised.

"He's my cousin, first cousin actually," said Lauren. "Aunt Narcissa taught us—Draco's Mum. Draco used to pull power from the Earth through me until—well—until it hurt and then I would say—'quit' and Draco would win. If he couldn't make me say quit, I would win. Then we'd change places. I'll show you."

Lauren stood behind Ginny. "Hold your arms out in front of you," she said, and Ginny obeyed.

"Now, don't do anything. Just close your eyes and relax."

Lauren stood behind her and held her own hands just barely above Ginny's. Her arms never touched Ginny's and yet there was a tingling between them. Suddenly Ginny felt the magic run straight up through her body from the Earth, and the power was pushed out through her fingertips by Lauren. "Quit!" shouted Ginny.

Pansy giggled. 

"I didn't hurt you—did I?" asked Lauren.

"No. I—just. It was just strange," said Ginny in a strangled voice. She tried to put her finger on when she felt magic in this way, and her mouth got dry as she realized—she had been used this way by Tom to write her messages on the wall. She felt sick." 

==

__

She could see the words glaring at her from the diary. These are the words you will write. "**The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware!" **

"I can't," she had written in the Diary. "I don't have a wand."

"WHAT?"

"I left it in potions. Snape always locks his dungeon."

His anger was palpable. She could almost feel it jump out of the diary and strangle her. "You did that on purpose1" he wrote, his handwriting degenerating into a scrawl.

__

"Yes."

"No matter. You **will** call my familiar and you **wil**l write the message—**better write it first—in case the basilisk kills you—"**

==

"Hey, Ginny," said Pansy. "Are you alright? You look a little pale. Maybe we should have waited for Alvin," Pansy told Lauren. "I don't think she liked the flavor of your magic, Lauren."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "It's just an assignment," she said. 

"No," said Ginny. "It wasn't anything you did. I was just—startled. I think I can do it now." With extreme distaste, Ginny remembered writing on the wall with Tom. She closed her eyes and concentrated, allowing the magic to come to her."

"Release," said Lauren, and Ginny let the magic drip from her hands.

"That's it," said Lauren. "Good."

Ginny shuddered, and then got control of herself. "I could try a simple spell," she said.

"No," replied Pansy. "Safe zone, remember. Spells won't work here. Anyway, Snape specifically said don't do any spells. Just pull and release. And only Earth magic."

Alvin and Blaise returned to the clearing. "There you are, Lauren," said Alvin. "Blaise said you probably made your way back here, but I didn't think you did." He kissed Lauren lightly on the lips. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, Snape let me go," said Lauren. "Hey, can we show Ginny how _we_ play 'Quit'?"

"Sure," said Alvin taking Lauren in his arms. "But I get to be first."

"Not like that," said Lauren, pushing away from him. "Do it how you are supposed to play." She turned in his arms, allowing him to put his arms and hands over hers. "And don't touch me," Lauren admonished. "That's not fair."

"Ok. Ok. If you insist," said Alvin. "But it's the only way I can win."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "Ready. Go."

In a moment, both Alvin and Lauren fell into silent concentration. Sweat started to bead on Alvin's brow. Lauren was clenching and unclenching her hands in an attempt to release the magic more quickly than Alvin was bringing it in. It was obvious that she was handling the magic effortlessly, but Alvin was working at it. Suddenly he thrust her away, and leaned his hands on his knees. He was breathing hard, as if he had run a race. Lauren was nearly glowing with the excess magic. She laughed. "I win."

"But—"interrupted Ginny. "No one said 'I quit'. How did you win?"

"Because he couldn't pull faster than I could release," said Lauren. "When the weaker person is the one releasing, you have to be very careful. I was too stubborn to say, 'quit' once and Draco sent me to the medi-wizards."

"That's only because he used to practice with his mother," spat Alvin.

"I used to be able to beat Draco," said Lauren proudly.

"Me too," said Pansy quietly. "Until it quit being a game to him."

There was a long silence, and then Pansy said softly. "Class should be almost over. We should get back."

"Yeah," said Alvin. "McGonagall will hang us from our thumbs if we're late for transfiguration again."

"McGonagall?" Said Ginny. "She wouldn't do that."

"No, you're right," said Pansy, "But last Friday we lost 40 points and got 5 detentions."

"I hate that woman," replied Lauren. "She's positively evil."

McGonagall? Ginny decided to keep her opinions to herself.

==

LOVE MY REVIEWERS! PLEASE REVIEW. ONLY 10 REVIEWS UNTIL THE NEXT CHAPTER!

Hey, be glad you didn't have to pay for this book—

Lady Lestrange

--

****

Kemenran: succinct and to the point. You've got it.

****

Silverfox: Thanks, You're right, Harry didn't know Kedavra in his second year. I guess Hermione might point that out to him, and he could say—well I could have done something from a little further away than the length of the sword. Have to give it some thought and perhaps re-load that chapter later with correction. Glad you like Neville. More coming. Edward's painting? I don't know; he won't let me see it. I'm not a Gryffindor**. Silverfox writes great fanfiction. Go read some of it. Right after you review**.

****

Trillium: Thanks for condoning my blackmailing, Actually it's keeping me on my toes because the reviews are coming pretty fast and although I have most of the chapters written, some of them need some polish before they are put up. Their interpretations of the prophecy are never completely wrong. That would be grossly unfair to the reader; however, the explanations are sometimes incomplete. Remember "bilinguis".

Edward. Author shrugs. Blows kisses. I don't trust him either, but ya gotta love him. Ginny/Harry may have a few teasers, but sorry, Ginny is way too wrapped up in Tom to have a serious relationship with Harry.

****

Blue-blond sorcerress: You really need to change your name because I keep trying to type it spelled right. I answered this review already. I only have one more erudite Ravenclaw comment to make: HUH?

****

Blue-blond sorcerress: Now I am really confused. "Great story?"

Bluetigereye13@aol.com : Glad you liked the Tom stuff. Yes, I understand, Ginny sort of inspires insanity. She does that to me too. lol

****

Melbell: Glad you like my Neville. More coming. Melbell writes a funny short story called Plotting Corner of the Staff Room. Go read it for a lift.

(A/N: For all my bloodthirsty Slytherin Readers: Next time Voldemort get the urge to burn something, I promise you will be there. No more secondhand stories.)


	33. CH 32: Sticky Situations

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 32

Sticky Situations

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes.

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

Chapter 32

Sticky Situations

On Friday, after Herbology, Harry hurried up to the owlry to get Hedwig, to transfigure her into a rabbit.

Herbology was uneventful, but transfiguration was another thing altogether. McGonagall was trying to talk over the squawking of pets in her room. "Today," she said. "We will transfigure pets into a non-poisonous, non-threatening animal. It is easiest to start with your pets. They know you, like you, trust you. They tend not to attack or bite when they are confused. Instead they come to you for protection and comfort. If you do not have a pet, I hope you have found or borrowed an animal that you have now formed a rapport with. I also have some choices of calm animals for those of you who do not have pets. Is there anyone who doesn't have an animal to transfigure?" 

She looked around the room. "Good. You are all prepared. One thing that we do not want to do is to turn a mouse that wants to bite you into a tiger that wants to bite you."

After a few more preliminary explanations, the class was ready to begin the spells.

Hermione changed Crookshanks into a brown rabbit and then back again. It seemed as if the original transfiguration was not as hard as turning him back into a cat. Hermione frowned, apparently uncertain as to whether or not she got every ginger hair in the right place. 

Harry thought that changing Hedwig into a rabbit was also a good idea, especially since Beatrice had schooled him and Hermione for hours. Unfortunately, when confronted with McGonagall's inspection, Harry couldn't manage to change the color. Hedwig turned into a rabbit, but stayed white, even though Harry had managed to get him to be brown when they practiced in the common room. Turning Hedwig back was a strain and Harry's head was pounding by the time he finished. 

Ron turned Pig into a rat, and Pig stubbornly refused to be turned back. Finally McGonagall said that if he couldn't turn him back, he would have to stay a rat. Horrified, Ron looked at Beatrice for help, but she just shook her head. 

Samara swished her wand to transfigure Aggie, but Aggie wasn't being cooperative. She kept flapping her wings and moving. 

"You need a lighter swish and flick," said McGonagall, "You're trying too hard. Relax."

Samara took a deep breath and indeed seemed to relax. "**Permutatio—**" she began as she tried to swish and flick. Apparently, she got it just right because suddenly blue flame shot from her fingernails. "Shit!" she spat under her breath. Then looking at Ginny, she muttered, "I'm gonna kill your brothers." For emphasis, she blew out her fingernails.

The class dissolved into hysterical laughter. Whispers of "Fred and George" punctuated hiccups and snorts as nearly everyone laughed until tears flowed down their cheeks.

"Miss Donnally," began McGonagall sternly, but by this time, the class was a shambles.

Aggie, who had a particular aversion to fire in the first place, had decided that she needed to get out of this class and was flying frantically about the ceiling. Hedwig and several other owls joined her. Their antics made most of the other pets get hysterical too, especially those who thought that the owls might eat them. Pig, who apparently thought she could still fly, launched herself off of the desk and landed with a hard splat on the floor. That seemed to get Aggie's attention and she swooped down on the rat, just as Ron's frantic swishing took effect and much to Aggie's consternation, she turned back into a small, somewhat flustered owl. The only pet that was completely still was Crookshanks who was meowing piteously at Hermione.

When McGonagall finally got control of the class again, she took unprecedented fifteen points from Gryffindor. "Yes, from my own house," she fumed. "Although I loathe doing it, you have behaved almost as badly as the Slytherins did earlier today." 

Harry wondered what the Slytherins did. He would have to ask Edward to find out, but apparently Edward was already thinking the same thing. His puzzled look left little doubt that he wanted to know what got McGonagall so upset.

"Just sit and read the next chapter," said McGonagall, "While I catch my breath. One at a time, you can come up and retrieve your pets. Miss Donnally, we will begin with your owl."

Harry began reading the assignment:

****

Why do most people have only one animagi form?

Most people have only one animagi form; however, throughout history there have been scattered reports of wizards who can change into more than one form. There is some speculation as to whether or not this is true. Some historians believe that even these wizards have only one animagus form and the other animal form is a transformation spell and not necessarily an animagus. There are several cases in history of persons having more than one animagi form, but they are very rare. Most notable is the animagi forms of Rowena Ravenclaw who is said to be able to become both a Raven and an owl and Salazar Slytherin is said to have become several kinds of snakes, although this is unconfirmed since Salazar Slytherin would not allow his forms to be documented, and indeed there is some speculation as to whether or not he was an animagus at all. As previously noted, multiple animagi are always similar animals because the template is permanent and only small changes can be made instantaneously by the human wizard.

Most people only have one animagi form because they are most like this animal and can think in human perimeters in this form. Unlike transformed humans, animagi can stay in their animal form for a long period of time without losing the human perspective. The longest known continuous animagi form is Julius Flammel, who was a turtle for 10 years, 2 months.

Hey, Scabbers was a rat longer than that thought Harry.

"Mister Potter," McGonagall called, and thankfully Hedwig came immediately when Harry called her. "Very good." McGonagall said with relief.

She allowed them all to go a few minutes early, so that they could put their pets back in their rooms or the owlry. 

"I don't think I did a bad job on Pig," said Ron who was carrying a rather subdued little owl up to the owlry. "Perhaps I should turn him into a rat more often. It's really quieted him down." 

"He's scared to death," said Samara who was carrying Aggie. "He thought he was going to be attacked by Aggie. I'm sorry she traumatized Pig. Poor Pig," said Samara as she took her time calming and soothing Aggie.

Hedwig seemed to be above all the fuss, although she wasn't pecking Harry's fingers affectionately like she usually did. Harry took her all the way to the owlry and gave her some treats to make up for the transfiguration she had to endure.

"Do you think Errol looks all right?" asked Ginny as they entered the owlry. "He is sort of old for this type of thing."

"Oh he's fine," said Ron. "He's been transfigured by five Weasleys now. He should be used to it."

"I'm sure it didn't hurt him," said Harry. "Here. Give him a treat." Harry passed a few of Hedwig's owl treats to Ginny, his hand brushing hers as Ginny took the treats. 

"Thanks," said Ginny, blushing. For a moment, Harry thought she had been about to speak to him, but then, she looked at the ground and began to feed Errol his treats, her eyes now staring off into the cloudy sky. Harry hesitated, but Ginny seemed to be miles away. It probably wasn't the best time to talk to her about her growing relationship with Edward. Maybe later, thought Harry and with a frown, he climbed down the stairs from the owlry and hurried to catch up with Ron.

==

After history, on their way to lunch, Edward said, "I wonder what the Slytherins did to get Professor McGonagall so upset. I'll bet we did better. That was a pretty exciting class. You really livened things up a bit, Samara." But Samara didn't answer. She barely spoke to anyone. She walked into the Great Hall and headed straight for Fred and George, and her wand was in her hand. 

"I don't think I'd want to be my brothers just now," said Ron. 

She stopped right next to Fred. George was sitting across the table from his brother. "**Haerere Fred, George**," she said. 

"Huh? Did you say hello?" Fred said.

"Not exactly," replied Samara, leaning across the table to include George in her glare. "I'm really mad at you guys. You lost us points in McGonagall's class." She proceeded to tell them what happened as their smiles got bigger and bigger and finally they broke into laughter. 

"Hey, we didn't know you'd 'swish and flick' in McGonagall's class," said George.

"You two deserve each other!" Samara spat, and she turned away to go to her own side of the lunch table.

George, who hated to see anyone seriously mad at them, got up to follow her, but as soon as he took a step away from the table, he fell flat on his face. "Hey!" Called Fred also standing. "What did you do?" One step later, Fred was also on his face.

"Figure it out!" Samara yelled back. "It's more fun that way."

"What's for lunch?" she asked as she got back to her friends. 

"Samara, what did you just do?" asked Harry from several seats away. "Give them Jelly Legs or something?" 

"Or something," she replied taking a bite of potato. 

Harry watched Fred and George trying to get away from the long table where they were sitting. They had to take a step and then the person sitting beside them had to move so that they could stay against the table. Each in turn, they took one step and then another and then a person had to move out of their way. Some of the people that had to move were very obstinant about moving. "They can't get away from the table?" muttered Edward.

"No," said Samara. "They can't get away from each other. At least they can't get any farther than the width of the table that separated them when I pronounced the spell."

"And when will this wear off?" asked Harry, who was unabashedly eves dropping.

"Never."

"What?"

"Well, eventually, I'll take it off," said Samara.

"But we have Quiddich practice this evening—and tomorrow—tomorrow's Saturday. We need that long practice," said Harry.

"Guess they'll have to fly close together," said Samara.

Finally Fred and George made their way to Samara. "Samara, you have to take this curse off," Fred said.

"We have Snape after lunch and he never lets us sit together."

"Guess you'll just have to explain your predicament to him," said Samara coldly. "Rather like I had to explain to McGonagall."

"That's McGonagall," cried George, "Not Snape."

"And how would you know I didn't 'swish and flick' in Snape's class," snapped Samara. "Did you think of that? No. So I have no pity on you. When you said it was 'flame' nail polish, I thought you meant the color, not—not—Oh, Go away and let me finish my lunch."

"But Samara!"

"Go away," she said pulling her wand from her hair. "Before I decide to put a couple blast end screwts between the two of you."

Harry looked at Samara unbelievingly. "Samara, you can't do that!"

"Watch me," she said.

She was really going to leave them like that, thought Harry. How would they explain to Snape? Harry started to try to reason with her, and thought better of it. She really didn't look like she was ready to listen to him. 

Edward, however, seemed to be braver. "Hey Samara" he said. "At least you know you got the 'swish and flick' right."

She glared at him.

"And the 'point and shoot' right too," he continued.

"So was it the same spell as you said you used on your trunk to stick it to the train?" asked Edward.

"Not exactly."

"Like this? **'Adhere'**" Edward said, and Samara's fork stuck to her hand. She frowned at him annoyed.

"Or like this? **'Haerere'**" Samara's spoon jumped from the table and stuck to her nose. The ghost of a smile started to form on the corners of her mouth.

"NO, like this!" said Samara. "**Haerere napkin**" and Edward's clothe napkin plastered itself on his face. 

"Not fair," cried Edward. "I'm blinded."

"**Duoforamen**," Samara pronounced and two holes appeared like a mask. 

"I still can't eat," Edward complained, pretending to try to get a spoon through the napkin. "I'll probably starve."

The smile on Samara's face finally split into laughter. The napkin and silverware fell from their faces, just as McGonagall came over to the table. 

"What is going on over here?" she asked. 

"Nothing." They answered in unison. 

McGonagall reached for the napkin and in whispered stereo, Edward and Samara both muttered "**Repairo**."

The napkin was unharmed. She frowned at Samara. "Don't get in any more trouble today, young lady" she said sternly. 

"Yes, ma'am."

As soon as McGonagall was out of earshot, both Samara and Edward burst into gales of laughter. Then Samara hurried up to the girls' dorm to remove her "flame" nail polish.

==

Harry didn't see the twins again until right before Defense class. "Did you have class with Professor Snape," Samara asked sweetly. 

"Yes," answered George and Fred together.

"Well," said Samara "I see you're still alive, so it mustn't have been too bad." 

"Bad enough," said George.

"So what did he say?" asked Samara.

"He wanted to know who did it," said Fred.

"Why?" asked Samara. 

"He wanted to give them house points," said George disgustedly. 

"How about that!" said Samara.

"But I think he assumed it was a Slytherin. He was a little disappointed when we told him it was you," said Fred. "And he also took 10 points off Gryffindor." 

"For what?" asked Samara.

"Because we couldn't counter a curse from someone three years behind us."

"That hypocrite," said Samara.

"Samara wait," said Harry. He didn't want Samara heading into Snape's class with a grudge. "You can't call him a hypocrite to his face," Harry said.

"I know that. I may not be a Ravenclaw, but I'm not stupid."

==

Snape was waiting impatiently for all of the student's to file into the class. "Quickly, now," he said. "This class may take a while, so move your lazy selves in here."

The talking stopped almost instantly as the students sensed Snape's mood. Although he was always a little more testy than usual on Fridays, today, he was a wizard time bomb, set to go off at any moment. 

Even Malfoy was utterly silent. 

"There are several ways to learn," said Snape, pacing the front of the room like a caged animal. "One of them is long and arduous study. We don't have time for that. Dumbledore wants you whipped into wizards as fast as possible." 

Ron glanced worriedly back at Hermione. 

"Pay attention, Mr. Weasley," Snape growled. 

"Fast, leaves only one option." He continued. "Emotion. Usually fear. Sometimes anger, although anger can often go dark, so we will try to avoid that. Fear, although--uncomfortable is safer." Snape spun around, his black robes billowing out behind him and glared at the class. He didn't look like he cared about their safety.

This is going to be bad, thought Harry, as Snape's eyes settled on him. "Besides, knowing how to channel your fear into something constructive will help you when you are afraid—" said Snape, "as you will be--when faced with—some--monster." He paced over to Harry's desk and stood directly behind him, breathing down his neck. Harry dared not turn to look at him, but Snape, standing behind him was even more unnerving than Snape standing in front of him. "Certainly, even the brave Gryffindors will feel fear," said Snape in a low voice. "Some, of course, like Dumbledore, say that courage is not the lack of fear, but acting in spite of it. I disagree. What Gryffindors call courage, is not acting in spite of fear, it is acting with the lack of forethought. It is only bravery if the wizard happens to live and stupidity when the wizard is dead. Which happens much more often than one-who-lives." Snape walked around to the front of the class. His beetle black eyes were on Harry as he spoke. 

Snape took a deep breath and the rest of the class seemed to let out their breath too. Harry hadn't realized he had been holding his. 

"How many of you have spontaneously done magic when you were fearful or angry?" asked Snape, and every hand went up. Professor Snape glanced around the room as if to be sure. "I want you to remember that feeling. It is probably your most powerful self. What you need to do is consciously tap into that power."

Harry remembered the time he had loosed the snake on Dudley and the time he blew up Aunt Marge. Both times he had been filled with frustration and anger. Magic seemed to be the only way to let the emotion out, but he wasn't controlling that magic. It was controlling him. If the teacher had been anyone but Snape, he would have asked a question about control, but since his teacher was Snape, he remained silent.

Snape turned toward his desk and indicated a metal basket with holes large enough for a wand to slip through. "I would like you to come up here, row by row, and place your wands within the basket." He said. "We have discussed methods of keeping your wand; however, there is always a chance that you won't keep it. Therefore, we have to now concentrate on how to get it back if this catastrophe befalls you. I hope you all read the section on wandless magic carefully and practiced the assigned exercises. If you didn't practice sufficiently, we will now find out--I doubt that you are ready to delve into the intricacies of wandless magic, so your goal, should you lose your wand, is simply to get your wand back. Besides, you may lose your wand in a face to face encounter but if your adversary should happen to be merciful--or stupid-- you may later be able to get your wand back, by stealth. Come up as I call you and put your wands in this basket." 

After Ethan and Edward put their wands in, they stood close together as if to gain power from one another. So did Parvati and Lavender. Ron and Ginny also edged closer together. The Slytherins didn't as a whole seem very bothered by the whole ordeal, except for Lauren Avery who hesitated until Pansy Parkinson physically took the wand from her hand and dropped it into the basket. Hermione, white faced, dropped her wand in. Samara was last. With a scowl that would have rivaled Snape's himself, she dropped her wand into the basket. 

While Snape was talking, Harry had pulled out his wand, but something in him would not let him give it to Snape. He stood holding it. Waiting. Gripping it, tighter and tighter. Harry looked at his whitened knuckles wrapped around the lightly grained holly wood, and then looked up at Snape, collecting the wands. He knew that this wasn't the day to cross Snape. He should put his wand in the basket, but Harry just couldn't do it. Snape would have to take it.

The wands fell into the metal container like so many sticks of wood. At last there was only his wand left. "Potter?" Snape said. 

Harry didn't move. Didn't speak. He moved his feet apart in a more comfortable dueling position.

"If you were face to face with the Dark Lord—"

"I've been there," Harry countered.

"And if he hadn't have given you your wand back, would you have gotten it?"

"No."

"Then you see the importance of this lesson," Snape said reasonably.

Harry didn't answer. He could feel his pulse beating rapidly in his throat.

A sudden tightness in Snape's face warned Harry just a moment before Snape acted, but it didn't matter.

"**Expellaramus**!" Snape shouted and Harry stumbled backwards, his wand ripped out of his hand, brush burning the skin, but flying to Snape nonetheless.

At least Harry knew that it took Snape's wand and a good deal of magic to pull the wand from him. It wasn't easy, but Snape still did it. And if Snape could do it, so could Voldemort. Harry felt like crying—not because his hand hurt, although it did, but because he knew he wasn't strong enough for what was coming. How could he prepare to face Voldemort? How could the wizarding world expect him to? He pushed the red, raw skin of his hand against his cool robe. Just when it was starting to feel better after Samara's book bit it, it had to start hurting all over again. Harry took a deep breath. Something much deeper than the skin of his hand was injured by Snape's expellaramus. Call it his pride—call it ego or self worth. Whatever it was, Harry felt a cold, hard, surety that every bit of luck that has saved him from Voldemort in the past, had now run out.

What really was it but luck? Thought Harry. His mother's spell had saved him as a baby and remnants of that same spell saved him in first year. In second year, somehow he called Dumbledore's phoenix, but this year, Dumbledore didn't seem to think he mattered as much as this other prophecy child. Then in third year, Voldemort seemed to lay low, biding his time, but he, Harry, had stupidly released "Voldemort's servant" and started a whole new prophecy, which culminated in the events at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Dumbledore said that a wizard's bond is formed when one wizard saves another's life, but Wormtail didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that Harry's blood brought Voldemort back—some bond. Harry truly thought he would die that day, but Fate dealt him another reprieve, by allowing his and Voldemort's wands to join instead of dueling. Watching those shades appear from the wand had given him a new perspective on death and dying. On one hand, as he had told Trelawney once, when she was predicting his sudden death—" as long as it isn't drawn out—I don't want to suffer." On the other hand, Harry couldn't help but wonder how Tom had done it. How had he conquered death?

There was a sharp clang as Snape dropped the lid closed on the box with the wands and magically locked it. Harry could see several wands through the mesh. They were rustling, wanting to return to their owners. Snape carried the box out of the room. 

While he was gone, Beatrice looked through her bag and pulled out a puffer. She took a deep breath and then closed the bag just before Snape returned. 

The room was utterly silent. 

"It doesn't matter if your wands are right next door or miles away." Snape said. "If you want them, you can get them." Snape waved his wand and muttered an incantation before moving out of the doorway. "Those of you who want your wands back, may get them." He said.

Harry felt like he could breathe again.

Several wands rocketed immediately into the room: Harry's, Samara's, Edward's and Ethan's, Lauren Avery's and Draco's. It was hard to tell who got theirs first, the reaction was so instantaneous. Snape waited for a moment, but no more wands came rocketing into the room. "Very well, then," said Snape. "You six are dismissed. The rest of you will stay until you get your wands. You will need them to unlock the ward on the door. It's a Friday so you don't need to get to class in the morning. You can take as long as you like. Of course dinner is in about two hours, and it would be a shame if you miss it. I'll inform Filch that some of you may be up after curfew, but I doubt if that will effect your detention. I'll return tomorrow to see how you are getting along." He paused at the door. "--If I think about it. It IS a weekend, you know." Then, he moved to the door, raised his wand, uttered "Alohomora," and just left. 

Lauren Avery was the first one to come to her senses. "I'm out of here," she said. "**Alohomora**!" and she was gone, followed quickly by Draco and then Ethan. 

Edward headed toward the door and then hesitated. He seemed to be undecided. "Harry," he said. "I don't see how we can help." 

"That rotten son of a bitch," snapped Samara. "I forgot to get my house points." She spoke "**Alohomora**," on the run and was gone chasing after Snape. 

"Samara wait!" Ginny called. "Don't—" She raised her hand and her wand was in it effortlessly. She sprinted after her friend.

Samara's anger seemed to release something into the room and several Slytherins started muttering to themselves. Confusion and anger broke out everywhere. Ron's wand suddenly flew to his hand.

Harry heard Crabbe complaining that the Gryffindors staying to help their friends, but Draco just left them. "If I had my wand," he muttered, and suddenly there were wands flying into the room, one after the other. Chaos ruled. Some of the wands, in their rush to return to their owners smacked heads and faces of wizards that were in the way. Slytherins didn't take kindly to such things.

Someone once again, cursed Eloise Midgen and she left holding her nose and saying: "I hope Madam Pomfrey puts it on right this time."

Joe and Lou were in the middle of the Slytherin cursing battle and both had multiple curses as they headed for the door. Edward took them to Madam Pomfrey.

Parvati and Lavender were holding hands and humming like they did at the Sorting. Millicent Bulstrode, fed up with their noise told them to shut up. They didn't listen, so she shoved Lavender against the wall. "Quit it, Slytherin Pig," snapped Lavender, reaching for a wand that wasn't there. 

"And what are you going to do about it?" challenged Millicent. "I could beat you to a pulp. Who needs a wand?"

Millicent pushed Lavender again and punched her, once, twice, and then Lavender's wand was in her hand and Millicent was on the floor. "Parvati?" Lavender said, but her friend had gained her wand just about the same time as she saw Lavender in need of help. "Let's go! Before she wakes up." 

But they hesitated at the door.

"It's OK," said Harry. "Go."

At last there was just Harry, Ron and Hermione along with Neville and Beatrice and Millicent and Gregory Goyle who were still knocked out on the floor, several curses showed on their faces and arms. Greg's robe had fallen further off of his shoulder, showing his extremely hairy chest, covered with orange burn healing goo. 

"So I wonder how he got burned?" asked Harry thoughtfully. 

"That's pretty obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "These curses are too good for him." Ron pointed his wand at Goyle and bit his lip, thinking. 

"Ron!" said Harry and Neville together.

"Oh," said Ron, putting his wand away. "It just doesn't seem right to curse him when he's unconscious, even if the scum is a Death Eater."

"You're not sure—" said Beatrice worriedly.

Hermione was busy coaxing her wand to her. Slowly, it floated into the room. "See," she told Neville, "You can do it without getting angry."

Harry had to point out that the anger seemed to work a lot faster.

After about an hour more of working with Neville and Beatrice and trying everything they could think of Ron's stomach growled loudly.

"Go on," said Neville. "You might as well get dinner. Bring some food up to the dorm in case we get out of here tonight."

"I really would stay Neville," said Harry, "But Edward and I have our meeting with McGonagall."

"I'm sure Snape will let you out later tonight when he realizes that you didn't get out yet," said Hermione.

"I doubt it," replied Neville.

"Maybe you can get out with us," said Hermione. "I'll open the door and you stand really close to me when we walk out."

They tried it, but only Hermione was released from the room. Neville was thrown back into the room with a powerful stunning charm. Hermione tried to come back in, but was barred by the stunning charm.

"Are you alright?" asked Harry as he and Ron picked Neville up from the floor. 

"Not really," said Neville. "He didn't have to put such a powerful charm on the door. That hurt."

About that time, Millicent woke up and realized she was the only Slytherin awake among the little group of Gryffindors. She grimaced at Gregory Goyle as if she were embarrassed that he was her only Slytherin companion. Then she stood a little groggily and headed for the door. "Don't," cried Neville. "It's got—"

Millicent hit the stunning charm and fell back into the room. She shook like a dog, and then stood and headed for the door again—this time at a run. She bounced off of it with a little cry and held her hand up expectantly. No wand appeared. 

"Stop," Harry called. "We'll help you."

"I don't need any help from a Gryffindor," she spat. And as she hit the wall the third time her wand was in her hand. She spoke "**Alohomora**," and fell through the doorway. They could see her once again knocked out cold, but this time on the other side of the doorway, with her wand in her hand.

"Neville?" called Hermione from outside the door. "Are you guys ok?"

"We're alright," called Ron. "We're coming."

"Pain and anger," muttered Harry. "Snape is one sick-o, isn't he?"

"I hate Fridays," said Ron. "Did you ever notice he's twice as bad on Fridays. I think he drinks some kind of hate potion to make him miserable. No one could be so nasty without something—"

Hermione laughed aloud.

"Go to dinner," said Beatrice, herding them towards the door. "Neville and I will be alright. We'll just rest for a while and then try again, right Neville."

Neville nodded. "If either of us get out, we'll come and let you know."

"What about him?" Harry asked indicating the thoroughly cursed and sleeping Goyle.

"He doesn't look like he'll be waking any time soon," said Neville. 

"Just in case," Harry pointed his wand at the prone Goyle. "Somnus!" he said. "That should give you a couple of hours to get out."

"Alright, we're going to dinner. We'll save you something." Ron and Harry agreed reluctantly and the spoke "**Alohomora**," and one at a time walked through the door.

At dinner, Samara was once again in a foul mood. "What's wrong now," asked Ginny. 

"Snape only gave me 10 points."

"Well, that's good," said Ginny.

"No it isn't. Fred and George lost 10. And I got called to the Headmaster's office."

"About what?" said Ginny surprised.

"Dumbledore said I had to take the curse off of Fred and George. They are going somewhere with Professor Lupin tomorrow."

  
"Well, don't worry about it," said Ginny. "We'll get them back another time. All in all they are pretty good guys though. Look. Let me show you what they gave me." She pulled a bottle of potion from her bag. It looked almost transparent, but when Ginny poured a small amount into her hand it became the color of her flesh. She rubbed it onto the back of her hand. "It's a wizarding version of muggle make up."

"So what does that do?" Asked Samara. "Set your face on fire?"

"No," said Ginny, "But it sure gets rid of freckles."

"Really?"

"Sure," said Ginny. "Instant concealer. Studying too hard? Hide those dark circles under you eyes."

Samara laughed. "OK so you try it," she said, "If you don't break out in some strange rash, I might try it later. I don't believe that it doesn't have a joke attached."

"It doesn't," said Ginny. "Not because they didn't want a joke, they just haven't thought of it yet. They were arguing over whether it should turn someone's face purple or green— Fred didn't want green because it's Slytherin colors, and of course purple isn't anyone's color so George said what's the point of that? If it colors maybe someone will want it for Quiddich games. Anyway, they decided to let me try the unspelled version. It just takes away freckles."

==

After dinner, Samara and Ginny were surprised to see the little brown bunny dart between their legs as they opened the door to their dorm room.

"Oh gosh!" Beatrice!" shrieked Ginny.

"Beatrice," said Samara. "You got out of Snape's class. What happened?"

Beatrice had scooted under her bed and was now huddled in a dark corner—a small shivering mop of brown fur.

"Bea?" said Samara gently. "Come out."

Maybe we should get McGonagall," suggested Ginny.

"The bunny gave a little squeak.

"I didn't know rabbits made sounds," said Samara.

A moment later, Beatrice was out from under the bed and transforming back into her human self. She immediately headed for her desk and her puffer.

"I don't understand how you manage to go without your puffer as an animagus, but need it as soon as you're in your human form again," said Ginny. "I think Snape—"

"I don't know either," snapped Beatrice. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

"What happened?" asked Samara.

"I ran," said Beatrice "I left Neville and my wand."

"How did you get out?"

"When Snape came in. I slipped through his legs. The ward wasn't made for rabbits.

"Did Snape see you?" asked Samara

"Yes. He was so mad—" said Beatrice bursting into tears. "He said he was going to feed me to Mrs. Norris." She gasped for breath and after a moment seemed to get control of herself.

"Oh, he won't do that," said Ginny. "So where is Neville? Did Snape let him go too?"

"No. No. No. You're not listening. He didn't let us go," said Beatrice. "I escaped. He still has Neville. We have to help him."

"I don't see how we can," said Ginny.

"Come on—" Beatrice urged. 

"Where?" asked Ginny. 

"We can't even get into the room," said Samara. "What could we do to help?"

"Beatrice, the whole purpose of this exercise is for Neville to get out himself," said Ginny.

Finally, Beatrice threw up her hands and went in search of Hermione. Fifteen minutes later, Ron, Hermione and Beatrice were headed to the dungeon. 

When they arrived, Neville was sitting on the dungeon floor outside of the Defense Classroom. His knees were pulled up to his chin but his wand was in his hand. He had his face buried on the sleeves of his robe.

"Neville! You're out! You did it!" Cried Hermione. "You got your wand."

"Yes," said Neville sullenly.

"What's wrong?" asked Beatrice. "I'm sorry I left you—I just—"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does." She sat down beside him.

Then Ron noticed the blood on the floor. "Whoa! What happened?"

"Professor McGonagall killed a rabbit," said Neville. "Well, not a real rabbit. She transfigured it first—I guess--"

They looked from one to the other trying to piece together what had happened. "McGonagall?" said Hermione.

Neville nodded. "I think Professor Snape called her—"

Suddenly Beatrice understood. "You heard Snape," she said. "You heard him when he said that he was going to feed me to Mrs. Norris. Neville! You didn't believe him! He's a slimy git, but he's not that bad!"

"I didn't," Neville choked out "I didn't believe him--until I heard—" Neville shuddered. Then I couldn't help you—I couldn't get my wand in time."

"Neville, it wasn't me!"

"It-could-have-been!" He shouted. "I heard the squealing and—and—" He covered his face with his hands. 

"But, Neville you did it. You got your wand."

"Too late," he said. "The rabbit was dead."

"Neville, there was no rabbit. It was a book or a quill or a stick," said Hermione.

"Next time you'll be faster." said Beatrice kneeling beside him

"That's what Snape said."

"Heaven help us, I'm agreeing with that slimy git," said Beatrice.

"My parents were aurors. They were awesome and I'm so useless," he whispered.

"Neville, you're not." Said Beatrice wrapping her arm around his shoulder. "You're kind and good and—"

Ron nudged Hermione. "Let's go," he whispered. "They don't need us here."

Hermione nodded and Ron caught her hand, leading her from the dungeon.

==

When Harry and Edward arrived in McGonagall's office, she wasn't there. 

"I'm sure we have the time right," said Harry.

"Maybe she's just running late," said Edward. "Let's wait."

"McGonagall, late?" said Harry. "We'd better hope we're early. If McGonagall's late, it must be the end of the world—""

A cat dashed by them—a cat Harry recognized, and a moment later, McGonagall called from inside her office. "Come in, gentlemen. I just need to wash my hands and I'll be right with you."

"How did she get inside?" wondered Edward aloud.

"Secret passage?" said Harry.

"Must be."

McGonagall was her tall prim human self as she emerged from the wash room and came to sit behind her desk. "Sit down boys. Tell me how you are getting along. Is there anything you want to ask me?"

"No, ma'am," said both boys simultaneously. 

"I see you've visited the other houses," said McGonagall, addressing Edward. "Are you happy in Gryffindor?"

"Oh, yes, ma'am. I love Gryffindor. Sometimes I find it hard to study in the common room, and have to go to the library, but other than that it's great."

"So it feels like home?"

"Well, no." Edward looked down at his hands and toyed with the edge of his robe. "Home isn't what I wanted it to feel like," he whispered. "It's better than home."

"And Slytherin?" asked McGonagall.

"Well," said Edward. "My brother's in Slytherin and I've been brought up with him. We've always stuck together, and sometimes I worry about him over there." Edward's voice dropped to a whisper. "He's been cursed several times by Draco Malfoy."

Harry frowned. He didn't know that Draco had cursed Edward's brother. He always thought Draco saved his curses for the Gryffindors.

"Yes, I know," said McGonagall. "I understand you've been cursed a few times too."

"Nothing that damaging," said Edward reddening. With a slight smile, he continued. "Remember, I come from a Slytherin household. My grandmother taught me several wards at a very young age. Unfortunately, Draco wasn't happy I was protecting Samara, and that's why he—um—"Edward glanced at Harry and looked uncomfortable. McGonagall seemed to understand his distress.

"Madam Pomfrey told me," said McGonagall. "She's keeping special records of all first years accidents and curses. You have no bitterness over this incident?"

"No, none," said Edward, "I've been told before—by words and curses--that I was—I was told that I was—um—less than a man—or that I was a coward—because—I um--as I said I was raised in a Slytherin household—I" Edward took a deep breath and glanced at Harry. 

"Harry, would you wait in the corridor?" said McGonagall. "I think Edward would rather talk privately—"

"Oh no," interrupted Edward. "Harry can stay. He's my friend. It's just that when the Slytherins say—I have no—um—guts. That's why it was so gratifying to be sorted into Gryffindor, the house of the brave," Edward smiled. "And to be chosen by Harry Potter--that was just an added benefit."

"As a matter of fact," Edward added, "Harry here, suggested that I keep an eye on Samara over in Slytherin, and I was glad he did. I never thanked you for that bit of advice, Harry. Thanks."

"He protected Samara over at Slytherin?" thought Harry. "Why didn't Samara tell me that—thought Harry. Well, it could be because we weren't speaking," thought Harry.

"So you don't think you are a Slytherin?" asked McGonagall.

Edward looked suddenly scared. "No, ma'am," he said quickly. "I mean, I kind of, know how they think, but I don't think I am one."

"And Ravenclaw?" 

"Well, I could almost go to Ravenclaw, just for their library," said Edward with eyes sparkling, "But I think I would prefer to stay in Gryffindor. I can always find someone to go to the library with me, mostly Hermione, or Ginny." Edward looked at his shoes. "She's very nice," he whispered.

"And you told me already about your trip to Hufflepuff," said McGonagall, "How's the painting?"

"It's coming along," said Edward excitedly. "Dean has been helping me with it. It's been quite a holiday," he said and then he got quieter. If Harry didn't know better, he would have interpreted his sudden silence as shyness. "I don't think the Gryffindors who aren't involved in the painting are terribly thrilled about being out of their rooms so much though," he whispered, glancing at Harry. "I was wondering—maybe since there are so many extra rooms—while we are painting those who want to use dorm rooms to study could use one of the empty dorm rooms. I hate for them to be inconvenienced because of my project, but I think they're going to be impressed once it is done."

"I'll consider that," said McGonagall. "Well, if you're happy with Gryffindor, we're happy to have you. You bring us your artistic talent and your intelligence and of course, your bravery."

"Thank you ma'am."

"You may go, gentlemen, unless there is something you wanted to add, Harry?"

"Er—Professor, I'd like to talk to you privately, if you have a moment."

"Certainly, Harry. Welcome to Gryffindor, Edward. If you have any further concerns, my door is always open to my Gryffindors," said McGonagall with a prim smile. The door closed with a click.

"Mr. Potter?" Said McGonagall expectantly. 

"You truly think Edward is a Gryffindor?" Harry blurted.

"Why Mr. Potter? What do you think?"

"I think—I think—" muttered Harry. I think, it was a bloody good act, he thought, but aloud, Harry said, "I don't know what I think. But I know one thing. Dean is painting the wall. Edward doesn't have a Hufflepuff bone in his body."

"What about Ravenclaw?" asked McGonagall. "I understand he's visited there several times."

"Yeah, to read the dark books," muttered Harry.

"Mr. Potter," said McGonagall sharply.

"Professor McGonagall, why are you doing this?" asked Harry. "You don't believe Trelawney any more than—"

"Professor Trelawney," McGonagall corrected. "And you are right Mr. Potter. I have never put much faith in divination, but it does exist. Furthermore, Albus Dumbledore believes Professor Trelawney and Parvati Patil, and that's good enough for me. It should be good enough for you too."

"Yes, ma'am."

McGonagall's face softened. "You seem to have an opinion, Mr. Potter. What is it?"

"I think Edward's a Slytherin," spat Harry.

McGonagall raised her eyebrows. "As I recall, you thought Professor Snape was trying to kill you first year too, when he was trying to save you. Now do you have any facts to tell me or not. As I've said more than once, Divination is a very imprecise branch of magic."

Harry blushed. "I understand, Ma'am." 

Facts thought Harry. What facts did he have? "Ma'am, someone has been lighting fires in Gryffindor common room," said Harry "And some nights, Edward has been out past curfew. In fact," said Harry suddenly on inspiration, "He saw you talking to Sirius in the fire last week."

McGonagall blanched, and then she frowned. "And how do you know this, Mr. Potter?"

"There was no way to get out of it. "Ron and I were going to the library," he muttered. "We forgot to get a book we needed." As soon as he said it, he realized he had made a mistake. He should have said Hermione instead of Ron. Then he could have said they changed their minds because Hermione was a prefect and decided not breaking any rules was more important than getting another book for her report.

"The library is closed after curfew," said McGonagall. 

"I know," answered Harry. " In the end, we decided not to go, but what was Edward doing out of bed?"

"Perhaps looking for you?" suggested McGonagall. 

"Perhaps," said Harry miserably. McGonagall actually believed Edward belonged in Gryffindor.—"

"I'm sure it must be very trying for you, Mr. Potter—Harry—considering the possibility that some Death Eaters could floo into Hogwarts. For your information, the teachers are working on the floo problem. We could have simply closed the floo, but we wanted to be able to keep the fires in the winter. Warming charms on everything would be so tiresome, although Professor Dumbledore said that is what Drumstang does. In any case, if we can find and infiltrate the Death Eaters floo network, we can use this problem to our advantage. I've only told you this because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has targeted you so strongly in the past. I don't have to tell you not to tell anyone this, do I?"

"No, Ma'am."

"McGonagall leaned forward and folded her hands in front of her. "Now, Mr. Potter, today, and on several occasions, Edward Lestrange has been seriously cursed in Slytherin. Harry, you know there is a prophecy that this one child can free the wizarding world. The formula is that this prophecy child will choose a side and whichever side the child chooses will become the victor in our current fight. Mr. Potter, you must understand that choice is you or You-Know-Who. If you reject the overtures of friendship, you may push this child to the Dark. If the prophecy child dies, it looks like the weight may go to the dark, but Professor Trelawney says it's unclear. I don't want you to think I don't see Slytherin traits in Edward, but I also see Gryffindor bravery in his saving Ginny Weasley and now, Samara Donnally and even in his asking me to paint the wall in your dorm room. I know he's spent a lot of time at Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff really impressed him. We talked previously for several hours about how the Hufflepuff wall was brought to life. It is truly an art form to make an animated wall and that he would even consider such a tedious undertaking clearly points to Hufflepuff traits. If he is the prophecy child, with you as his mentor, he is in the most advantageous place he could be, for the Light. The last place we would want him to be is Slytherin. If I had to re-sort him, I would put him in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff."

"I see," said Harry, sudden inspiration hitting him. "He has a pet snake, too. It's in our room and it talks all night."

In addition to his black cat?" McGonagall asked with a frown. "It isn't venomous, is it?"

"No. It's a python, and I haven't seen the cat," said Harry, but Edward said that he and Ethan share the snake. Maybe Ethan has the cat now."

McGonagall nodded. "Perhaps," she said thoughtfully. "Harry, what does the snake say?"

"What does it—I don't know—"Harry shrugged, thinking the teachers must be desperate to be taking advice from a snake. "I try to ignore it. It's annoying when you are trying to sleep."

"Well, I would think that a pet that lived with him, would know quite a bit about him. Why don't you strike up a conversation with this snake and ask it about Edward. Find out what kind of person he is. It has been my experience that animals generally are a good judge of character."

"Pardon?" said Harry. "You want me to ask the snake if he's the prophecy child?"

"Well, you are a parselmouth," said McGonagall. "Although I doubt that the snake would know about the prophecy, it would know about Edward."

Harry nodded, feeling miserable. "I wish I hadn't stood up for him," Harry said. 

"Why did you stand?"

Harry shuffled his feet nervously. "Professor, this might come as a shock to you, but in spite of the fact that divination is my best subject, I don't really believe in most of it myself. I didn't feel anything when I stood. I was just hoping for a good Quiddich player."

"And Edward doesn't want to play Quiddich," said McGonagall softly. "Mr. Potter, the fact that you stood up for him should mean something."

"I don't know what, but I feel—uncomfortable around him."

McGonagall looked at him suddenly. "Has your scar been bothering you, Harry. You are to see Professor Dumbledore immediately if it is. "

"I know professor. My scar has been hurting me all summer, but it doesn't hurt any more when Edward is around—" Ethan is another question, thought Harry.

"In that case, I would like you to make a special effort to be friends with Edward, Harry. If he is the prophecy child, he will need you as his friend. And let me know what the snake says."

What am I now, thought Harry, his bodyguard—messenger-- Great. Just great. And once the snake knew he was a parselmouth, it probably wouldn't let him alone. He had had that trouble with the Dursley's garter snakes this summer. "Yes Ma'am," said Harry as he got up and headed toward the door.

"Harry, has our little talk made you feel better?"

"No," Harry said candidly. "Not really." On the contrary, if Edward is the prophecy child, Trelawney may be right. We're all doomed. "But I will consider what you said."

McGonagall nodded.

When Harry reached the Gryffindor Common room, it was in an uproar. Neville and Bea apparently had just returned from Snape's DADA classroom and Gryffindors were clustered around them asking them questions as they ate a late stolen supper. It seemed like everyone was waiting excitedly to hear the details of their escape.

"It really wasn't that hard," said Neville happily. 

"I'm just proud of your accioing your own wand," said Hermione giving Neville a literal pat on the back. 

"Well, when I couldn't accio Beatrice's wand even though I had my own," said Neville, "I thought maybe Professor Snape had put a spell on them so that no one but the wand's owner could accio it. So Beatrice suggested Samara's adhaere charm. I tried. I really tried, but that didn't work either. So there I am, sticking my wand through the holes in the box. I could touch it with my wand, but I couldn't get it out. It was so frustrating. If I could just get it to stick," I said. "Then Beatrice had the idea."

"What idea?" roared Fred.

"Yeah, tell us already," said George. 

"The Droobles Best Blowing Bubble Gum, you gave her," said Neville.

"Uh-Oh," said Ron.

"Why?" said Beatrice.

"Go ahead. Just get on with the story," urged George.

"Well, I chewed the bubble gum and put it on the end of my wand. It stuck to Beatrice's wand and I lifted it—"

"Tell us about Snape," said Fred.

"Go on. Tell them what happened." Urged Lou.

"Professor Snape almost caught us," said Neville breathlessly. "He came around the corner, just as Beatrice managed to get a grasp on her wand. I stuck mine in my pocket, gum and all." Neville turned his robe pocket inside out. Anyone know how to get gum off of your robes?" he asked grimly.

"Mum uses peanutbutter," said Hermione.

"Ice or a freezing charm," said Lou.

Mrs. Skower's—" began Ron.

"Just tell the house elves," said Fred. "They'll get it clean."

"What did Snape say?" demanded George.

"He said, "That since Beatrice came back to get her wand, and she got out of the ward, even though she did it in a way that he had not thought of, he would give her 5 house points."

"Only five," said Fred sarcastically. 

"It's Snape," said George, "Anytime he isn't deducting points you consider yourself lucky."

  
"Oh like five points would be enough to win the house cup!" said Fred.

My ten were enough to win the house cup first year," said Neville softly.

"Fred, George," interrupted Harry. "What's the charm you put on the Drooble's Best Blowing Bubble Gum?"

The twins grinned evilly at Harry. 

"Gotta go," said George.

"Off to the library," said Fred.

"Levitation charm," confided Ron. "When you blow the first bubble."

"Oh, no," said Beatrice. "I gave some to Samara."

****

MANY THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS: Just a quick note saying "I liked it" or "I hated it" and why would be so-o-o-o helpful. Your little comments keep my muse happy. Please REVIEW. Ten reviews needed before I update. THANKS AGAIN FAITHFUL REVIEWERS.

A/N: Coming soon: Ravenclaw. I know I said that before, but I ended up putting some chapters between—Ravenclaw was originally written right after "The Wall" and then I made some changes, so please be patient. I think it is better for the changes. Also, Slytherin retaliates, next chapter, Draco here. So **review… review**…Also coming: In Harry POV The trio gets Viktor's package and unravels a new string of the prophecy. Then, Quiddich and Hogsmeade—Both with their own hidden dangers. (Muawahaha!) A bit more Neville and his awesome auror parents. And more Ginny/Tom. Lots more Ginny/Tom

==

****

ANSWERS TO REVIEWS:

****

Melbell: Sorry Beauxbatons upset you, but hey, people die in war. And yes, Voldemort is evil. Poor kids.

****

Silverfox: Glad this is your new favorite chapter. Personally I think there is one coming that you will like even better.

****

Harry James Potter: Yes, I know Harry knows Mrs. Figg from before he was a wizard. There will be more Mrs. Figg once they complete the polyjuice potion. Also, I mentioned that Mrs. Figg was the same Mrs. Figg that Harry knew from Privot Drive.

****

Whiteriver: Thanks for the review. I'm honored. Whiteriver is an awesome writer! Read her fics.

****

Trillium: Yeah. Sorta. Don't get me started on JK's fifth book. Email or IM if you want to talk about it. My AIM is carman doogle

****

Whiteriver: I finished OotP pretty fast too. That death, you were talking about—I read it so fast, I had to re-read—Opps? Did he die? Just like that? And what about the "gift" Harry got? Why didn't he use it? IM me and we'll compare thoughts on OotP. I have lots to say, but don't want to say it here. My AIM is carman doogle

****

PyRei: Glad you're sniffling. That was the idea. Yes. Dumbledore talked Rita into a change of heart—sort of--Let me think about some of your comments: "Love Edward"; "Don't trust him"' "Don't make him evil…well…too evil" How should I answer those? Or should I just leave you in the dark—with the rats and the snakes--(Evil laughter—MUWHA-HA-HA!)

==

REVIEW! (Did you review yet? NO? **CRUCIO**!)

==


	34. CH 33: OW Post

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Ow Post

Chapter 33

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor.

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

Ow Post

Chapter 33

When Samara arrived at the owlry on Saturday morning, she was surprised to find Draco, Vincent and Greg there. Draco was holding a small struggling owl in his hand. 

"Don't you ever lose those two?" teased Samara as she looked around for Aggie. Usually, the owl flew to her and began pestering for treats as soon as Samara entered the owlry. 

"Occasionally," said Draco releasing the owl. He turned to his companions. "I'll see you at breakfast," he said and they immediately left, leaving Draco alone with Samara.

He came to her and laid his hand on her shoulder.

"I can't find her," said Samara anxiously.

"Who?"

"Aggie. My owl."

"You can use mine," said Draco. With a sharp whistle, he brought a dark eagle owl to his shoulder.

"No. No. You don't understand," said Samara frantically. I have to find Aggie. I brought her owl treats. I bring them every morning. Something's happened to her."

"Probably someone mistook her for a school owl and sent a letter with her," said Draco.

"No," said Samara. "She won't come to just anyone. She's –not the friendliest creature. I think she was abused. She's very sensitive."

Samara sniffed and wiped her eyes awkwardly. "If somebody hurt her, to spite me—"

"Why would anyone do that?" asked Draco, frowning at Samara's uncharacteristic emotionalism.

"Because they all hate me," said Samara as the tears stared to flow. And she was my only friend."

"Well, thanks," said Draco sarcastically.

"I didn't mean you weren't my friend, but—you're different." Samara walked into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder,

"Than an owl? I would hope so," said Draco his voice filled with barely concealed disgust. After a moment, he awkwardly patted Samara's shoulder. He paused, holding her for a moment and then tried to detach her from his shoulder. "Samara. You're making my robe wet."

"Oh. Sorry." She lifted her face to his and sniffed as she pulled her wand out of her hair. "I think I know a drying spell," she said raising her wand.

"Don't—" began Draco.

****

"Pergo!" she said.

Draco smoothed his robe and looked at Samara. I can't believe you are carrying on like this for an owl. Has she been with your family long?"

"No. I just got her."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure she's fine. She'll probably be back in the owlry later today. You'll see."

"I hope so."

"Let's go. It stinks up here. I guess Filch has trouble climbing up here to clean it. I'll have to remember to suggest it to him for someone's detention." Draco paused. "Well, do something about your red eyes and let's go down to breakfast, shall we?" he said.

"My eyes?" questioned Samara

"Yes," said Draco. "If I walk into the Great Hall with you teary-eyed, I'll probably attract curses from half the Gryffindors."

"You've never struck me as the kind to worry about curses," said Samara.

"Oh, I'm not worried for my account," said Draco. "But after I retaliate, the Griffindors will probably blame the whole thing on you."

That brought a weak smile to Samara's face. The moment dragged into an awkward silence, as Draco stood watching her expectantly. "Well," he said.

"Draco," said Samara softly. "I haven't the foggiest idea how to do a glamour charm."

Draco looked at her in shock. "I thought all girls learned that at age eleven whether they needed it or not—"

"Not this girl," said Samara. "At age eleven I was busy with--other things."

"I'll bet," replied Draco with a wry smile.

"Come to think of it, the only appearance spell I know is **papulae.**"

Draco laughed, "And who was the unfortunate recipient of that spell?"

"Katelyn McCormick."

"What did she do to deserve that?" Draco raised his wand. **"pulchra colos" **he said, clearing her red puffy eyes and blotchy skin.

"Oh she was just a nosy gossip monger. It wasn't bad enough she spread rumors about me, but when she started on my brother—"

"You have a brother?" asked Draco, surprised.

"Three of them—" Samara stopped horrified at what she had said. Her hand flew to her mouth. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She mentally berated herself. Now he was going to ask about her brothers and what could she say? Whatever she said, she was doomed. She would have to tell him she was muggle born. She couldn't see any way out of the predicament. She looked at the owlry floor and the spattered decorations of bird droppings and feathers and scraps and owl treats—What a mess! She felt tears threatening again.

"Samara?" Draco put his hand under her chin and raised her face to his. "And they aren't at Hogwarts?"

Samara shook her head, still trying to look at the floor.

"Because. . . "He said gently, still cupping her chin and trying to get her to look at him. 

Samara finally raised her eyes to his face. His aura was doing something very strange. It was deepening, from it's normal blues and reds to violet and yet, the red overlay, that she thought signified some sort of previous pain, was very, very bright.

"I shouldn't have spoken of them," she said.

"But you did."

She looked into Draco's soft gray eyes and willed herself to lie, to say they were too young, but she couldn't do it. There was such understanding in his aura, that although the red overlay was still there, his actual aura was now blended--almost violet. She could feel his magic around her supporting her, and although she didn't understand it, she couldn't lie. "Because," she whispered in a voice so soft it was barely audible above the cooing of the owls. "Because…They…they…"

"Weren't magical?" finished Draco, an uncharacteristic grayish color invading his aura.

Miserably, Samara nodded. She had tensed waiting for his reaction. She remembered Ginny saying: "He'll drop you so fast—" But he didn't. He enfolded her in his arms and just held her. 

They were still standing in their embrace when Lauren and Pansy came up the stairs. They were joking and levitating a large box, but their laughter came to an abrupt halt when they saw Draco and Samara.

"What's so funny?" asked Samara pulling out of Draco's embrace.

"Nothing," said Lauren.

"Come on," said Samara eyeing their auras. "You're up to something."

"Well, we'll tell you at breakfast," said Pansy. "Right now, we have to hurry to send these before breakfast."

Pansy opened the box, which contained numerous parcels.

"We'll help you," volunteered Samara. "You're never going to get all those done."

Draco hesitated a moment and then smiled. "Why not?" he said as he started tying a parcel on an owl's leg.

"What's all this for?" asked Samara as she began tying.

"McGonagall," answered Lauren unhesitatingly.

"We had detention," added Pansy.

"For what?" asked Samara.

"It's a long story," said Pansy.

"We have a lot of packages," said Samara.

Lauren shrugged as she released an owl. "We were transfiguring pets yesterday. You can imagine what kind of pets most Slytherins have."

"Snakes," Samara surmised.

"Right," said Pansy, "But Mcgonagall said, 'No dangerous pets.' What she classsifies as dangerous and what some Slytherins classify as dangerous are two different things. She warned us not to transform any of the snakes into a venomous variety and actually no one did—"

"Well then why would you get a detention?" asked Samara.

"Wait. Start at the beginning," said Draco "Ethan was trying to accio his pet, but he couldn't get it, so McGonagall gave him a rat, after she gave him a lecture and took off twenty house points for not being prepared. Having a rat among all those snakes was just a recipe for disaster."

"I wouldn't have been a problem if the snakes had all been fed," said Pansy.

"Anyway," continued Lauren, "Vincent Crabbe didn't transform his snake into a venomous snake, it _is a venomous snake_. It's a coral snake. He actually did a pretty nice job with transforming it into a Gardner snake. It looked great, he just forgot to remove the venom. McGonagall was showing the class what a good job he did, when it decided to bite her. She immediately used a charm to slow her blood flow so she really wasn't in any immediate danger, but then she started checking snakes. 

How many were venomous?" asked Samara.

"Eight," said Lauren, but that wasn't the worst part. In the confusion, something ate the rat."

"No it didn't," said Pansy. "It just ran away."

"Anyway," Ethan couldn't find his rat, so Millie decided to help him out. She turned into a cat, and said to use her."

"What!" cried Samara.

"Oh, you didn't know Millicent is an animagus—a black cat," said Draco. "She wasn't even taught by McGonagall. She knew it when she came to school, first year. I don't know if McGonagall even knows for sure."

"She should," said Lauren. "She's an animagus. She should recognize another one, especially a cat."

"But, Millicent said for Ethan to use her?" protested Samara as she tied yet another package on an owl's leg, " She must have a lot of faith in Ethan's transfiguration skills. Plus, wouldn't McGonagall know that she gave Ethan a rat?"

"Well I don't think Millicent was going to trust in Ethan's transfiguration skills. I think she was going to transfigure herself." Said Lauren. "She's really good at transfiguration. McGonagall's always giving her different work. It's the only subject she's good at and McGonagall always gives her stuff that's twice as hard as what the rest of us do. She's even in advanced Transfig—" Pansy shuddered. "As far as McGonagall knowing, Ethan could just say he finally got the pet he was trying to accio."

Samara nodded.

"The problem was, Millicent was lying really still and quiet throughout all of the chaos and at some point, she got bit." Said Lauren. "Ethan realized it, but didn't want to jeopardize his stupid grade by telling McGonagall what had happened. I told him what I thought of him!"

"And McGonagall heard," interjected Draco.

Samara sucked in her breath. "But Millicent could have died!"

"Exactly," said Pansy.

"So you told on him?"

"No, of course not," said Pansy. "I cursed him."

"Pansy! With what curse?"

"The curse of the Bogeys," said Lauren. "All the terrors of hell."

****

"Terricula!" said Pansy. "Ethan screamed so loud that Flitwick came over to see if McGonagall needed help."

Draco chuckled. "Actually, I'm not sure, but I think Ethan and Potter have something in common—their fear of dementers."

"Of course Ethan's terror upset all of the animals—"said Pansy.

"Was Millicent alright?" asked Samara.

"Oh yeah," said Lauren, "But Madam Pomfrey said if Millicent wanted to live in the Infirmary, she would see about moving her bed there." Lauren chuckled.

"I think breakfast has started," said Draco. "We'd better hurry."

"You go ahead. We can finish this," said Pansy. "We only have few more."

"Thanks for the help," said Lauren as Draco turned toward the door.

"I have my broom," said Samara pointing the other way. "Well, not exactly mine, but—"

"You aren't allowed to fly up here," said Draco.

"Well, since I'm in the tower right there—" Samara pointed toward her room. "It seemed ridiculous to walk down the steps from one tower and up the steps to the other tower. Do you want a ride down to the ground or not?"

"Sure. Be careful though. If we're seen, we'll probably both get in trouble." Draco hesitated. "Have breakfast at Slytherin table today," he said as he threw his leg over the broom and sat behind her. 

"I don't know—"

But Draco didn't wait for her answer. He wrapped one arm around her and kept the other on the broom as he kicked off from the owlry floor, lifted into the air and then with the precision of a seeker, dropped in a steep dive toward the castle wall.

"Hey, I was flying," complained Samara.

"You don't know where we're going." Said Draco, flying directly toward the stone wall. "open the secret door," he said and banked sharply into a wide tunnel and spoke **Alohomora!** At another blank wall and dropped to the floor beside his bed. He tossed the broom on the bed and started back out through the opening he had made, pulling Samara with him.

"That's not my broom. I can't just leave it here."

"We'll get it later," Draco promised as they started down the corridor. "I suppose I shouldn't leave that as alohomora now that you've seen it from the outside. Snape will have my head if he realized I did that."

"You made the passageway?" 

"Not the passageway. Just the opening. That's why I chose this room. It's been my room for four years now. We're still in the dungeon, but not in the passworded part of Slytherin," said Draco. "Do you know where we are?"

Samara looked around and shook her head. "I'm not sure. Potions is that way, right?"

Draco laughed. "No," he said pointing in the opposite direction "That way."

"I guess that secret door won't matter, then. I'm lost," laughed Samara. "You know, if someone blindfolded me and put me in this maze down here, I may never get out."

"Oh, I'd come and find you," said Draco. "This corridor leads to the Great Hall, but there's a short cut." He squeezed behind a suit of armor to an unlit side passageway. 

Samara stopped and Draco halted an arm's length in front of her. "Come on," he began, but she slid her arms around his neck, feeling his silky hair against her fingers in the dark.

He lowered his head and kissed her, the faint spark of his magic rippling along her senses, and then he broke away. "Come on," he said, tugging her along. 

When they came out of the tunnel they were in the Entrance Foyer outside of the Great Hall. The Foyer was empty except for a pair of Ravenclaws who ignored them. Most of the school students were already at breakfast. Samara hung back, pulling her hand out of his clasp.

"Draco—I don't know if I should sit at the Slytherin Table—"

"Of course you should," said Draco, turning and recapturing her hand. He was warm and his magic was playing over her fingertips, tempting her.

"I—" She pulled away again, but the warm feeling of his magic stayed with her.

Draco turned to face her, his hands jammed into his robe pockets as if to keep them from shaking her. His eyes bored into hers and his aura deepened. "Samara," he said with soft intensity. "You should sit at the Slytherin Table."

"You should," repeated Draco, his voice and aura made her feel somewhat dreamy. "I want you to—"

"OK." She said and with some reservations, she walked with him to the Slytherin table. She felt the trio's eyes on her, accusing her of being a traitor even though Draco wasn't touching her. Vincent moved out of his usual seat beside Draco to let her sit there, and Edward sauntered over to the Slytherin table. 

"Hi Samara," he said. "Mind if I sit here?" He indicated the seat on the other side of her.

"Yes, she minds," said Draco. "Pansy's sitting there. Go sit by your brother."

Edward shrugged and moved down the table to Ethan.

"I didn't mind Edward sitting there," said Samara, once Edward was out of earshot.

"I mind," said Draco.

"Jealous?" whispered Samara.

Draco snorted in disbelief, but Samara studied his aura, trying to figure out what he was up to—

Pansy and Lauren entered the Great Hall and sat in the seats that Draco had saved for them. They had barely begun to eat when the post owls started to arrive. 

Everything at the Slytherin table said "Anticipation." Everyone's aura seemed to light up with excitement, and then Samara looked at the owls—there were dozens—maybe hundreds—more owls than she had ever seen at one breakfast and most of them were going to the Gryffindor table. She suddenly recognized the little packages—they were the same ones that she and Draco and Pansy and Lauren had sent this morning from the owlry. Why would someone send an owl when they could—The truth of it hit her then. 

It was a joke of some kind to get even for the Dragon Breath Mints. She stood, but before she could do anything, Draco spoke. "Mutus!" he said. 

Then an owl fluttered down beside her. It was Aggie! In her excitement to see Aggie safe and sound, she temporarily forgot everything else. She began petting Aggie and Draco **Acchioed** the package from the owl's leg. Without another word, he crushed it and set an **Impedimenta **Charm around it as a soft silver smoke rose from the remains under the charm.

"On--three, two, one," whispered Pansy.

Pandemonium broke out at the Gryffindor table. Ron Weasley began coughing up spiders as big as his hand. His skin was covered with boils. 

Apparently, Harry Potter was close enough to get the boils too as well as some sort of dancing curse. He was hopping about like a marionette, in fact, he hopped right up on the table and continued dancing between the plates. 

"Think Potter's getting enough attention yet?" muttered Goyle. 

Draco sniggered. "Sh-h-h-" he hushed Goyle. "I want to see Granger."

Hermione looked all right at first glance. She wasn't close enough to Ron to get the boils, although she was beating away the spiders that Ron was puking. 

Parvati and Lavender had sprinted away from the spiders and were scratching themselves. They were so hysterical with their itching that it didn't seem to matter to them which body part they were scratching. Then Samara saw the warts that were popping up on Lavender's face and arms. Parvati shrugged her shoulder up apparently to scratch better, but the shoulder stayed that way, growing a huge lump and disfiguring her into a hunchback.

Ginny was apparently close enough to get the warts too. The box in front of her ignited, setting her robes on fire with bright blue flames. Immediately a deluge of water fell from Ginny also dousing the surrounding Gryffindors, squelching the flames even though they hadn't burned her. Neville's box simply blew up, covering him and Lou and their dishes with soot. They didn't appear to be burned though. Both Colin and Dennis Creevy were crying that they were blinded and then seeing nothing but spots in front of their eyes. McGongall tried to assure them that she knew the potion and they weren't permanently blinded. 

Hermione's scream pierced the air, and Draco sniggered with laughter. She apparently had just run her hand through her hair and the entire middle section of her hair fell out. She now had a shiny bald spot the width of her hand. She apparently tried to hold the hair on her head, because she put both hands of either side of her head, which caused the rest of her hair to fall out. Although her head was now shiny bald, she was not totally devoid of hair. Her nose hair was growing at a alarming rate, curling and bushing almost as much as what used to grow on her head.

By now the Slytherin table was howling with laughter and it appeared that every single Gryffindor got a curse box of some kind.

Draco removed Samara's mutus charm and the first thing out of her mouth was "Beatrice!" She didn't see her. Where was she? She didn't see her anywhere at the Gryffindor table. Finally she spotted her under the Hufflepuff table. She was in her animagus form.

Edward was just standing at the Slytherin table next to his brother. He was holding his unopened little package. The tiny owl, that Samara now recognized as Ron's owl, Pig was splashing about on the table spilling pumpkin juice, water, tea and generally making a mess. No one was paying any mind to the little nuisance.

"Don't open it!" shouted Samara.

"He's not that stupid," said Draco.

Edward tossed the box into the air. "Incendio!" he said, and Samara missed exactly what happened next because Draco grabbed her around the neck and shoved her under the table. The other Slytherins also dove for cover. Edward's screech of absolute agony echoed above all of the noise at the Gryffindor table and then the lower half of the Slytherin table exploded showering anyone nearby with food and bits of plates and wood. Edward was still screaming. "What on earth had they done?" thought Samara as she pulled from Draco's grasp and crawled out from under the table. The healer in her would not let her remain unharmed when Edward was so obviously in pain. She reached him just before Professor Snape did and she tried to reach out—to touch him—to help him—to heal him, but there was no where to touch. Drops of some sort of acid had spattered all over him and it was eating straight through his robes, his skin—Samara knew exactly what this was. It was the sap from that plant in potions. Left alone it would continue to eat through to muscle and bone—

His skin was already fraught with raw open sores where the acid was still burning. He had stripped off his robes and was working on the clothes he wore underneath. His aura was a turbulent gray like storm clouds.

****

"Frigidus!" Spat Snape. **"Somnus!"**

Edward's hysterical screeching finally was silenced. His aura was immediately calmer. Without a word, Snape levitated him and sped him on his way to Madam Pomfrey.

The whimpering and crying from the Gryffindor table seemed subdued after Edward was taken from the Great Hall. His robes were still lying on the floor smoking from the hot acid that had spattered them.

Dumbledore stood, his voice amplified with the Sonorus spell. "No one may leave this room, except for those who need medical attention. Professor McGonagall, please organize the triage at the Gryffindor table." Dumbledore turned toward the Slytherins. "I warned the entire school that these pranks would cease or their would be unpleasant repercussions. You have ignored my warning."

"He said Dinner time pranks," whispered a Slytherin on the other side of Draco. "This is Breakfast—"

"One hundred points will be deducted from Slytherin house," continued Dumbledore, "And each of you will copy two sets of notes today in all of your classes. One will be for yourself and the other will be for one of the cursed Gryffindors. You will hand the notes to your professors before supper this evening and the professors will be sure the notes are accurate. If they are not, you will do them over again correctly."

Several more Slytherins started to mutter under their breath. When we got our mouths fried, we still had to get our own make up work."

"No one took notes for us."

The muttering got louder. "No one took house points off of Gryffindor when they burned our mouths."

"Dumbledore is so unfair."

"It's not as bad as when he took the House Cup off of us four years ago," said one of the sixth year Slytherins. The entire group of fifth, sixth and seventh years seemed to join in the complaints, and the whispering grew louder.

"No one got hurt that bad. We should have toasted them good--"

"Everyone except Edward just got jokes—"

"And Edward was the one responsible!"

"SILENCE!" Roared Dumbledore. "In addition, Slytherin House will not have access to the Quiddich Pitch for the rest of this week."

"What!"

"But we have a game coming up!" said Draco.

"You should have thought of that before you played your little prank, Mr. Malfoy," said Dumbledore. "Be glad I'm not banning Slytherin from Quiddich altogether. That is all." Dumbledore walked over to the Gryffindor table to check injuries while the Slytherins sullenly began to eat.

Beatrice darted over to the Slytherin table and then transformed into a witch. She was about as angry as Beatrice got. "What is it?" asked Samara.

"This," said Beatrice. She was glaring at Lauren and Pansy, and speaking in a low venomous voice. "I treated you as friends. Everyone in Gryffindor said, 'You can't trust a Slytherin," but I told them they were wrong. I can trust Pansy and Lauren. You can't just lump all the Slytherins together and call them all evil. They are individuals. Pansy and Lauren are my friends. I was wrong. You don't know the meaning of the word friend."

"What is wrong with you, Beatrice?" asked Samara. "You didn't even get a curse."

"Not because they didn't try!" shot Beatrice. "Anyway, this is my fault!"

"Your fault? How can it be your fault?" asked Samara.

"Because every single one of those curse boxes was inhaled wasn't it? You got the idea from my puffer."

Sheepishly, Lauren nodded. "It was just too good to pass up," said Lauren. 

"The only one that wasn't was Edward's." added Pansy. "Ethan said he would incendio the box. He was right. And then, Draco thought of getting that retarded Weasley owl—"

Beatrice turned her attention to Samara. "Are you coming over to Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw this morning?" she asked.

"No," said Samara softly. "I think I may stay in Slytherin for a while."

Beatrice rolled. Her eyes. "You'd better take a hard look at the type of wizarding families you make friends with," she told Samara. "Some wizarding families are better than others, you know." Her dark brown eyes met Draco's and he said nothing as she turned and walked away.

"You have nothing to say to her?" questioned Samara surprised. 

"Never argue with a Hufflepuff," said Draco. "It's against my code of honor to attack an unarmed witch."

"What!" said Samara. "You have no code of honor."

"Samara!" said Draco. "I'm hurt. Of course I have a code of honor."

"It's just a really hard code to crack," said Pansy laughing.

"And she's not a Hufflepuff. A Hufflepuff wouldn't have confronted you," said Samara.

"Really?" asked Draco. "Do you think I'm that formidable?"

Samara burst out laughing as they headed for the Slytherin Common Room.

Several others were reading or practicing spells. Vincent and Greg had a game of Exploding Snap going, Millicent was trying to find someone to do some homework for her.

"It's too crowded in here," Draco complained.

"Depends upon what you want to do," said Samara with a twinkle in her eye.

""Hmmm," said Draco, as he pulled her into his arms. 

"I have a favor to ask you," Samara whispered against his ear.

"What's that?"

"Can you teach me how to do a glamour spell?"

"I can't believe that you don't know how to do a glamour charm or a cooling charm, but you had no trouble at all with the wandless crucio," teased Draco.

"S-h-h!" she hissed. "Lower your voice! I can't believe you said that!"

"What? Glamour charm or cooling charm?"

"Draco!" Samara whispered in exasperation.

"We're in Slytherin common room, not Gryffindor," said Draco. "No one cares what curses you've done."

"But—"

"Do you want to practice this, or something else," asked Draco, nuzzling her neck. "You could just wait and ask Parvati."

"No. I want to practice it. I don't want to have to ask the Gryffindors for anything. Look at me. I'm in the Slytherin common room and no one is cursing me because of the Dragon Breath Mints, but half the Gryffindors think I'm the devil incarnate because I've spoken to you. They probably think I sent all the owls this morning."

"Not even Gryffindors are that dumb," said Draco. "You would have needed a cloning potion first to send that many owls yourself." Draco backed away from her and held his wand loosely in his hand. "Are they really still mad at you?"

Samara nodded.

"Well, like I said before—it's their loss—now about that glamour charm. It's really as simple spell," he said.

"It wasn't in my book, and I never thought of it. Even if I did I would have been afraid of messing up my face and not being able to get it back right again."

"Where was your mother, girl?" said Draco. "No. I did NOT ask that. I refuse to talk about parents, my own included."

Samara giggled. 

"**Pulchra colos** is what I used to negate the red around your eyes this morning. Beautiful colors. You can also use beautiful or handsome face. Probably the best word for face is** facies** but you have to be careful about your intent because **facies** can also mean character. Now if you are really in a bad way, you would want to use **dissimulatum aspectum, **but that's only for use after—well, something like crucio. Gryfindors don't have to worry about that one, though, do they. Remember, glamour spells usually only last for about an hour, sometimes two if it is pretty strong. Although one of the Slytherins said—" Draco paused. "I probably shouldn't tell you that—" 

"What? Now you have my curiosity raised. You have to tell me!"

Draco grinned at her and shrugged. "That Parvati's glamour charm lasted all night."

"Oh," said Samara. Then she blushed as she realized what Draco meant. "Parvati?" she said. "He was sure it wasn't Padma?" 

"Have you ever seen Padma with a glamour charm? The girl barely combs her hair."

Samara's eyes narrowed. "And she went on and on to me about how she would never date a Slytherin. When was this?"

Draco shrugged. "January, I think. Are you going to try this spell or not?"

"**Pulchra facies**," said Samara pointing the wand just under her own nose. 

'Mmmmm. Very nice," said Draco, touching her cheek, and then kissing it.

"So who taught you to do this spell? Your mum?"

"Yeah," said Draco. "My mum taught me most of what I learned before Hogwarts. Dad was—No. Wait a minute. We're not talking about parents. Remember? Mine are horrific."

"Mine too," said Samara.

"So when did you first do magic?" Draco asked.

"Oh, I don' t know." Answered Samara. "How about you?" 

OH I remember that vividly. I wasn't more than a year old. I remember because it was right after my birthday."

"When's your birthday?" Samara interrupted.

"November."

"Scorpio. I should have known."

Draco smiled. "Anyway, my parents had been out, and the house elves had just gotten me to fall asleep. I never slept well when my parents were out."

Samara nodded.

"Mum came home and woke me—"

"She woke you?"

"Yes, Dad was furious at her. He said it could wait until morning--that it had been an eventful day and she needed her rest as well as I did, but she got it into her head that I had to do magic. When Mum gets something into her head like that, no one changes her mind. I finally realized that I would get to go back to sleep if I did what she wanted. I think I broke the bedroom mirror."

"Seven years bad luck," said Samara.

"That's exactly what Dad said," replied Draco laughing.

"How about you? Don't you remember when you first did magic?"

"Well I do remember little things, but nothing really stands out— sometimes I feel like I've always done magic."

"I believe it," said Draco, his soft gray eyes boring into hers. He wet his lips with the tip of his tongue, his fingers playing with the edges of her hair at her waist. She leaned closer and he captured her lips in a gentle kiss. Everything about it was soft and gentle, as if asking forgiveness for his abruptness with her yesterday. He never said the words, but Samara was sure he was sorry for how 

he had treated her. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back.

==

****

Liz Carras: Less Ginny/Tom? Well I guess it will continue at about the same amount. A chapter or two of Gryffindor and a Chapter of "the others". Sometimes Ginny will be in the Gryffindor stuff and somethimes not, but well, Tom is an integral part of the story, so he stays. Yes, Ginny will soon get the idea of how to do that wandless magic, with or without Tom.

****

Reiven: I love it. Yes, Harry does seem quite sure that Eddie—is Slytherin. And yes to all the Lestrange stuff, except that, when this story was conceived, JK didn't have a 5th book, and the Lestrange woman in JK's book didn't have a first name. I called her Valeriana—for a reason, so I can't change her name to Bellatrix. Anyway I don't like Bellatrix much as a name--same woman, different in my mind than JK's of course. And which death confuses you? One of mine? Or one of JK's? And of course cold hearted is in the eye of the beholder or the mind of the reader, I should say. After all Lestrange called herself "loyal" to the Dark Lord. Yes, Harry was a little nasty there wasn't he. Well that was to make up for all the people that hated Ginny saying what a sweetheart he was. Guess we all have a little bit of both--Did you like the Samara/Draco stuff here? At the end of the chapter, I wondered how many people realized that Samara's broom is still in Draco's room. Hmmm. I thought about sending them back to get it--Well, it's PG-13. 

I wondered if anyone would question the black cat. Answered in the above chapter. What did the Slyths do to make McGonagall so mad—well you have to realize she gets them on Friday right after their "field trips" to the Dark Lord. They aren't in the best of moods.

****

Silverfox: Yes, poor Gregory. Who goes on a trip to burn out the "enemy" and gets themselves fried? OPPs. Oh well, as Alvin said, lack of brains…And the twins can take a joke even if Samara can't. More Bea the Bunny coming up. Read Silverfox. Her fics are very good

****

Slytherin's Silver Snake: Thanks for the vote of confidence. Read Slytherin's Silver Snake. Good stuff.

****

Trillium: Well, less said about the 5th book the better. Don't want to ruin it for those who haven't read it yet, but I'm thinking of this as the 5th book now. Hey, it's mine! About Samara-Yeah, she was pretty abrupt with the twins. Good thing they can take a joke. About McGonagall—Were you really surprised that she would go along with Snape's bunny plan? Well, remember, Snape told McGonagall that Neville had already acchoed his wand. He just needed a compelling reason to do it again. But Neville's sensitive. It hurt his feelings more than it should have. After all, like they tried to tell him, McGonagall wouldn't use a real bunny! Of course, remember she had no problem turning hedgehogs into—what—water goblets? And those were real hedgehogs! Does that kill the hedgehog?

Fallen Angel of Darkness: Edward is very glad that you think he's the prophecy child. Glad you like the G/T bits.

Kemenran: Here's what happens now. You check everyday, and review and when there are 10 or more reviews you get a new chapter.

==REVIEW. Do it right now, while you are thinking about it. 10 reviews=one new chapter.

****

Special thanks to the above reviewers who are just great and always have a bit of insight for me. READ THEIR FICS.

--Lady Lestrange

****


	35. CH 34 Ravenclaw and More

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Ravenclaw and More

Chapter 34

(A/N: I know, I have to come up with a good name for this chapter. So this is your review challenge. Help me out. Think of a good name, and you get a yummy picture of your choice: Tom, Draco Harry or Ginny under an Invisibility cloak.)

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things--

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

Ravenclaw and more

When Samara entered Ravenclaw common room on Sunday evening, the first thing that struck her was the stark spaciousness of the room.

"Is your common room bigger than the other house's common rooms?" asked Samara.

I don't know," replied Lisa "I've never been in the other common rooms."

"Oh right," said Samara "Well, it looks bigger—It could be because its so neat," said Samara.

"Well, these are cupboards for the books and games, so usually, unless they are in use, they are put away.

"Are you coming with me?" Samara asked Lisa Turpin. "If you want me to," replied Lisa. I do have some homework though, if you don't mind. I'd rather catch up with you at 10:15 in the library.

"OK" said Samara. She smiled at Mandy Brocklehurst, whose aura was a soft, patient blue. She was conducting the tour for Samara, Edward, and Gloria Snood, a first year, from Slytherin. . "I'm sorry," Mandy said. "I tried to find someone else to help, so that you wouldn't have to be together, but no one else is available on such short notice."

"Help with what?" asked Samara confused.

"Well," she looked anxiously at Edward. "After yesterday, we weren't sure you'd want to be too near a Slytherin. Are your burns healed?"

"A little sore still," replied Edward. Pushing up his right sleeve, to reveal a spattering of burn marks. "Madam Pomfrey says they shouldn't scar. But I'm lucky that Professor Snape was so quick thinking." He glanced at Gloria. "And I think I can keep Gloria in line."

"I think it's very generous of you to be so forgiving," said Mandy.

"It wasn't Gloria's fault," said Edward. 

"Well, a lot of people just lump all the Slytherins together. It's nice to see someone who looks at the individual." Mandy gestured broadly. "This of course, is the Common Room. In here," said Mandy opening cupboards, "Are some games When we don't have too much homework they're fun to work on—Of course, this year I have OWLS so I doubt I'll be able to do a lot of game playing, First and second years usually like them though." 

Mandy shut the cupboard and discussed how the cupboards receded magically within the wall to allow more space. Actually," she said, looking at Gloria. "I believe the cupboards and quite a number of the games were made by your Big Sister's father, Marshall Avery.

He had the highest number of OWLS in his class—then he was beaten out of the highest NEWTS by one point.

"How about that," said Gloria "Who beat him?"

"We don't say his name," replied Mandy.

Really? Said Samara. "Voldemort was that smart?"

Mandy frowned. "That's right," she said. It was the only year in more than a century that Ravenclaw didn't take the most OWLS _and_ the most NEWTS. Bits of tan invaded her aura as she spoke.

"Let's continue up to the sleeping quarters," said Mandy and then we'll go to the place where you probably are most anxious to see—The Library."

"This is my room," said Mandy as she opened the door to a closet sized room just big enough for a bed, wardrobe and bookcase. It was painted ivory and had several wizard posters on the walls. "The rooms are arranged in pods," Mandy explained. "Six girls share a bathroom in the center."

"Six?" said Samara.

"In Slytherin, one would get the bath, the other five would get cursed," said Gloria.

"We have a schedule," said Mandy haughtily, and Samara had the definite feeling that Mandy was looking down on Gloria as if she were a lower life form.

"I wish we had a schedule in Gryffindor," said Samara. "We can never get Parvati and Lavender out of the bathroom. Hermione can brush her teeth with just a glass of water—no sink—She's amazing."

"I guess Rowena Ravenclaw realized that her students would need quiet and privacy for study," said Mandy, "and that they could share a bathroom. How many share a room in Slytherin?"

"Four," said Gloria

"I don't think it matters in Gryffindor," said Edward. "The more the merrier."

"How do you study?" asked Mandy.

"With difficulty," replied Edward.

Mandy led them to another small room. "I don't know if you've ever seen one of these," she said. "It's actually a muggle invention, but Professor Flitwick's great grandfather, Fergus Flitwick charmed it to obey summoning and banishing charms. It's called a lift. I don't believe any of the other houses have combined magic and muggle technology, although the house elves have a lift to take food up to Professor Trelawney in the North Tower. Fergus Flitwick designed that lift too."

Mandy continued talking as the lift, well, lifted them. "We are going to the conservatory—" she said. Plants in wild array filled the room. Mandy stopped and the threshold and gestured inside. "Unlike the greenhouse," Mandy continued, "This room contains many rare plants that are not available anywhere else. Honors students, Seventh years take care of it. You have to take at least one year of Advanced Herbology and pass a test to tend these plants.. We are not permitted to enter. Mandy let the door fall shut and continued onward.

"There's no wards?" asked Gloria

"No," said Mandy simply. "It's forbidden. Next door is the Chapel," she said. 

Samara felt an immediate sense of peace when she entered the room. Again it is a charmed room," said Mandy. "Your troubles are attracted by the foyer and left there. Here, many Ravenclaws can find peace and serenity—except at finals time—then it is more crowded than the library.

Rowenna Ravenclaw believed that magic was a Divine Gift. She felt that if we failed to be thankful for it, generations in the future, the magic would be taken from us. Apparently she knew what she was talking about," said Mandy, "Ravenclaw is the only house that has not produced squibs—You've probably heard that in Slytherin," she addressed Gloria who nodded. 

"Ravenclaws don't _ever_ produce squibs?" asked Edward.

"That's correct," said Mandy. "No squibs have ever been born to a Ravenclaw mother or a Ravenclaw father. Now, about the Chapel—Rowenna felt that if a witch or a wizard could connect themselves to the Energy of the Universe, not through manipulation, but through meditation and thanksgiving, even squibs could find small talents within themselves. You've probably heard of muggles with a slight aptitude for telepathy or precognitive powers  


Tapping into that power with the most precision possible is the primary purpose of the Chapel. Although there are always a few who neglect to study and try to rely on the chapel for answers. It never works that way," said Mandy

Here are the Mirrors of Life," said Mandy. They are passed down to the Head of house." One was on each side of the altar—an altar that looked much like an ordinary desk, thought Samara and she said so to Mandy.

"The simple is always profound," said Mandy. "By doing ordinary tasks with extraordinary care, we elevate our abilities. Shoddiness always leads to despair."

"Shoddiness/" questioned Gloria.

"Sloppiness—just getting by—" explained Mandy.

"Any work worth doing is worth doing well and with care—more than that—in fact—with your whole Spirit. Always doing your best brings peace to your soul, even if you fail. Doing less than your best ultimately leads to unhappiness and despair—you will have regrets about your life. If you can look back and say 'I did my best,' you cannot have regrets. It's the code of life, Rowenna Ravenclaw lived by and those in Ravenclaw attempt to emulate her."

Samara nodded. This made sense to her.

Mandy glanced at her watch. "I need to get you down to the library," she said.

"What about the mirrors?" asked Edward.

I'll explain on the way," said Mandy as she summoned the lift with her wand. "The silver one is the mirror of the past—Look into it at any given time and see the events of the past that shaped your personal history. "Ones who do not learn from the past make the same mistakes over and over again."

The golden mirror is the mirror of the present—where we should all live, unburdened by mistakes of the past and unconcerned with the worries of the future.

"Is there a future mirror?" asked Edward.

"Well there are rumors that there once was—"

"What happened to it?" asked Samara.

Mandy glanced at Gloria and then continued. "It is just conjecture, mind you, but rumor has it that Rowenna Ravenclaw smashed it over Salazar Slytherin's head when he insisted that the future he saw was faulty. "She told him to stop worrying over the future and live his best in the present. Then the future may be more to his liking."

"Rather feisty, wasn't she?" said Edward.

"It's just conjecture," said Mandy. "But Rowenna Ravenclaw is famed to have had somewhat of a temper when crossed. She had definite values of right and wrong. One of her many mottoes was: 'Live well in the present and the future will take care of itself.' She felt that there were no accidents. What you got out of life, you drew to yourself by your will and your actions. 

"What did Salazar Slytherin see?" asked Samara. "In the mirror--According to conjecture—"

Mandy bit her lip and glanced at Gloria again. "The end of his line," she said softly. "At least the wizarding version—all that counted in Salazar Slytherin's eyes. He accused Rowenna of tampering with it as a joke. As if she would joke--"

"Maybe it was just bad luck," said Gloria softly. "Every seven generations—although a few make it to ten—"

"Perhaps," said Mandy thoughtfully. "We're at the Library. Terry Boot is today's library aide. He can summon any book you want. If you would like to study privately, he can give you the test." Mandy turned to go. "Terry will take care of you from here." 

"You have to take a test to study?" asked Samara, looking at Terry. He was tall and aristocratic with sandy brown hair and vivid blue eyes that nearly matched his aura. 

Terry nodded. "It's a simple test. To study independently with only one partner, you have to be able to do a stunning charm with either hand. We have some carnivorous books. Also you have to be able to do specific summoning charms. It's disastrous to summon a book if you don't know the exact title. You could be buried alive in books on similar subjects. Also, your partner doesn't have to actually be working with you on a project. They just have to be in close proximity to you in case you get into trouble. First years may not partner with another first year, in case they both panic, and if you come into the library alone, you can always join a group of two at their table. It isn't to undermine your privacy. It is just for safety's sake."

After they were tested, they began browsing. Terry Boot stayed close at hand because he said although except for Gloria, they were not the age of first years, their experience was still limited.

Several other students were in the library, but only two came over and introduced themselves: Cho Chang and her friend Ananda Fawcett. From Cho's aura, Samara got the feeling of mistrust. "So you are considering if you belong in Ravenclaw?" said Cho Chang, looking narrowly at Edward. "Haven't Lestranges been in Slytherin for years?" 

"Yes," said Edward, "But Patils and Averys have been in Ravenclaw for years too and this year you've lost two of them, one to Gryffindor and one to Slytherin. I just hoped to make up the difference."

Cho looked at Edward like he was something nasty she had picked up on her shoe—and she was determined to scrape it off. "I don't believe that you or your companions are equal to the task," she said coldly. "Anyway, we already have Morag McDoogle. His father was a Slytherin."

Samara had edged away and found a book called _Averys of the Age_, and she showed it to the others. Lisa Turpin entered with about twenty books slung over her back. She waved at Samara as she put her books on a table. 

"There have always been Averys in Ravenclaw," said Lisa, joining the conversation.

"Professor Flitwick must have been surprised when Lauren Avery was sorted into Slytherin," said Samara.

"Surprised isn't the word I would use," interjected Terry. "Appalled. Horrified--For generations, Averys have been among the brightest of the Ravenclaws. Then Lauren tells the Sorting Hat she wants to be in Slytherin. What a waste," said Terry Boot.

"She asked the Sorting hat to put her in Slytherin?" asked Samara.

"Undoubtedly," said Cho. "Of course an Avery would be a Ravenclaw."

"I agree with Cho," said Terry. "She had to ask for Slytherin— Of course, she wasn't the one to start it. That was Marshall, her father, even though he was sorted into Ravenclaw. I did a research paper on him last year for Muggle studies—the Interrelationship of Muggle Devices and Magical Artifacts."

"What do you mean?" asked Edward.

"Marshall Avery was a Ravenclaw, but he thought that Slytherins were misunderstood. He wrote his Graduation Thesis on the Psychology of why such a large number of Slytherin Wizards go Dark. A number of Slytherins were interviewed including Laurel Doogle. She decided to melt his cold demeanor—In short, she seduced him and got pregnant."

"Obviously, that wasn't all the fault of the Slytherin girl," spat Gloria, looking at Cho, who glared back at her as if she wanted to curse her on the spot.

Ananda chuckled.

Terry glanced at Gloria and apparently decided that her comment did not need to be replied to. He continued: "Marshall Avery felt he owed his unborn child, his protection. That child was Lauren. So he married Laurel and most everyone thought they'd divorce as soon as the child was born, but she took him to her Dark Lord, and for the safety of the child, he—changed. Some say he gave his life to Voldemort. Of course, he wasn't the first. Snape's grandmother was an Avery too. Slytherins have always courted Avery's because of—" He glanced at Edward and Samara and frowned. "Certain genetic conditions," he continued hesitantly "And the arrangements gave the Averys license to pursue research that others considered--on the edge."

"Well, I always say—if you're not living life on the edge—you're taking up too much space," said Edward.

Samara laughed. "Well, I'll never have that problem. " she said All the Gryffindor's think I'm on the edge—some think I'm over the edge—"

"Why's that?" asked Gloria.

"Well, I learned most of my magic from a book."

"Oh, that book," said Gloria. "The one you had in Slytherin on Friday?"

Samara nodded.

"Really? What book?" asked Terry, his eyes alight with interest, bits of gold suddenly flashing in the deep indigo blue of his aura.

"It's our Advanced History book: Current Achievements in Modern Dark Magic," she said. "You're in that class."

Cho eyed the book suspiciously. "Why would you choose to read a book on Dark Magic?" she asked.

"Professor Binns chose it," interrupted Lisa.

"It's fascinating," said Samara.

"Yes, isn't it?" said Terry. "But that book isn't exactly a beginner's text. I doubt I could have read it and understood it as an eleven-year-old. And how did you keep from getting bitten?"

"Oh, my book is dead," said Samara. "So I didn't have to worry about it biting me, but there were parts that just eluded me. Of course, when I found something I could understand—Oh that made all the difference! For a while, I could only do the must rudimentary wandless magic—until I made my wand—"

"You've done wandless magic!" said Terry 

"You made your wand!" exclaimed Lisa at the same time. "I didn't know that, Samara. May I see?"

"Yes and yes," laughed Samara, pulling her wand from her hair and handing it to Lisa.

Cho took several steps backward, but her friend Ananda wasn't put off.

Lisa examined the wand. "Yew, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Samara.

"It's pretty small. What made you choose such a short wand?" Ananda asked.

"9 and a half inches," said Samara. I started out at fifteen inches, but it felt too long, so I cut it, and then I cut it again, and when it finally started to feel about right in my hand, I started using a file and then sandpaper. I did think I might have gotten it too short, because I didn't have a core."

"What's the core, now?" asked Terry.

"It doesn't have a core. It has a magical infusion. There's a process. It's on page 643 of the textbook. It talks about the difference between wands with a core, coreless wands, and wands infused with magic.

"I saw that process," said Lisa. "So what's it infused with?"

"Donno—It was just some dust that was in my book," said Samara.  


"What!" Exclaimed all four Ravenclaws .

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?" asked Edward. "What if it was something that would possess you when you used the wand?"

"It isn't.  


"Some substances could kill you when combined with magic," said Terry "Did you know that unicorn hair is the only part of the unicorn that can be used in a wand?"

"I didn't know that," said Gloria, still looking at Samara.

"I'm still alive," said Samara. "Some of the Slytherins think it was a snake skin. Boomslang maybe. It was in my book. There's a stain."

"Couldn't be boomslang," said Lisa. "It's not magical."

"I'd love to see it," said Terry. "May I?"

"Sure. I'll bring it next time I come to Ravenclaw."

"No," said Terry. "I meant, may I summon it?"

"What?"

Terry went up to the podium that Samara had up to this point not really noticed. "I'll need your permission," said Terry. "It's your book."

"You have my permission."  


"No. Come here. Repeat after me." Terry placed her wand hand on the podium along with his hands. "**Acchio!** Samara Donally's Advanced History Book, Current Achievements in Modern Dark Magic."

Samara repeated the statement and as if by—well—magic—the book appeared on the podium. She looked at it. It was her book. "Wow," she said. "That was great."

"Hold on--" she said, her eyes narrowing. "So that's why all the Ravenclaws always get all the good books out of the library when we have a report due."

"Guilty," said Terry with a lopsided smile.

"Well, now that I know, I want my share of those books," said Samara. 

"Wait a minute," said Edward. "Me too."

"And me," said Gloria.

"Well, we can't give them to everyone," said Lisa.

"Ok," said Edward. "After you're finished, Samara, can I borrow your research?"

"That's cheating," wailed Lisa.

Edward laughed. "Just joking," he assured them.

Terry glanced up from Samara's book. "This stain doesn't look like a snake skin to me," he said. "What do you think, Lisa. Look at the shape of the scales. They're pointed, like miniscule pentagons. No snake has scales like that. Plus, it has to be magical."

"You know," said Lisa, rolling Samara's wand in her hand. "It feels right—May I try a spell?"

Cho and Ananda, Samara noticed, had retreated to another table and began working.

Samara shrugged. "Sure. If you aren't worried about being possessed or something."

"Oh no," said Lisa. "You already took that risk. We now know it isn't going to destroy its wielder."

****

"Windgaurdium Levioso!" proclaimed Lisa and Samara's book shot into the air and smacked the ceiling with a hard crack.

"Hey! Easy!" exclaimed Samara.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to—This wand is just—very touchy—How do you do little spells? I feel like I'm trying to swat gnats with a bludger bat."

Edward laughed. "Now we know why you over extend sometime, Samara. It's not your fault. It's that bludger bat you have for a wand."

"Well," laughed Lisa. "I have homework to finish—" She handed Samara back her wand.

"I know what it is," muttered Terry, who was studying Samara's book. "It has to be—look at this—"

"What?" asked Samara. 'You know what—what is?"

"They crowded around Terry, who had pulled out his own copy of the text, stunned it, and was comparing it page by page with Samara's. "I think I know what your _dust_ is. Look. This whole section is a potion for incubating and raising basilisks. Most of these ingredients are obscure, but obtainable, except for the basilisk skin."

"Obtainable?" asked Gloria, as she looked at the list of bloods. "Giant, unicorn, werewolf, goblin—These aren't obtainable." She said as she sat down to study the book. 

"Your thinking is too narrow, Gloria," said Terry. "Most of it can be bought, but if you didn't want to spend the money, it doesn't say what age any of those have to be. I'd opt for babies. Did you know Hagrid had baby unicorns for us to study last year. The adults only will appear for women, but the babies let men touch them too. They were fantastic. Anyway. I'm off the subject. 

I think I know what happened. Someone left basilisk skin in the book to have it ready for the next time they made the potion. It was probably there for a long time and started to decompose. It was sheer convenience-- only it killed the book."

"That was convenience too," said Samara "Considering that everyone has been bitten by their books."

"I have another theory," said Terry. 

"What's that?" asked Samara. 

"I believe your wand can permanently stun the book. Would you do mine?"

"I'll try," said Samara. Sure enough, after only two stupefies, the book lay completely still."

"We won't know if it works for at least twenty minutes."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," said Terry. "I was going to study—unless someone wants to play a game of chess with me." His startling blue eyes met Samara's, but her awareness was drawn to his aura. It was so crystal clear blue, like a deep blue lake, with bits of golden sunlight winking across it. "What do you think?" he asked. "Do you play chess?"

Samara nodded, and glanced over at Edward and Gloria. Both were engrossed in books of their own choosing. "Sure," she said, sitting down at the table while Terry summoned his chessboard. It was a beautiful board with inlays of walnut and maple wood and wooden pieces that were intricately carved. 

"This looks like a muggle set," said Samara.

"Actually, it was," said Terry as they started to set up the board. "My great grandfather made it, and then my mother transfigured it in her third year at Hogwarts. Thereafter, it was a wizard chess set."

"So do the pieces blow up or something when they are captured?" asked Samara. 

"Oh no," said Terry. "That's so antediluvian. They just bow their heads in defeat, and walk off the board."

Terry tossed two of the pawns into the air. **"Umbra! Windgardian Leviosor"** He said as the falling pieces faded to a shadowy gray color, and hovered in front of them. "Choose one," he said and Samara picked one of the pawns from the air. When he took off the spell, she was holding the maple pawn. "You're white. You go first," said Terry, pushing back his sandy brown hair.

Samara moved her king's pawn out in the classic beginning move. 

Terry raised an eyebrow. "Have you played chess much?" 

"Occasionally, with my brothers," answered Samara. "I lost to one of the Gryffindors, Lou Styevesant, the other day. I don't know that I'll be much of a challenge to you. I'm a little out of practice."

Conversation dwindled as they both concentrated on the game. Samara knew she was putting up a good fight. Terry just barely managed to keep his queen out of danger several times, and even so, she took his rook for a bishop. Finally, the game was down to a few pieces. In a daring attempt to trick him into losing his queen, she baited him with her knight. He fell for the trick, but Samara did not realize her own queen was in danger. Now, both minus their queens, they battled on.

"So you said your grandfather made this chess set. Are you muggle born then?" Asked Samara.

"No." Terry moved his bishop slowly down the diagonal, looking for dangers along the way. "My maternal grandfather was a muggle—a scientist doing research into what the muggles call paranormal psychology—and well, he discovered my grandmother. Check."

Samara frowned, uncertain whether she should move her king out of danger or take the bishop. If she took the bishop, she would lose her other knight, and she was already short on pieces. If she weren't careful, this game would end up being a stalemate. She decided to move her king. "So were your parents both in Ravenclaw?" she asked.

"Pardon me." A tall boy with dark red hair and a mustache interrupted them. Samara thought he looked like he could have belonged to the Weasley clan, but when she looked at his aura, she changed her mind. It was the deepest, darkest purple she had ever seen. It looked like velvet and once he opened his mouth she was sure he wasn't related to the Weasleys. 

"Terry? I'm here to assume Library duty. I thought I would inform you—I've arrived--but of course, you can see that now—" Terry glanced up at him. "And Professor Flitwick said he left his parchment on the Conceptualization of Logic in the Casting of Runes. I told him I would love to read it."

"It's on the main desk in the brown folder, Aldwin" replied Terry, looking back at the chessboard.

Aldwin hovered a moment longer.

"Samara Donnally," replied Terry without lifting his eyes from the board. "Samara. Aldwin Oglesby."

"Pleased to meet you," said Samara smiling up at him. She assumed that he was at least a sixth year—maybe seventh—"

"Are you new to Ravenclaw?" he asked, taking her hand in his.

"Just visiting," said Samara. She found herself staring at his aura, and hastily looked away.

"I see," said Aldwin. He cleared his throat nervously, and blushed. His discomfiture looked strangely out of place against his magnificent aura. "I have reading," he said simply and hurried over to the desk, presumably to find Flitwick's paper.  


Terry made his move and glanced at Samara. "Both of my parents are magical. Mum in Ravenclaw and Dad went to Beaubatons," said Terry.

"Oh," said Samara softly. "Did you know anyone who was—at Beauxbatons"

"No," said Terry.

"However did your parents meet?" Asked Samara. Trying to keep her eyes off of Aldwin's aura, which was now, if possible, even a deeper purple.

Terry studied the board carefully. "The war," he said. "Dad was eight years older than Mum. He was a medi-wizard. Mum was on summer break from auror school when Voldemort attacked Paris. She and a few of her friends were on holiday in Paris and tried to help. She got hit with a conjunctivitis curse and was taken to the Paris Hospital. My Dad attended her. She said she fell in love with him before she ever saw him."

"How romantic," said Samara.

"Yes," replied Terry non-committally. "Check."

Samara took the bishop. 

"Unfortunately, a year and a half later, Voldemort leveled the hospital. Thirty-seven medi-witches and wizards along with one hundred and two patients were killed. My Father was among them." 

"Oh, I'm sorry," Said Samara sympathetically. "Then you never knew your father."

"No," replied Terry. "Mum moved back to England before I was born. She does scheduling for the aurors, which probably suits her better than being on active duty anyway. She's never been on active."

"Have you been to France?" asked Samara. 

"Oh yes. I go to visit my grandparents in France in the summer. They don't live far from Beauxbatons, so I just relax and read on the beach. It has a wonderful climate, but I'm glad we don't live there. England's home."

"If your Dad had lived, would you have gone to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts?" asked Samara, her thoughts going to the scene of the destruction unbidden.

"I don't know. Possibly, although Mum really preferred Hogwarts."

Samara nodded. "Check," she said moving her rook forward.

Terry studied the board for another few moments. "You are quite an accomplished player," he complemented her.

"It looks like it's going to be a stalemate—or a draw—" she said.

"A draw," teased another Ravenclaw who unashamedly edged over from a neighboring library table to see the game. "Morag McDougal," he introduced himself. "And you are?"

"Samara Donnally." She shook hands hastily, looking back at the game.

"Don't you want to go for the win?" asked Terry.

"Oh you definitely want to go for the win," said Edward as he approached and looked over her shoulder at the chessboard.

Samara frowned. "I don't think I have enough pieces to checkmate," she said.

"Yes, you do," said Morag. "If you play it right.

"I don't see it," said Samara., as she reached for her chess pieces. "Let's just call it a draw."

"Ok," said Terry. "But look." He began moving her few pawns, and his warm fingers brushed hers, immediately his aura changed to a royal blue, the gold pulling inwards toward his body. He met her eyes and then continued. "If you put your pawns, just like this, and then you use the rook to force my king into this corner—See? You move here. I have to move here or here. You move here. I have to move here."

"I see," said Samara, "But are you really going to let me force your king into the corner?"

"I might not," said Terry, with a twinkle in his eye, "But you would be surprised how many people do."

Silence descended as they picked up the chess pieces and put them away. 

"Are you ready to go?" asked Edward, glancing into the corner where Gloria was still reading. "I think Gloria's fallen in love with your book, Samara. You're going to have to wrestle it off of her.  


"We'll just give her Terry's—hey! It's still stunned isn't it?"

"Yes. It is. Thank you, Samara," said Terry, picking up his book and leafing through it. 

"How did you know that my wand would affect it differently?" asked Samara. 

"Complementary magics," said Terry. "The question, of course is what enervated the book in the first place—The same type of magic would be able to end the spell, at least temporarily. I would guess that you could enervate it again with your wand too."

"How could you know that?" asked Edward.

Terry glanced at him. "You would have to have read most of this book to understand. It's listed as Dark Magic—Current Achievements in Modern Dark Magic. Which would mean that probably Elemental magic would effect it too, but a typically Light wand such as Unicorn hair would be almost useless. That's probably why some of the students only get ten minutes stunned time instead of the twenty that Professor Binns said we would get. A neutral cored wand, like Dragon heart strings would probably get the full twenty minutes, but a Dark wand, would get much longer, and a substance like Basilisk skin would probably match or exceed the power of the original spell, which I would assume was wandless."

"Why would you assume it's wandless?" asked Edward.

"Copyright date," said Terry, "Along with the fact that half of the book is about wandless magic."

"Have you tried that yet?" asked Samara.

"What?" asked Terry.

"Wandless magic," said Samara.

Terry shook his head. "Too dangerous," he said. "First of all, Elemental magic is very imprecise and capricious. Secondly, it's addictive. Didn't you read chapter seven?"

"On the Fire Elemental?" asked Samara. "Yeah, but those warnings were just for fire, not all the Elemental Magics."

Edward paged idly through one of the books while Samara, Terry and Morag got into a lively discussion about which of the Elementals was the most powerful or most dangerous. Much to Cho's dismay, Ananda joined the discussion too.

"Oh, no, Samara," insisted Terry, "Although fire is the hardest to control, the elements are of equal power."

"I agree with Samara," said Morag. "Fire is definitely the most dangerous. Of course it's also the most fun," he said, his aura glowing a separate combination of red and blue that didn't join anywhere to make purple.

Ananda laughed heartily at Morag's description. 

"Not so," said Terry. "Although all of the Elementals are neutral—'_any_ _could cause the spontaneous combustion of the wizard himself_.' It made me a little nervous," quoted Terry. "I'm not a Gryffindor."

Edward started to laugh. "No one's ever spontaneously combusted," he said.

"The book was obviously just meant for the study of magical theory," said Aldwin as he sauntered up to their table. "As evidenced by The Torch, Kenaz."

"What?" asked Samara.

"The Ancient Rune, Kenaz," said Aldwin "You were speaking of the Fire Elemental. It corresponds to the Ancient Rune, Kenaz. It brings all the Elementals together to bring light to some problematic situation."

"What situation?" asked Edward.

"None," replied Terry. "It's just theory." Terry's voice dropped to a whisper. " Don't get Aldwin started on Ancient Runes."

"We'll never shut him up," agreed Morag.

"The Torch of Kenaz brings light to darkness and dispels fear and anxiety." Said Aldwin. "If you cast the rune of fire, it is not a Dark day, but one of Light," he pronounced. "This is not a Dark book, but one which is exceedingly Light."

"Ha! Wait until I tell the Gryffindors," said Samara.

"How? Why do you think that?" asked Edward, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Shh-h," Terry tried to hush Edward.

"Because Darkness is only an illusion—the absence of light. It is in reality nothing, and, of course, any book is something, and it brings enlightenment, if it is understood. How then, can a book be dark? It cannot," Aldwin pronounced. "Unfortunately, the correct solution is often hidden in obscurity. But obscurity is not synonymous with darkness, and one certainly cannot blame the book for its reader's ignorance."

Terry rolled his eyes dramatically, and Samara laughed. 

"But you can certainly blame the reader for his ignorance," interrupted Cho, from the neighboring table.

"Oh, Cho," said Ananda, moving back to Cho's table. "Don't get started with Aldwin. It's a suicide mission."

"Why would someone decide to read such a book if they did not have the prerequisite magics to perform the spells. "They could inadvertently annihilate themselves," said Cho. "Or worse, mutilate their magic to the point of –"

"Theory," interrupted Terry. "Pure theory."

"Some people's magic is way beyond mutilation already," said Morag. "I could name a few—"

Samara chuckled.

Cho slapped her hand on the table and several people hushed her. "This is just like the Dark Mark," she said in a harsh whisper. "Why would someone take the Dark Mark if they had no intention of killing. Once the decision is made, it doesn't matter how far down the path the person has traveled. The Intention is the same, and if you want to understand, you have to examine the Intention."

"How would you know what the Intention is?" questioned Morag.

"Cho, you are letting your plans to go to auror school color your reasoning," said Ananda. "Let it go."

"Wait," said Samara. "You're wrong." Samara tensed reading Cho's anger in her aura. 

Both, Aldwin and Ananda appeared amused, but looked expectantly to see what Samara would add to this conversation. Morag pulled up a chair from the neighboring table, turned it around backwards and straddled it, facing Samara. 

Samara realized almost immediately, that telling Cho that she was wrong was a pretty tactless thing to say to a Ravenclaw, but if she went by the auras, she would much rather believe Alwin whose aura was a velvety violet than Cho's whose aura was tainted with bits of red among the turquoise swirls. 

"I'm waiting," said Cho. "What's your deduction?"

"I've seen some of the Slytherins struggling against their families who are determined for them to get the Dark Mark." Said Samara. "Sometimes the choice isn't theirs."

"Let me tell you something, child," Cho said in a soft voice. "Last year a very dear friend of mine died. He _died_ rather than bend to the will of that monster, Voldemort."

Gloria shuddered. "Yes, I know," said Cho. "Many don't say his name, but I'm not afraid of him or his ilk. I intend to dedicate my life to ferreting out those vermin that call him master and killing them."

"After a trial, of course," said Ananda, but Samara didn't think Cho was too awfully concerned about the trial.

"There's always a choice," said Cho. "Some people choose to save themselves and some people would rather die than compromise their principles. I don't think I've ever seen a Slytherin with that many principles, though," said Cho looking directly at Gloria. Why are you here, anyway? To look at this Dark Book, Aldwin has been talking about?"

"What dark book?" asked Morag.

"It's not Dark," interrupted Samara. "It's a textbook for Binns, Advanced History of Magic."

  
"Oh, that one," said Morag.

"Interesting," said Aldwin looking at the book. "Too bad I'm in Runes and Transfig, as well as tutoring." The time-turner won't let me go to four hours—yet," he said with a twinkle in his eye and a flash of red in his aura.

"Half of the directions in this book are too obscure," said Terry. "You couldn't possibly attempt any of these spells with any expectation that they would work."

"I hadn't noticed," said Samara airily. "It's intent that matters anyway—"

"Are you telling us you've _done_ these things?" asked Terry.

"Well," said Samara. "Most of them. I had to use some of the spells to make my wand."

Terry looked at her thoughtfully. "I hope you know the flame freezing charm," he said.

"I did avoid the fire elemental though," added Samara.

"Smart girl," said Terry.

"There's nothing wrong with fire," interrupted Aldwin, "As long as you are meticulously precise."

"Or inordinately lucky," said Morag.

__

++

It was much later when Samara finally left Ravenclaw and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. She had a book about Ancient Runes which Aldwin had allowed her to borrow. "Better be careful," said Edward. "Next thing you know you'll be playing chess with him too"

"So," said Samara confused. "What's wrong with that?"

Gloria laughed. "Edward just means that's the closest he's liable to get to romance." Gloria shivered. "All that analyzing—I don't think I could stand it."

"Oh quit it," said Samara. "You don't like it when people stereotype Slytherins. Why are you stereotyping Aldwin? He was just being nice."

"Well, you still might not want Draco to find out," said Edward.

"About what? Don't be ridiculous," said Samara. "Anyway, Draco doesn't own me."

"Give him time," said Edward. "Just give him time—"

Gloria laughed again and turned toward the dungeons. "Will I see you later?" she asked Edward.

Edward hesitated. "I think I'll walk over to Slytherin with you now," he said.

"Oh, well, in that case," said Gloria tapping Edward on the shoulder. "Patronus!"

Edward made a rude gesture and Gloria started to laugh. "So you can't do it either," she said. "Your brother says, it's a Gryffindor thing. I haven't seen a single Slytherin get the Patronus. Draco got some smoke though," and Snape practically wet himself with excitement. 

Samara had trouble seeing Snape getting that excited about anything, but Gloria continued, " How long do you suppose it will be before Snape realizes that he's just taking points from his own house, by giving these free points to Gryffindor."

"I don't know," said Edward. "But there are some Gryffindors who can't do it either."

"How about you, Samara, can you do it?" asked Gloria.

"Yes."

"Well, let's see it, then," said Gloria, placing her hands on her hips in an attitude of expectation.

Samara took her wand from her hair and rolled it lazily in her hand. 

"So have you gotten it to form more than you did in class the other day?" asked Edward.

"Yes," said Samara.

"Well, great," said Edward, tapping her shoulder. "Patronus. Let's make up some of the points you lost."

Samara glared at him. "No," she said. "I don't want to make up points. In fact, I don't want to do this at all—"

"Bye," called Samara as she started toward the Gryffindor Tower. Only two steps toward Gryffindor, she heard the singing. Peeves!

Your itsy bitsy spider climbed out of the castle wall

And your little puppies won't listen when you call

Listen to me, monster boy before you take a fall.

She turned around. She didn't think she wanted to meet up with Peeves right now either. "Wait!" she called. "Edward! Gloria! I'm going over to Slytherin with you."

"Nope," said Gloria. "Can't come unless we see your patronus."

"Fine," Samara spat. **"Expecto patronum!"** A roiling bunch of smoke poured out of her wand and fell to her feet in what almost seemed to be a heavy coil. The smoke kept boiling out until her Patronus was swaying before them.

"Bloody Hell," muttered Edward. 

+++

"Harry," said Hermione, pushing the witch's hat up on her head for the tenth time, "We couldn't have picked a more perfect time to check the Chamber of Secrets. All of the first years are occupied. Even Ginny is busy."

"What's she doing?" asked Harry, absently rubbing his forehead.

"Practicing for her first Quiddich game with the other chasers. I saw her when I went down to the Quiddich Pitch to get the brooms." Hermione tried to adjust her hat again, and tripped on Crookshanks who had decided to coax to come with them by rubbing Hermione's legs.

Harry nodded. "Good. I didn't want Ginny to come with us."

"Go play somewhere, Crookshanks," said Hermione pushing the cat away and then catching her hat which threatened to fall off of her head.

"Why don't you just put a shrinking spell on that hat?" said Ron. "It's not like you don't know how."

"I did," said Hermione. "Four of them. It's affecting the flowers on the border. See? They look like polka dots."

"Why don't you just take it off," said Ron.

"No-o-," whined Hermione. "I can't. I look awful."

"Well, it looks ok with polka dots, I guess," said Ron. "Let me fix it." Ron took a minute trying to arrange Hermione's too big hat on her head, which was now devoid of the bushy hair. However, thanks to Madame Pomfrey, Hermione was well on her way to growing a whole new batch of hair. Unfortunately, it was as yet, only a few centimeters long and curling into tight ringlets all over her head. "Get off, Crookshanks!" Ron snapped, pushing the cat away.

"I'll let him outside on our way," said Hermione, gathering him into her arms. "He likes to chase the gnomes."

"Should we take the Invisibility Cloak?" asked Ron. 

"We might need it on the way back," answered Hermione. "It's only an hour until curfew."

"I'll take it," said Harry. "It's in my pocket these days." He pulled out a corner of the shimmering fabric as they headed down the hall. 

"You know, speaking of rules," said Hermione. "I think we should let the Slytherin curses rest."

"But Hermione, your hair!" said Ron. "I thought you hated it."

"Well I do, but Dumbledore said no more pranks—so no more pranks. We have to follow the rules."

"Hermione," said Ron softly. "I like it."

"What?"

"When the curls of your hair—" he shrugged. "I just like it," he said.

"I hope Myrtle's bathroom isn't flooded again," said Harry as they approached the door to Myrtle's bathroom,

"Wait," said Harry, stopping Hermione at the door. "I hear voices. Who is Myrtle talking to?"

"That isn't Myrtle. That's the new ghost, Olive Hornby," said Ron.

"And I hear—singing," whispered Hermione pointing down the corridor, "From that direction."

"Peeves," said Ron.

Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and draped it over all of them. 

"I hope he leaves soon," said Ron.

They all heard Peeves's singing now as well as the voices were coming from Moaning Mrytle's Bathroom. Peeve's loud singing drowned out the voices.

Your itsy bitsy spider climbed out of the castle wall

And your little puppies won't listen when you call

Listen to me, monster boy before you take a fall.

You can't cross the Slytherins. Remember that they reign

Myrtle, Carman , Tom and Olive can do it all again.

"I remember that day," said Olive, from inside of the bathroom. "For once you and Peeves weren't being perverted."

"Peeves was always being perverted," said Myrtle dreamily. "That's what I liked about him. It was you who were always so mean—saying things like—if you weren't already dead, Peeves, I'd kill you. That wasn't very nice."

"Nice?" said Olive. "What are you, a Hufflepuff? You always were the sorriest excuse for a Slytherin, Myrtle. Begging and whining and crying to the teachers."

"It worked didn't it?"

"Worked for what?"

"She was friends with them?" whispered Harry. 

"Slytherins are just weird," said Ron.

"Sh-h-h" Hermione hushed them.

"I didn't get hung from the ceiling." Continued Mrytle. "I didn't have detention every other day like you did."

"Well, Tom didn't get detention and he didn't whine and cry."

"Oh yeah, Perfect Prefect Tom!" Myrtle spat.

"He was perfect," said Olive. "He still is—"

"Hardly perfect," spat Myrtle. "Mudblood."

"And you're one to talk. Your blood is just as thin as his was—thinner—said Olive, now that you're a ghost." She cackled unmercifully. "And he never was a Mudblood. Half-blood."

"Ghost!" Said Mrytle viscously. "You were the ghost—Carman won him in the end didn't she?"

"It hasn't ended—"

Peeves floated into the room.

"Tom, Tom the muggle's son

He and Olive sure had fun—

She had a prat to snuggle more.

He had a well-trained house-elf whore.

Fortunately, Ron's choking was drowned out by the Bloody Baron's shout.

"PEEVES." The Bloody Baron's voice echoed through the corridor. "YOU WILL NOT SPEAK OF OUR DARK LORD IN SUCH VILE TERMS."

"Yes, your bloodiship, Baron, sir," said Peeves, chastised.

"What is this?" whispered Harry. "King's Cross Station? This bathroom used to be deserted."

"We should just leave. Come back later—" said Hermione.

The Baron was addressing Peeves. "I WISH TO SPEAK WITH MS. HORNBY. PRIVATELY. LEAVE US."

Peeves darted away without another word.

Myrtle stomped a silent foot through the floor. "This is my bathroom—"she whined. "You—you—you—

SQUIB!"

Ron and Harry gaped at each other open mouthed. 

Myrtle vanished almost before the word left her ghostly lips, but it seemed to echo against the bathroom walls.

"AARRRUGH!" The roar of the Baron's anger certainly echoed.

"Please," Olive calmed him. "You needed to speak to me."

He said nothing, but anger seemed to radiate from him.

"Please, Baron. You know how important you have been from the beginning. She floated close to him. Our Dark Lord appreciates you. You are one of his inner circle. You are and have always been a great man. The Baron and Baroness, your parents, made a mistake."

"A mistake they paid dearly for," growled the Baron, his bloody robes ruffling.

"Indeed they did." Said Olive. So don't let that moody little adolescent bitch distract you from your fine work. She is unimportant."

"You're right, of course." Said the Baron.

"Hasn't Tom always kept his promises to you? Wasn't she the first to die?"

"She was."

Harry thought it was a sobering sight to see Olive speaking to the Baron like this. He became aware of Hermione pulling him away from the bathroom. 

"So what was it you wanted to tell me?" asked Olive.

"Come," said the Baron. "I'll tell you in the Chamber. We have work to do."

Harry turned and followed Hermione, still dazed. 

When Harry had stood face to face with the sixteen year old Tom Riddle of the Diary, he had thought that his killing Myrtle had been a mistake—and that was before he realized that Tom was friends with Myrtle—well—maybe not friends, but he did know her—and he had chosen to kill her. The picture Olive was painting was different than the one Dumbledore had given him of the loner Slytherin Prefect who seemed to do everything right. Then another moment in the diary came to mind—when Tom stood in front of Dippet and Dippit asked him if there was anything Tom wanted to tell him and Tom answered "No." Even then, when Harry had watched the memory, he realized that Tom was hiding things from Dippit. He just didn't realize how much--

==

Harry Ron and Hermione left the Second Floor Girl's bathroom somewhat bewildered.

"Did I hear right?" Ron asked. "The Baron is a squib?"

"We don't know if it is true or not," Harry said. "Maybe it was just Myrtle's way of insulting him—"

"What an insult!" said Hermione.

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "It's a real howler. The Slytherin ghost, not only fails to be a pure blood—but a squib!"

"Technically," said Hermione. "I believe, according to what Binns told us, that he probably was a pureblood."

Harry hushed them. "Listen. Filch," he whispered.

"I hear them my sweet," came Filch's gravelly voice from the opposite corridor.

"Is it past curfew already?" asked Ron.

Hermione looked at her watch. "Five minutes past," she said. "I can't get caught! They'll take away my prefect job. I shouldn't have come."

"Go back towards the bathroom," said Harry throwing off the Invisibility Cloak and taking off at a dead run toward the kitchen."

"Bloody hell, Harry!" whispered Ron as Hermione tucked the Invisibility Cloak around them. "We could have all stayed under the cloak, and stood in a corner." Ron knew where Harry was going. If he could make it to the portrait of fruit, Harry could use the secret passage. He still had the map. 

Harry came to an intersection and hesitated. He expected Mrs. Norris and Filch to separate. If he chose an empty corridor or even the one with Mrs. Norris he may still be safe—if he chose the one with Filch—

He listened for a moment to try to hear footsteps. Nothing. He took the shortest route at a jog. He chose wrong. As he turned the corner, he ran almost headlong into Filch.

"Well, well, well," drawled Filch. "The famous Harry Potter out for an evening stroll. It will cost you, Potter. Yes. It will cost you dearly."

Cavorting playfully behind him was Crookshanks, with Mrs. Norris.

==

****

Answers to my Reviewers—the best people in the world--

==

Reiven: You'll be glad to know that Edward had no lasting harm done. I had fun making everyone notice how shamelessly Dumbledore favors the Gryffindors. Obviously, Snape is just trying to even the score. Right. Draco thinks her brothers are squibs, and Milicent is the black cat. You are very observant. 

****

Kemenran: More Slytherins? Well ok, but later. 

****

Silverfox. Yes. I guess Severus of **My Name is Severus** would say that transfiguring a hedgehog, kills the hedgehog. That is a GOOD STORY. If you are looking for a good read, go check out Silverfox , My name is Severus. Right after you review. Hey, It's McGonagall that got into that morally suspect business of transfiguration, not me. Anyway, I don't think McGonagall is against pushing her students to the limit if she can see the benefit, and I think she assumed that since Neville had gotten his wand earlier, he could do it with a bit of a push. I think she was surprised it took Neville so long.—And, well, I better not say--

****

Raven: Glad you liked the pranks. They are going to have to last you for a while. No funny stuff in the next few chapters. Lots more war and worries.

****

Melbell: Put that tongue in before someone curses it into a green snake tongue.

****

Melbell: You were right. They were up to something. And right, the pranks don't stop.

****

Trillium: Here's your reminder. Never Never upset the entire Slytherin house, They can band together when the need arises. Yes, well, Samara's lucky for the moment, but do you really trust Draco? Even with the skull on his arm—Don't start thinking he's a Hufflepuff in this story. He's not. No fluff. 

****

Tania Nightqueen: Welcome! Glad you joined our merry band. Remember, Harry and Ron have kept some secrets from Samara and Beatrice, but they are trusting Gryffindors too, so it's a balance.

****

Whiteriver: Yes, you were review number 9 and it took an awfully long time to get that 10th one.

Read Whiteriver's fics. They are excellent

****

Plash Ricrem: Oh, please send that greasy haired Snape to me. You obviously didn't read Draco Malfoy and the Goblet of Fire, or you would know that Snape only has greasy hair because he uses an anti-love potion to keep the hordes of fanfic women off of him!

****

Raven: Chapter one???? OK here's your chapter

****

NEXT CHAPTER UP WHEN I HAVE 10 REVIEWS.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

PLEASE READ MY REVIEWERS FICS. THEY ARE ALL GREAT.


	36. CH 35: Sisshasss and Hisssuss

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

BY Lady Lestrange

****

Sisshasss and Hisssuss

Chapter 35

(A/N: I know, I have to come up with a good name for the Ravenclaw chapter. So this is your review challenge. Help me out. Think of a good name, and you get a yummy picture of your choice: Tom, Draco Harry or Ginny under an Invisibility cloak.)

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm?

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

Detention with Filch was always a trying experience; Monday evening was no different. Tonight, Harry was on his hands and knees scrubbing the lower level boys' bathroom. The bathroom was in a little used corridor between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Truthfully, Harry didn't think it needed cleaned. Not that it wasn't filthy, but in four years at Hogwarts, he never knew that the bathroom was there, and doubted that many others did either. Shadows of letters on the metal door bore evidence to the fact that it once was labeled, "gentlemen", but now, instead of being clearly labeled as a boy's bathroom, it had only an old unmarked door that squeaked on rusty hinges when it opened. Filch had leaned on the door heavily to get it open. Harry had to let the water run in the sink for several minutes to clean out the rusty grime which came from the faucet before Harry could even fill a bucket with clean water.

Filch had been standing over Harry the whole time, telling him to scrub harder around the rim of the toilets or to be sure to clean in the corners of the tiles. He was disappointed with Harry's efforts and decided that Harry needed a brush to get in between the tiles better to clean off the green scum, so he went to fetch one, but not before warning Harry not to slack off working while he was gone. Harry was certain Filch was going to come back with a toothbrush. 

Harry stood and stretched, putting his hands on the small of his back where it was aching. His head was throbbing from the combined cleaning fumes and whatever Voldemort was doing to send him these little messages of pain. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. He had removed his robe and hung it over a stall door earlier. Harry decided that he would leave the floors in the stalls until Filch brought the brush. Instead he moved to the sinks where a residue of yellow slime stuck all around the faucets. He cleaned one sink by filling it with water so that he wouldn't have to keep bending for the bucket. He had moved to the next, and turned on the faucet. It didn't work, so he filled the sink next to it and began cleaning. 

He scrubbed, not really looking at the sink—not really thinking about what he was doing. His mind was on the homework he would have to rush to finish when he got back to Gryffindor Common room and the Quiddich practice that he was currently missing. He wished he had just remained with Ron and Hermione and stood still in a corner somewhere, and he wouldn't have been caught prowling the halls. The problem was, both he and Ron were taller now—especially Ron and the cloak no longer covered the three of them adequately. It seemed as if a piece of one of them was always sticking out when all three were under it—sometimes an elbow or a bit of a shoe. It was perfect for one person and useable with two, but three was beginning to be a problem. Obviously, one of them needed to become a small animagus if they were going to continue to use it with all three of them like Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail did. 

Harry scrubbed hard on the bottom of the faucet. There was something stuck on the underside of the faucet and it wasn't coming off. He scrubbed for several minutes before he decided to look to see what it was. The poor lighting in the bathroom didn't allow him to see it, so he just ran his fingers over it, trying to scrape it off. It wasn't coming off. After a quick glance at the door to see that Filch wasn't coming back any time soon, he got his wand from his robe pocket, and pointed it at the stubborn area. **"Pergo!"** He said, hoping to clean it off, but the tiny raised squiggle of dirt remained in place. **"Lumos,"** said Harry and he bent to look under the faucet. There was no dirt. What Harry had been scrubbing was a raised etching of a tiny snake.

Harry stared at it for several moments; his breath coming in short gasps. Was this yet another entrance to the Chamber of Secrets? He wondered how many of the bathrooms harbored little snakes somewhere on the plumbing? How could the Chamber of Secrets have remained a secret for so long? Well, he knew the answer to that. Even if someone saw the tiny snake, they couldn't open the Chamber without parseltongue. Harry stared at the snake for a long while, glanced at the door and then back at the snake. He went back to the door to check for Filch's return. The corridor was clear. This would solve their problem of fighting their way through the ghosts in Myrtle's bathroom if it was—Harry stared fixedly at the snake for several seconds and then opened his mouth. In a low hiss he said, "Open."

Instantly, the sink moved aside revealing a long dark tunnel with a gradual slope downward. Since this bathroom was already below ground, the tunnel looked more navigable than the one that issued from Myrtle's bathroom. He heard another noise and froze. It was Mrs. Norris, returning to the bathroom. No doubt Filch was not far behind. Harry turned back to the opening and hissed at it to close. Mrs. Norris spat and gave a loud low hiss herself. All of the hair stood up on her back, before she turned and darted back into the corridor to Filch's protection.

Harry continued to scrub the sinks as Filch hobbled in. "What did you do to Mrs. Norris?" he asked angrily. 

"Nothing," said Harry.

Filch eyed him with contempt. "You did something, you nasty, lying boy—"

Harry applied himself to the scrubbing, and after a moment, Filch dropped a blue toothbrush into the sink. "Use that to get between the tiles. Do a good job, you lazy thing! And no magic!" Filch reached down to pick up Mrs. Norris. "Ah, my Sweet," he whispered to her, and she began to purr.

Harry said nothing, but his mind was awash with possibilities. 

It was well after midnight when Harry returned to the common room. He was tired and achy and dirty. Although he really needed to do his homework, especially for Defense, he thought he'd just shower and go to bed. He'd have to find time to finish his homework tomorrow—somehow--

"**'Fortes fortuna adiuvat**" he said to the fat lady. Expecting to be the only one in the common room, Harry was taken aback by the sight of Ginny Weasley curled up on the chair beside the cold fireplace; a softly purring Crookshanks was sleeping in her lap. A single flickering lantern lighted her face, giving the freckles on her face a soft sheen. Her robe gapped a little at the neck and Harry couldn't help noticing that the freckles continued—down-- Harry took a deep breath. She was asleep. He walked over to her, hesitant to touch her. Even though he had washed his hands, he still felt grimy from the work he had been doing. Still, she wouldn't be rested if she slept in a chair. He should wake her, so she could sleep in her own bed. 

Her hair was spilled out like an auburn mane against the gold of the chair. She muttered something and licked her lips. He caught the word, "Please—"As he watched, she moaned softly, her mouth parting in some whispered words that he couldn't catch. 

Harry felt the pounding of his own heart in his chest and for just a moment the thought of kissing her right here, right now, consumed him. Then he reached out and grasped her shoulder. "Ginny. Gin," he said, shaking her gently. "It's late. You should go up to bed."

She opened her eyes and blinked at him, sleepily, as if she wasn't quite sure who he was. "Harry?" She muttered. 

"Yeah." Harry seemed to have a hard time keeping his voice level. "You fell asleep in the common room," he said.

"Oh—" she said, still apparently half asleep and confused. Crookshanks jumped down off of Ginny's lap and proceeded to wind himself around Harry's legs.

Harry jammed both hands in his pockets. He was acutely aware that it was nearly the middle of the night, and he and Ginny were alone. There was little chance that anyone else would interrupt them at this hour. She seemed not to realize how much her dewy-eyed innocence was affecting him. She was just sitting there looking at him, and he grew self-conscious. "Did you have a nightmare?" he asked.

"No."

"Oh."

The silence stretched between them, broken only by Crookshanks mewing. "I was waiting for you," Ginny said at last. "I wanted to know if you found it—"

"Found—" He broke off. She was talking about the Chamber of Secrets. She had known there was another entrance! Suddenly all romantic thoughts were dashed from his mind. "You knew," he said. "You knew there was another entrance. How many are there?"

"I'm not sure," she said, straightening her robes, at last. "I know of three—for sure--the two bathrooms and one in the kitchen, under the sink. I believe that Tom knew more of them. I was trying to get him to—trying to think of—um—to remember—you know—"

Harry looked at her puzzled, and she blushed. "Well, I should go to bed," she said turning. "It's late."

Harry caught her hand and encased it in his own. She felt so warm. "Ginny," he said softly. "If there is anything you want to talk about—" he hesitated. "About that time, I--I understand."

They stood there for a long minute, the magic around them fairly crackling.

"I know you do," she said, and pulling her hand from his she turned to go up the stairs to the girls' dorm. On the step, she stopped and looked back at him. With a ghost of a smile, she murmured, "Pleasant dreams, Harry."

"You too," repeated Harry absently, and after she left, he wondered how many pleasant dreams she had, or how she knew his dreams were so haunted. Pleasant dreams: it was probably a vain wish for both of them, he thought as he mounted the stairs to the boys' dormitory, Crookshanks weaving between his legs and threatening to trip him. "Oh, Crookshanks, what is wrong with you lately?" complained Harry as he picked up the cat. "You should have gone to the Girls' Dorm with Ginny. You belong to Hermione, you know, not me." He licked Harry's hand, his sandpapery tongue feeling strangely comforting. 

==

Between Quiddich practice and schoolwork, it just seemed like Harry couldn't quite catch up with his schoolwork. He just barely did the regular work that needed to be handed in daily. The projects for various classes just kept getting pushed back, much to Hermione's dismay. 

"Harry," she admonished him. "You have to concentrate. We have OWL's this year! You can't fall behind. You'll never have time to study for exams."

At least Ron wouldn't bug him about getting his work done on time, thought Harry, but even Ron agreed that Wednesday night it was imperative that they stay up and finish their latest Defense project—For Ron, that was--a four foot essay detailing the uses of at least five different blocks that would withstand fourth level spells and above. "You, Potter," said Snape, just as he was ready to leave class, "You should use blocks that withstand seventh level spells instead." Everyone, including Ron, had gone to bed by the time Harry dragged himself back up to his room. His scar was throbbing unmercifully. He lay across his bed and rubbed his eyes. Snape was such a prat, thought Harry, as he looked at what seemed to be the first rays of morning sunshine lightening the dark sky. Then Harry closed his eyes and fell asleep, without turning down the blankets and without changing into pajamas. Crookshanks curled up at his feet.

==

Harry was dreaming about the Dursleys. Well, not actually, he was just on the edge of waking and dreaming, and he could hear the garter snakes murmuring under the Dursley's porch.

Loussssy two legs. Sssstinking place—**Fsifss—**smells of shit. And ssso cold. Don't thessssse two legsss ever light a fire?

Harry opened his eyes and stared at Edward's snake. She was the one murmuring to herself. Not garter snakes. She was lying quite still. The cold causing her to become lethargic. 

"Sssstinks. **Fsifss**," the Snake complained.

Harry shivered, and rubbed his fingers over his throbbing temple. It was cold—no—damp—due to the lack of a fire and four days of cold, steady rain, and a distinct odor was coming from the uncleaned cage.

Harry finally pulled his blanket up to his chin and rolled over—McGonagall wanted him to talk to the snake. She had no idea what she was asking. Snakes had no concept of right and wrong—good and evil. All they thought of was eating and sleeping comfortably. What was he supposed to say? Hey, snake, have your young masters ever tortured you or anything? And what sort of snake word would translate for tortured? The closest he knew of was **sisshasss**, which meant kill or devour completely, thus making whatever was devoured part of your power, but to a snake, it had no evil connotations. It just meant, well, eat well and become powerful. Torture or hurting something just to hurt it, wouldn't make any sense to the snake. 

OK, he thought. Forget Slytherin. What about Hufflepuff? He could ask, do the twins remind you at all of—what—how to describe Hufflepuff to a snake—cute little fluffy animals. That would be **hisssuss**, prey. Not exactly what McGonagall had in mind either. He lay there, listening to Kauket's hissing. She was complaining about the cold and the fact that Edward hadn't cleaned her cage, but maybe she would tell him something important without his speaking. 

SSSSSSSSSSo—I wonder why the two legsssss moved me—Sssso—cold---

Harry really didn't want to talk to her. He had made the mistake of talking to the Dursley's garter snakes. They were so fascinated with him, after that, that they wouldn't leave him alone. They talked to him incessantly, and since they did their hunting in the evening, that meant, they talked mostly at night. If Edward's snake did that, it would make him conspicuous to Edward, besides keeping him awake even more than he already was, but still--

Harry pulled his wand out from under his pillow and did a warming spell on the box that Bea had transfigured into a makeshift cage.

"Thanksssssss," murmured the snake. 

"Don't mention it," Harry replied in parseltongue.

"It ssssssssssssspeaksssss. The two legssssss ssspeakssss." Hissed the snake excitedly.

"Yessss," said Harry. "I guess you have never heard another two legs speak."

"Yesss. Another one ssssspeaksss," said the snake, surprising Harry.

Instantly Harry was awake. This made a difference. He glanced at Edward who was still sound asleep, and snoring softly. Was he or Ethan a parselmouth? 

"Sssstinks. **Fsifss**," complained Kauket again.

"**Pergo!"** said Harry, pulling his wand from beneath his pillow and cleaning the cage of waste. "Your young masters?" asked Harry. "Do they speak to you?"

"No. He is **sshiss**, said the snake, a word that translated roughly to a threat or a predator to be avoided. Kauket began to slither around the cage, obviously she was happy to have it free of waste and rotting animal bones.

"He?" questioned Harry. "Which one—Edward or Ethan?"

"They are one," answered the snake. "**sshiss**."

Obviously the snake didn't differentiate between the two of them. Harry found that strange. Even though they were identical twins, snakes didn't relay that heavily on sight. He would have thought the snake would realize they were two people by scent/taste and hearing, but there was something more important that Harry wanted to ask. 

If the snake had spoken to another parselmouth, there was only one possibility—Voldemort.

"The one who spoke to you," said Harry excitedly. "Is he—"Harry hesitated trying to convey the idea of a man with snake-like features to the snake. He chose the analogy of a two legs with a snake skin shedding off to reveal a man underneath. 

The snake corrected him. A two legs shedding off his human skin to be a powerful snake underneath said Kauket He is **sisshasss**, a powerful snake, who has eaten many.

Harry sucked in his breath 

"Yes, a very powerful snake, who eats well," Harry agreed. "When was this?"

"Long ago, when I shared a warm, sunny, place with Nagini," Kauket told him. "We ate **hissuss** until we were full and passed **fsifss **and slept in the sun."

Harry sighed. He wished that snakes had a better sense of time. "What did you talk about?"

"Nagini's snake-man has many plans to **ssisshass**--devour ---------Nagini calls him Great-one-always-hungry, **Ssisshass-A-ssisshass**.

"When?" Harry wondered again, but there was no word for _when_ in the snake's vocabulary. How can this be accomplished?" asked Harry.

"He will come into the nest—" began Kauket. "When the best hunting—"

"Probably in the dead of night," thought Harry. "But which night."

"And **Ssisshass-A-ssisshass** will devour the eggs. When the young ones are gone, no one will grow to be **sshiss**. Roughly translated a bird of prey who would be a threat to a snake. The foolish two legs will become lethargic as with cold. They will not fight. They will become **hisssuss**, food to sustain the Great-one-always-hungry.

There was a long pause, as Harry considered. What did the snake mean by "nest" School? Hogwarts? Harry knew that to Kauket, the plan made infinite sense: eating the eggs before they grew to be birds of prey. The thought filled Harry with dread."

Why are you silent, Kind one?

"I am a young one," said Harry and –" He stopped. If he told the snake that he believed Hogwarts was the nest, she would take him literally and panic. Could it be that the snake was talking about the attack on Beauxbatons? It was already over. 

Perhaps you are not in danger if you leave the nest. You will be safe—"

Perhaps, said Harry, "But what of the other nestlings?"

"The strong survive," said Kauket with typical snake-like logic.

"There is one young one who must survive said Harry. "But I don't know who it is."

"Many mysteries," said Kauket. "Great-one-always-hungry also seeks to kill/eat/devour this special delicacy young one. The **sshiss** seek to **ssisshass** this young one.

"The **sshiss**?" questioned Harry. "The two who are one?"

"Yessssss!" Said the snake. "They ssssseek under all the rocksssss to find and devour their prey. Sssssseek under rockssss in ssstrange country." 

Harry felt his guts tighten with fear, and yet, that might not be what Kauket meant. **Ssisshass** was a complicated word. It could mean eat/devour/kill and it could also mean power/greatness/becoming more than you were, a great snake, because to a snake, eating meant taking the power of the prey and making it into a part of yourself. Harry suddenly knew exactly what **ssisshass **meant. A new meaning--it meant Death Eater.

A cold shiver of dread filled Harry as Edward stretched and rolled over.

"Ssss-silence," demanded Harry. "**sshiss** stirs."

"Morning," said Edward as he climbed out of bed. He stretched again and rubbed his neck absently as he began to get ready for class.

While Edward was in the bathroom, Harry woke Ron and started to tell him about what Kauket had said.

"You have to tell Dumbledore," said Ron. "They think Edward is the prophecy child!"

==

Harry stood in front of the Gargoyle near Dumbledore's office. Maybe this was a mistake. The discussion with McGonagall had upset him, but that wasn't why he was finally seeking out the headmaster. It was because of the conversation with Kauket. What could he tell Dumbledore? Kauket considers the twins as predators, **sshiss**, and she's been with Nagini and Voldemort, but I have no idea of when that happened or when anything else is happening. My scar isn't hurting any more or less, but—what if? There were too many 'what ifs' and Harry wasn't sure what to make of them."

Dumbledore opened the door from the inside. "Harry?" said Dumbledore. "I was just going down to breakfast, but it can wait. Come in."

"Would you like some tea?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry shook his head.

"You look troubled. What is it you wanted to tell me?"

"Professor, you told me to tell you if my scar hurt, but this year it's been hurting all the time. I didn't want to bother you."

"You are not bothering me, Harry."

"Last night, it was hurting worse. I know it doesn't seem like anything, because I've had the headaches all year, but it felt different. I can't quite put my finger on why—I just feel like—impending doom." --Gawd, He thought, I'm starting to sound like Trelawney."

"Have you had any more dreams, since the one the night Beauxbatons was attacked?"

"No." Harry rubbed his hands across his face. "But who can sleep?"

"You're having trouble sleeping?" asked Dumbledore. "Why is that?"

"Headaches," said Harry shortly, "But that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about. Professor McGonagall wanted me to talk to Edward's snake. I did."

"Go on."

"Kauket—that's her name—considers Edward and Ethan to be one. That's very strange because snakes don't usually rely on sight to identify things."

"I understand," said Dumbledore.

"Anyway, she considers them to be predators. She tries to avoid contact with them. And— what concerns me." Harry paused. "She's spoken to another parselmouth—"

"Voldemort," said Dumbledore.

Harry nodded.

"When?" asked Dumbledore.

"I don't know," said Harry. "There's no concept of time, for snakes—the best I could do, was 'long ago', but she said Voldemort would attack the nest at night, and that Edward and Ethan also seek the prophecy child. At least I think that's what she meant. If they are seeking the child, neither of them could _be_ the child, could they?"

"I don't know," said Dumbledore. "I think the best thing for us to do is to be very vigilant."

"Sir?"

"Yes, Harry."

"Do you think that it's that important? I mean, what if the prophecy isn't even true?"

"Of course it's true, Harry. Part of Trelawney's has come true already when you saved Sirius. Plus, Parvati's twin prophecy gives credence to Professor Trelawney's. No, Harry, we know the prediction is true. Why else would someone go to such lengths to stop the Sorting Hat from functioning properly?"

"I just really hope you're wrong about Edward. If he's the prophecy child, I don't think there's much hope for the side of light."

"There's always hope, Harry. There's always hope."

****

==

Breakfast time on Thursday morning brought a flutter of owls to the Gryffindor table. Hermione's copy of the Daily Profit fell onto the table followed by a owl that neither Harry nor Ron recognized. The owl fluttered to Ron, and stuck out his leg. Another owl, Hermes, flew stoically in a circle, waiting for the first owl to get out of the way. He seemed resigned to wait patiently and didn't land on the table until Ron had opened the letter that the strange owl brought. Immediately, Ron refolded the letter and put it into his robe pocket.

"Look at Weasley," Drawled Draco as he passed Gryffindor on his way to the Slytherin table. "Must be his birthday or something--Two owls at once. Oh too bad, doesn't look like either of the packages are big enough to hold some new robes. You'll just have to suffer through with the current rags."

Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.

"Stuff it, Malfoy," snapped Ron. "Obviously you need to borrow Harry's glasses. These are new robes, but you still have the same old insults." He looked meaningfully at Crabbe and Goyle. "The stupidity must be rubbing off," he said.

Draco pulled his wand.

"Tut, Tut, Malfoy," said Harry. "Are you sure you want to do that in the Great Hall?"

Draco glanced up at the head table, where McGonagall was watching her Gryffindors. 

"Later, Weasley," muttered Draco, putting his wand away.

"Who's it from?" asked Harry. "Your Dad?"

"This one is," said Ron, patting his robe pocket. With a scowl, he threw the second letter at Harry. "Percy--What a git—"

"Dear Ron," began the letter. "Of all the hare-brained ideas you've gotten this is the barmiest."

"He gets right to the point, doesn't he?" asked Harry, but Ron ignored him.

Harry continued reading: "Wasn't it bad enough Mr. Crouch was under the Imperious Curse last year? Now the Ministry is just starting to gain respect again and my own brother is spreading these vicious rumors. Please cease and desist! Percy."

Harry folded the letter and handed it back to Ron. "What does your father say?" Asked Harry. 

"I'll tell you when we get back to the room," said Ron as the Great Hall began to crowd with people coming in for breakfast.

==

Harry walked through his classes in some sort of dream world—perhaps that was because he was sleeping so poorly at night. Defense; as usual was a double-edged sword. If you got there early, Snape was likely to ask you to show him your Patronus. Consequently, everyone wanted to come into class just seconds before the start of class. If you came late, of course, you lost house points. Even the Slytherins seemed to be avoiding coming early. Harry shrugged. It was too hard to try to figure it out. With OWL's coming this year, the teachers were already piling on the homework and the trio still hadn't gotten any further with the prophecy, except that Harry repeatedly discussed with them what McGonagall had said about Edward.

Ron was warming up to the idea that maybe Edward was the prophecy child.

"What?" exclaimed Harry shocked.

"After all," Ron said, "The prophecy seems to say they would have _some_ traits of all the houses, but not _all the traits of all of the houses_. It seems to me that Slytherin and Hufflepuff sort of cancel each other out. You would have to be a little crazy to have both of those traits inside of you, don't you think? And he did beat me at chess once."

"I don't know," said Harry. "I never thought of it that way."

"Well, I was thinking of Ginny," said Ron. "You know how having Tom possess her in first year still sometimes bothers her? I think she couldn't quite deal with having Gryffindor thoughts one minute and then Voldemort's thoughts the next. I think this prophecy child shouldn't be that hard to spot. He should have major mood swings."

"Well, I don't think Edward fits that description," said Hermione. "Anyway, I don't see much Hufflepuff in his actions."

Harry told her about the wall in their bedroom, yawning exaggeratedly, and rubbing his forehead. "Oh, and your cat followed me to bed again last night. Can't you keep Crookshanks in your room?" asked Harry.

"He just wanted out. I thought he'd go play in the common room, or chase gnomes for a while," said Hermione. "He can't stay cooped up in my room all the time."

"So Harry, what time did you finally go to bed last night?" asked Ron.

"About four," said Harry, "but I did get my Defense done."

"I didn't," muttered Ron.

"Well, try to stay awake in Defense, Harry," said Hermione with a frown. "Gryffindor can't afford to lose any more points. Samara has already lost enough for the whole year, and it looks like Ron is trying to catch up with her."

==

Harry was so tired and preoccupied that in Defense, even though he did his Patronus several times on cue, twice he couldn't do it. Of course Snape didn't care about the times he got it. Harry even let Snape disarm him—twice. The second time, Snape had hit him with a stunning charm and growled at him to wake up. After that he paid attention. Harry was proud that Snape couldn't get his wand again, even though Harry had a splitting headache. He didn't know if it was from his scar or the stunning charm. 

Harry even managed to disarm Ethan. Ethan reacted by punching him in the face and breaking his nose. The Slytherins thought it was hilarious and Snape told Harry to quit complaining and took house points. Samara sprang to his defense and magically threw Ethan against the wall breaking not only his nose, but also several teeth and putting a serious dent in the dungeon wall. Samara also lost house points and got detention, along with Ron, but Harry couldn't help but be glad she was acting like she was back in Gryffindor. Then Snape sent both Ethan and Harry to Madam Pomfrey, with Draco as their chaperone. Amazingly, Harry got the feeling that Draco hated Ethan almost more than he hated Harry. 

After Harry returned from his trip to Madam Pomfrey, he forgot to spell his cauldron closed in potions and lost more house points. At this rate, Harry thought he'd soon catch up with Samara for most points lost. He was almost ready to borrow Neville's rememberall.

He hurried to the Quiddich pitch for practice. The first game, Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw, was coming up soon. After a whole year of no Quiddich, Harry was anxious to get into the sky and catch that snitch, even if the Ravenclaw seeker was Cho Chang. With a smile, he remembered Wood's almost maniacal zeal for the game. The very first game Harry had played as seeker had been against Ravenclaw and he remembered Wood's comment about Cho: "knock her off her broom!"

Harry arrived at the Quiddich Pitch in time to see the tail end of the Ravenclaw practice. Cho was in a spectacular dive after the snitch, her black hair trailing out behind her like the tail of a streaking comet. Harry found himself coaching in his mind—pull up—pull up—you're going to hit the dirt—but at the last minute she pulled out of the dive with the snitch in hand, and Harry realized it wasn't Cho flying the Nimbus.

Applause from the locker room area made him turn to see Cho Chang applauding. "Great job!" she said, coming forward to congratulate her little sister, Ming.

"Bloody hell," muttered Ron. "I hope they didn't change Seekers. That was one bold dive."

"No fear," said Harry. "It makes a big difference. Cho flies well, but much more conservatively—"

"So did you lose your Seeker job?" Ron teased Cho.

"No, not yet," she said. "Ming is a Chaser this year—youngest chaser in an age-- but Ravenclaw will need a new Seeker soon. It's never too early to get in a little practice." She paused. "How are you, Harry?"

"Fine." Harry looked into her big brown eyes that seemed more liquid than they had a moment ago.

Silence descended like it always did when Harry talked to Cho. It seemed that neither could look at the other without thinking of Cedric. He still thought she was very pretty—but---

"Well, see you—" said Cho, shouldering her broom and walking off the pitch with Ming and the other Ravenclaws.

==

Practice went well, with the regulars, but the substitutes were not so good. 

"Forget it," said Ron. "Let's just eat. I'm starving." But after putting away their brooms and heading up to the Great Hall, Ron decided he needed to go up to the dorm room. After several minutes of waiting for him, Harry started to become annoyed. "I'll meet you at dinner," he told Ron.

"No wait," said Ron.

Everyone had finally gone to dinner except Ron and Harry. "Come on, Ron," said Harry. "What's keeping you?"

"I just need to put this stuff away," said Ron, fussing with several books that Harry had never even seen Ron open. "Psst! Get off, Crookshanks. Ah—here it is."

"What?" asked Harry.

"My dad's letter. Now that everyone is gone, I can show it to you." He handed Harry the letter to read.

Dear Ron,

First of all, your mother insists that I tell you how disappointed we are to hear that you were eavesdropping on a teacher's private conversation. I know you do not like this particular teacher, but I would have thought you had more respect for Headmaster Dumbledore. However, I will not dwell on that topic. What I have to say is more important. 

In a very delicate and embarrassing conversation, I voiced your fears to Professor Dumbledore when he visited the Ministry this past Friday. Of course, I masqueraded those fears as my own. Although he knows that the Ministry official you mentioned has been avoiding the press all summer about declaring that You-Know-Who has risen, I informed him that the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts has seen an increase in magical mischief among muggles and my department is not the only one affected. I feel that it is possible that a high official or officials are in league with You-Know-Who. Dumbledore flatly denied it, saying that those officials may be stupid and should be closely watched, but especially the official you mentioned, is not evil.

Ron, say nothing about what you saw. I'm afraid lives or at least one life may be at stake. Even though he may not be your favorite teacher, I'm sure you don't want his death on your conscience. I am hesitant to owl more. I hope you can read between the lines. I will talk to the twins when they next are here, and if you wish, you can discuss this with them. If what you say is true, DO NOT OWL. Owls, especially Pig, are fickle creatures. The stupid bird delivered your message to me at the Ministry, and didn't even wait for a reply. I don't blame you for the mistake. I saw you addressed the letter to home, but Pig didn't take it there. Do not reply with this ministry owl. Simply feed him and send him back to me. We'll talk soon. 

Be careful and don't take anymore midnight strolls. These are dangerous times.

Love,

Dad.

"Dumbledore denied it?" Repeated Harry. 

"Yeah," said Ron. "That's what I thought. Strange huh? He denied that Fudge is a Death Eater? We both heard Snape! How could Dumbledore deny it?"

"Well," said Harry. "If Snape really is a spy for the Light, I guess if would get him in very big trouble with Voldemort if everyone knew about Fudge, especially if only Snape and Voldemort know about Fudge."

"So Dumbledore is protecting Snape." Ron shook his head. 

"That must be it," said Harry, scanning the letter again. "He seems to spend a lot of time protecting and defending Snape," Harry added bitterly. Neither of them mentioned Dumbledore's supposed lack of protection for Harry, but it was on both of their minds.

"Come on," said Ron. "You'll feel better after dinner. And if you want to take anymore midnight strolls," added Ron. "You know I'm with you, no matter what Dad says--"

"Thanks," said Harry. "It feels good to know that I'm not totally deserted."

"Well, it's not like Dumbledore has ever been there when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is attacking you—"

"It's different now," said Harry.

"You're not sure," said Ron.

Harry didn't answer right away. "Let's go to dinner," he said.

==

At dinner, Hermione nudged Harry almost as soon as he sat down. "Did you see who is at the head table?" she asked.

"Professor Lupin," said Harry excitedly, and looking near Lupin's feet he saw his godfather in his animagus form. The dark eyes of the dog rested on Harry and when Harry looked at him, he started to get up, and then thought better of it. Instead, he thumped his tail wildly on the floor.

"Let's go see them," said Harry, standing and heading for the table. There was so much he wanted to tell Sirius, he was nearly bursting. "Hi Professor Lupin," said Harry. "It's good to see you back safe and sound."

"Yes," echoed Ron and Hermione. 

Harry patted Sirius. "Do you think Snuffles might like to go for a run outside after dinner?" asked Harry. 

"I think he'd like that,"' said Lupin. "I was going to send him up to your room for a while tonight."

"No," said Harry quickly. "I don't think that's a good idea."

The thumping of the dog's tail stopped and he whined softly. 

"After dinner, then," said Harry and the trio went back to finish their meal.

"I'm so glad Sirius is here," said Harry softly. "I would have sent him an owl earlier—"

"Why didn't you?" asked Ron. "After what Snape and Dumbledore said about—" Ron's voice dropped to a whisper—"The Ministry."

"I couldn't," said Harry. "I haven't gotten Hedwig back yet from Hagrid. I'm starting to get worried about her. I mean I could have sent a school owl, but—" Harry shrugged. "Anyway, after what we heard about Lupin, I hated to bother Sirius with my problems."

"Harry," Hermione admonished. "I'm sure Sirius wanted to hear from you."

Harry shrugged again. "Anyway, I'm glad he's here now," he said. When dinner was finished, they collected Snuffles and went out the main door onto the grounds. Snuffles bounded ahead to Hagrid's cabin and the trio realized that Sirius had a plan. Once inside of Hagrid's cabin, Snuffles transformed into Sirius Black and hugged Harry. 

"It's good to see you," Sirius said. "Dumbledore suggested we use Hagrid's hut to talk. I was worried about you."

"I was worried about you too," said Harry. "Especially after the message you gave to McGonagall."

Sirius frowned. "How did you know about that message?" he asked.

"Invisibility cloak," said Harry, "but that's not important. What's important is that Cornelius Fudge is a Death Eater!"

"How would you know that?" snapped Sirius concerned.

"You have to believe us," said Harry, but he was hesitant to tell Sirius how he knew. In fact, he wondered if his little piece of information endangered Snape's life. Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. Snape and Sirius were not exactly friends.

"I do believe you," said Sirius, "But this news obviously isn't as top secret as Dumbledore thought it was."

"Yes, it is," said Ron. "Harry and I overheard Snape and Dumbledore talking in the library."

"You mean you eavesdropped," said Sirius. "This isn't child's play," he admonished. He shook his head, and conjured some tea. "Sit down and tell me what happened," he said as he filled the cups. "Much as I dislike Snape, I don't want to be the cause of his death."

Sirius listened intently as the boys filled him in about the conversation that Dumbledore and Snape had in the restricted section of the library. Finally, he nodded. "That is at least part of what Lupin and I are trying to do—warn the people at the Ministry. We are the only two wizards that Dumbledore has told since we are working in that area. Unfortunately, we don't really know for sure where other wizard's loyalties lie--"

"Snape wants Dumbledore to give me to Voldemort," blurted Harry.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "That black-hearted bastard," he swore. "At least, Dumbledore would never do that!" 

"I'm not so sure," said Harry. "Dumbledore said 'as a last resort' he might have to—"

"No. No. No." said Sirius. Dumbledore would _never_ do that. Never. You must be mistaken.

"I heard it with my own ears," Harry protested. 

"Invisibility cloak?" asked Sirius. 

"Yes," said Harry.

"Well, I guess you are making better use of it than your father and I did. Mostly we just used it for pranks. I'll have to talk to Dumbledore about this."

"No!" shouted Harry, Ron and Hermione together. 

"You can't," continued Harry. "We were in the restricted section of the library at midnight when we heard this—Please--"

"There's something else too," interrupted Hermione. "It's about the Longbottoms. Do you know anything about them? Anything about when they were tortured?"

"Not really," said Sirius. "I was already in Askaban when the Lestranges, Barty Crouch and Chuck Snood were arrested. The Malfoys were implicated too, I believe, but they claimed they were under the Imperious curse."

"They weren't," said Harry. "They were there. Snape's been trying to break a memory charm that's on Neville. I didn't want Neville to go there alone, so I went with him."

"Under the Invisibility cloak again?" said Sirius.

"Yes."

"Bloody hell, boy, you're going to get yourself killed. I've a good mind to take that cloak off of you!"

Harry's voice was suddenly cold. "I've been taking care of myself, for quite a few years, Sirius. What I need from you is information, not lectures. That's been the trouble all along. _No one ever tells me anything!_ For example, I wouldn't have known about _you _if I hadn't used the Invisibility cloak. Nor would I have been able to help a certain Hippogrift to fly one evening. And another thing--did you know that I—or my mother's protection—killed someone?"

"Laurel Avery," said Sirius. "The Ministry thought she tried to finish what Voldemort started. Whoever was with her, just took Voldemort's wand and left you in the ashes."

"Why doesn't anyone _tell _me these things?" shouted Harry. 

"What could you have done about Laurel Avery?" asked Sirius. "Nothing. So there was no need to upset you."

"I go to school with her daughter," yelled Harry.

"So what? It's not like you're friends with her," Sirius yelled right back.

"Of course not. She's a Slytherin!"

"Stop it, you two," interrupted Hermione. "This isn't helping anything. You care about each other. This isn't the time to fight."

"You're right, Hermione," said Sirius, pulling Harry into a tight embrace which Harry didn't return. "I love you like you were my own son, Harry. I'm worried about you. I don't think Voldemort will ever give up trying to find you. Until Voldemort is dead, you are in danger. Please be more careful. Promise me."

Harry nodded shortly, unsure of how to react. He had so few hugs in his life, that when Sirius got like this, he wasn't sure what to do. 

"About Snape and Neville," said Harry. "I would have tried to break Neville's memory charm myself, but after he tried to Imperio Snape—"

"Imperio! That doesn't sound like a memory charm," said Sirius. "From what I understand, it hurts to remember, and therefore, most people just ignore the memory. That's the beauty of it. The person under the charm, doesn't want to remember. If the memory itself is unpleasant—something like Neville's parents being tortured—it doesn't make sense to add a memory charm—most of the time a baby will forget anyway--unless the memory charm is for something else that the Longbottom's said while being tortured."

"The Malfoy's gave them veritaserium," said Harry. "Snape was putting the thoughts into a pensieve and that's where it goes solid silver—right after the veritaserium."

"Even so," said Sirius. "Imperio wouldn't be part of a memory charm. The idea is to keep from drawing attention to the memory. Usually people get the facts mixed up and their answers to questions about the memory don't make sense. If the wizard tried to use Imperio, it would undermine the secrecy. Do you see?"

"Could it be two separate spells?" suggested Hermione. "Perhaps one was put on Neville as a baby and then extra reinforcement was added by Crouch last year."

"Right," said Harry. He explained to Sirius what had happened to Neville last year in DADA class when Moody did the crucious curse, and how Moody took him aside and had tea. Neville also told them that Snape gave him tea, and Harry saw Snape put a potion in the tea. 

"The potion was probably a good thing," said Sirius, his eyes suddenly took on a strange haunted look. "Although my only experience with having memories sifted through is by dementers, it's my understanding that it is never pleasant, even when done by a very caring medwitch or medwizard. I doubt that Snape is the most gentle person to remove a memory charm. And if it's not done correctly, the memory can be permanently damaged."

Harry shivered. "Well, Neville seems to be all right. They're just working on the memory charm now. Neville finally broke the imperio after Snape made him realize that it was Barty Crouch, Jr., who placed the charm last year.

"Would the placement of the memory charm damage the memory too?" asked Ron. "Neville is terribly forgetful."

"I don't know enough about memory charms to tell you that," said Sirius. "But I think this is something that Dumbledore ought to know about. I know Dumbledore thinks that Snape is totally turned around and he has renounced his ties with Voldemort, but this just shows that Snape wants to hold all the cards. I wouldn't be surprised if that bat is playing both sides in this war."

Harry nodded. "That reminds me of something else," said Harry. "When we were in the library, Snape was looking at a book. It was chained and he didn't want Dumbledore to know that he was looking at it. He banished it back to the shelf before Dumbledore saw it."

"Do you remember the title of the book," said Sirius. "Or could you even see it?"

"I saw it," said Harry. "It seemed familiar somehow, but I couldn't remember where I saw it. The title was 'Mors Mordre'."

"Harry!" Hermione interrupted. "You didn't tell me it was Mors Mordre! That's the spell for the Dark Mark. Don't you remember?"

"That's it!" said Ron. "Snape must have conjured the Dark Mark above the Hogwart's Express!"

"Not necessarily," said Hermione. "He could have been looking for a way to tell who actually _did _conjure it."

"What!" Shouted Sirius. "What Dark Mark!"

"Didn't you know?" said Harry. "The Dark Mark was conjured above the Hogwart's Express after the train crash."

"No!" said Sirius in a rush. "I didn't know. I thought there was a mechanical failure—"

"I still think it had to be a student," said Hermione. "Snape wasn't even on the Hogwart's Express."

"Daily Prophet," said Ron.

"It wasn't a mechanical failure," said Harry. "And the first years were locked in—someone had it in for them, but Dumbledore didn't want to cause a panic among the first years. Ron and Hermione and I got on our brooms and got some of the students out—all the upperclassmen did. By the time we got to the first years' compartments, the Hogwart's wards had nullified the locking spells. Everyone got out all right except some people got some burns. They even had the Sorting—a lot of good that did—"

"Yes," said Sirius. "Dumbledore told me about the Sorting Hat not sorting. So how's that mentoring thing working out?"

"Well, that's why I didn't want to talk to you in my room," said Harry. "I'm not too sure about some of the new students. First, there's Edward, whose twin is in Slytherin, and McGonagall and Dumbledore think he's the prophecy child. Then there's Samara who seems to be dating Draco—but I do think she belongs in Gryffindor. She has detention tonight. Lou is almost surely a Ravenclaw, but he wants to stay in Gryffindor. He's Neville's 'little brother' and I think Neville really likes him, but now with this memory charm thing, I'm not sure Neville should trust him either. I've been double locking my trunk with a muggle lock and using wizard wards too.

Sirius shook his head. "Harry, I had no idea. I think we need to talk to Dumbledore right away."

"I'm a little nervous after he said he would turn me over to Voldemort if it would keep this new prophecy child safe. And he told me to try to be friends with Edward. I just don't trust the boy. Sirius. I don't know who to trust."

"You can trust me," he said softly. "And you can trust Dumbledore too. He would never turn you over to--Voldemort. He must have been just pacifying Snape. You don't know how he can get. Once he sets his mind to something, he's like a dog with a bone—"

Ron burst out laughing. 

"What?" asked Sirius.

"Well, Snuffles," began Hermione. 

"Oh. I see," said Sirius with a sheepish grin. "I guess I should have said he can be as persistent as a Hufflepuff." His grin widened.

Considering Snape as Hufflepuff-anything was ludicrous, and Harry said so. 

Sirius shrugged with a twinkle in his eye. "I'm going to see Dumbledore. You coming, Harry?"

"Tonight?" said Harry.

"Yeah. Why not? The sooner the better and I think you should come with me."

Harry nodded. "OK," said Harry thoughtfully, but when they reached the castle, Dumbledore was not in his office. Sirius knew the password: 'Peppermint Poppers', but instead of opening wide, a message appeared on the door. 'Headmaster Dumbledore is not available. If you have an emergency, please see Professor McGonagall in her office on the first floor.'

"That's strange," said Harry. "It never did that before."

"New security? Perhaps?" suggested Ron. "By the way, Sirius, do you know what happened to Fred and George? They're back, but Dumbledore is keeping them in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey said they're fine, but she wouldn't let me see them." 

"I'm sure Dumbledore is updating some security measures," agreed Sirus Black. "There was an accident at the Ministry. Lyle and the twins were with Remus when it happened. I'm sure Dumbledore doesn't want the whole school to know the particulars. He'll make an announcement when he thinks it wise, and we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to talk to him."

"I guess," said Harry and the threesome headed back to Gryffindor tower.

"Just as they entered," Hermione tugged on Harry's robe and whispered, "Do you think Neville is still with Snape? I didn't want to say anything about that in front of Sirius." 

"I'm getting my cloak," replied Harry, but when he went upstairs, he saw Neville lying stretched out across his still made bed. All of his clothes were still on including his shoes, but he was snoring loudly. Harry pulled off his shoes. He tried to get his robe out from under him because it was going to be terribly wrinkled, but Neville was too big for Harry to lift. In the end, he just pulled a spare blanket up over Neville's prone form, and headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Invisibility cloak in his pocket, to talk to Ron and Hermione.

"We must have missed his session with Snape," Harry lamented. "Neville is already in the room. And he's asleep. Ron," said Harry as he pulled out the Invisibility cloak. "Let's go see the twins in the hospital wing. Coming with us Hermione?"

But Hermione had already set up the books on the table for a late night study session. She moved Crookshanks off of her papers and onto a pillow that she put out for him, although he hardly seemed inclined to stay there. "Harry! Ron! You don't seem to be concerned at all that OWL's are in just a little over eight months. It's hardly enough time to prepare!"

==

****

REVIEW. Only 10 reviews needed for the next chapter to magically appear. 

****

A/N: Coming soon: More about what happened to Sirius and Lupin, the first Quiddich game, Hermione gets some interesting mail from Viktor, and of course, more of our favorite Slytherins. I estimate that there will be approximately 50 chapters total in this book. Right now, I have 45, but I may split a couple, when I do the re-writes.

****

MY FAVORITE PART—CHEERS TO ALL OF MY FAITHFUL REVIEWERS. WHILE YOU ARE WAITING FOR AN UPDATE ON THIS FIC, GO READ MY OTHER FICS. If you are looking for a good read, most of my reviewers have some good stories on fanfic. Check them out!

++

****

Reiven: You are just awesome. Love your insights. So you figured out the Basilisk skin, core. And don't be too rough on Cho; she's lost Cedric, remember. She's just a little bitter. 

****

Kemenran: Thanks for the review.

****

Raven: Glad you liked Tom, Baron and Myrtle, and the Ravenclaw stuff too. Probably 50 chapters or so, but I'm already working on a sequel.

****

Silverfox: I've read your fics. No doubt in my mind. You're Slytherin, even though you like the Hufflepuff Wall and Stuffed Badgers. Come to think of it, most Slytherins like their badgers stuffed. Lol.

****

Trillium: Glad you liked Ravenclaw and Crookshanks. Cho doesn't know what happened with Harry and Voldie. Harry never told her in my book. Of course, he never even told Ron and Hermione. I do have a website that I got a lot of the aura information. I'll look for it and try to remember to put it here.

****

Plash Ricrem: Did you like Filch's punishment for Harry? And I I'm sorry it took so long to update. I was out roaming the street looking for Snape. Oh, well, maybe the old bat flew away.

****

Melbell: Sorry you had to wait so long for Ravenclaw. Hope it was worth it.

****

Reiven: OK that you are reviewing more than once. I'm excited that you can't wait around for the other people who don't know what they are missing. Also, I agree with some of your thoughts about Dumbledore and OOP. I like yours better. Why don't you write a fanfic about it. lol. Anyway, I wrote a poem on OOP, something like The Night Before OOP. It's a paraody but for those of you who loved OOP, you shouldn't read my poem. 

****

Reiven: You just stumbled across this story or chapter One? Anyway, thanks for the comparison to JK. Wow!

****

Reiven: Kneazel? HMMMM. Lily Potter? JK mentions the color of Crookshanks eyes. They are yellow, and Lily's are green. You were right. Yours was the tenth update, but I was at a horse show and didn't have the review answers typed until today. Sorry for the delay.

****

Blue blond sorcerress: So you are sticking me to my computer are you? Lol Ravenclaw is up, so don't get your wand out. No need for Crucio.

Now to all of those who haven't yet reviewed this chapter. Now is the time. **Review**. Click the little button on the left corner and tell me what you think. Remember, 10 reviews equals a new chapter. Sure beats paying for it, doesn't it?

Lady Lestrange

(Good stuff coming. You don't' want to miss it.)

==


	37. CH 36: SisshasssASisshasss

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

Sisshasss-A-Sisshasss

(A/N: I know, I have to come up with a good name for the Ravenclaw chapter. Why isn't anyone helping me? This is your review challenge. Help me out. Think of a good name, and you get a yummy picture of your choice: Tom, Draco Harry or Ginny under an Invisibility cloak.)

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job. In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. Stay tuned for more Neville and his awesome auror parents coming up after this--

****

AND NOW ON TO THE STORY:

Sisshasss-A-Sisshasss

(A/N: You remember what that title means right? Or do you need a parseltongue brush up course? 10 suck up points to anyone who tells me what the parseltongue means in their review).

Harry awoke on Friday wishing that he had just had another bad dream. Unfortunately, real life seemed worse than his dreams right now. Fred and George had been gone from the school for the past five days, spreading the word that the Ministry was compromised. When they came back, yesterday, they were secretly put in the hospital wing to give them a little rest and privacy. No one knew what had happened at first, but last night, he and Ron, under the invisibility cloak, had finally visited them, after they had completed their conversation with Sirius. 

They learned that the twins, along with Lupin, and Lyle Applegate had approached Rookwood to tell him about the Ministry being compromised and allowing him a chance to join Dumbledore and the side of Light. Instead of answering, Rookwood drew his wand, and spoke **Avada Kedavara, **killing Lyle Applegate. Only due to the lightening quick werewolf reflexes of Lupin were the rest of them still alive. Rookwood was taken to trial where today, in spite of Dumbledore's testimony, the Minister Cornelius Fudge pronounced that Rookwood was under the Imperious curse when he spoke the spell that killed Lyle Applegate before the eyes of three other wizards. The twin's testimony was not admissible because they were under age and Lupin, as a werewolf was not trusted. Therefore, Rookwood was released back to his old job of supervisor of the Askaban guard.

"We should have cursed the old bastard first," said George. Lupin told us that he was suspected before for dealing in the Dark Arts.

"You can't condemn someone before they even have a trial," said Harry. "Then we'd be as bad as Barty Crouch, Sr."

Lyle never even got to play keeper," said Fred. "Not one game." His voice caught and he started to cry. 

Harry had never seen the twins so depressed, and it shook him to the core of his soul. 

"We brought some food from the kitchens," Ron told them, but the food went untouched.

Ron and Harry stood by helplessly watching. 

When they got back to their common room, Ron turned to him. "I don't want to play keeper," he said softly. "Not like this."

It was Hermione who finally snapped them out of their despondency. "I know what you need," she said, pulling the Invisibility cloak back around them. "You need to get this mystery solved. We have to find the prophecy child and win that child to the side of Light, and crush Voldemort once and for all."

"Where are we going?" Asked Harry.

"To the Library." said Ron. "Where else?" 

"No," said Hermione. "My room. I got a package from Viktor today."

"Really?" said Harry. "Why didn't we see it at breakfast when the owls came in?"

"Because Dumbledore is having all owls with items from Albania, Drumstrang and points east, delivered to him. Students have to open the packages in his office to be sure they aren't receiving some kind of dark artifacts."

"You didn't open it in front of Dumbledore?" said Ron.

"Of course not," said Hermione. "Anyway, he was at the Ministry. I just told Professor McGonagall it was a gift from Viktor--a book I had wanted. She knew I had visited Viktor this summer in Bulgaria."

"We're definitely a bad influence on her," said Ron. "Lying to McGonagall—"

"I wasn't lying," said Hermione, incensed.

"Come on," said Harry.

Once in Hermione's room, the boys waited anxiously, while Hermione opened the box that contained Salazar's book. First she pulled out a parchment. "That's Victor's letter," she said nervously refolding it. "He thinks now, because I sent him the question about the Founders, that maybe we could pick up where we left off. He says now that he's learned how to apparate that will make all the difference.

Harry said nothing, but Ron turned a little red around the ears. "What did you tell him?" he demanded. 

"Nothing yet," said Hermione, pulling out another package that fell open. Inside was a second book, entitled: Bamboozling_ the Basilisk: Saving the Boy Who Lived and other Students from Slytherin's Serpent,_ by Gilderoy Lockhart.

"What's this?" asked Harry picking up the book and looking at the picture. On the cover was a very bad rendition of Harry Potter caught in the coils of what looked like a large, but very ordinary snake. Obviously, the illustrator had never seen a basilisk, then on the other hand; people who did see basilisks generally died before they could draw pictures. On the Chamber floor next to Harry and the snake was Lockhart, defending Ron. Ron held his defective wand aloft, which made him look like he had botched the spell as he stood over Ginny who was curled in a terrified ball.

Neither Ron nor Harry spoke, but Ron looked like he was ready to explode any second.

"I didn't ask him to send that," said Hermione. "I—he knew I liked Lockhart and well—the rest of the world still thinks Lockhart is a very prominent wizard, so, I'm sure, Viktor just thought it would help—"

Harry looked again at the picture. His image was now struggling against the snake, which was thrashing wildly about the Chamber like a muggle cartoon. Although Harry's image had been turned upside down several times, he had not lost his glasses, nor had his hair moved from its neatly parted style and Ron still was showering the Chamber with fireworks from his spello-taped wand. The tiny firework flames were rebounding off of the snake and disappearing in puffs of smoke. All the while, Ginny wailed like a two year old in a temper tantrum. Gilderoy brandished a very tacky Sword of Godric Gryffindor, which looked oddly like something that could be bought in a muggle discount store. Harry couldn't help it. He burst into laughter. 

"It's not funny," said Ron. "That git didn't have anything to do with saving anyone from that basilisk! I thought he lost his memory."

"He did," said Hermione. "He's still in St. Mongo's. This story was written by a ghost writer."

"But someone had to tell the story," said Harry. "He wasn't even there!"

Hermione shook her head sadly. "His other books were fabrication. Why not this one?"

"Forget it," Ron grabbed the text and tossed it into the corner where Hermione had a stack of used parchment she apparently hadn't yet bothered to clear for re-use. It hit the wall and fell open and unheeded in the corner. "Where's Salazar's book?"

"It's here," said Hermione. "But you'll never guess where Viktor finally found it."

"Where?" asked Harry.

"Knockturn Alley. The Librarian at Drumstrang told him that he had seen a copy of such a book at a used bookstore there, so since Viktor was excited to practice his apparition, he went there to get it."

"I'm surprised he didn't just apparate it here," said Ron dryly.

"He wanted to," said Hermione, "But of course, the apparition wards around Hogwarts prevented that. She bit her lip.

"And?" prompted Ron, but Hermione didn't answer.

"Let's just see what it says," said Harry opening the thin green book at random. A mixture of symbols met his eyes. He had no idea what they were. Suddenly they swam before his eyes, becoming in his mind's eye so many snakes. "Speak to me," he hissed in parseltongue, and the book in his hand suddenly wrapped itself tightly around Harry's left wrist. While moving and slithering up his arm, it began to speak, in parseltongue, for Harry's ears only: _Only one of my blood will be able to speak the great language of the ancient serpents. Only my heir will have the gift either from my blood or from my work. Only you will—_

****

"Stupefy!" Ron and Hermione stood in front of Harry with wands drawn and the book lay slythering madly on the floor. Then it was still: a small innocuous, green book.

"What did you do that for?" demanded Harry.

"Harry, it was going to bite you," said Hermione. "I don't think you should pick it up again."

"Well, how are we supposed to read it? It's in parseltongue. Neither of you can read it," he snapped.

"Harry," said Ron, grasping Harry by the shoulders. "Calm down, Mate. We'll conquer this together."

"What do you mean together!" shouted Harry. "Since when have we conquered anything together? Ever! Who faced Quirrel and Voldemort at the Third Floor Corridor?"

Ron flinched at the name of Voldemort, but Harry continued hotly, his wand now drawn. "Who saved your sister's life in the Chamber? Were you there? No! You were babysitting that git Lockhart! Were you there in the maze? Did you take hold of the Tri-Wizard Cup with me? Did you? Did you see—see—my parents? –Did you--duel with the imposter? No! You are—"

****

"Stupefy!" The spell hit Harry squarely from behind, and he crumpled mid-sentence. "What in the bloody hell are you three doing?" Ginny demanded. 

"Language, Ginny," said Ron softly, "We got a book," he continued, indicating the volume on the floor.

Ginny sat on her bed and began to laugh, but it was not a pleasant laughter, it was a high pitched maniacal laughter. "You got a book," she said. "And Harry tried to read it? Let me see."

"No. I don't think we should," said Ron protectively.

Hermione levitated the book with her wand and opened it to the first page. "I touched it before," said Hermione, "But now, that I've seen what it did to Harry, I'm not so sure I should have touched it. It hissed at Harry, and then--"

"It spoke in parseltongue," said Ginny, as she moved forward to examine the book. 

"I feel like I've seen this book before." Ginny searched her brain for a memory that she felt should be there, but wasn't. "It's in parseltongue—" she continued, glancing back at Harry who was still unconscious, on the floor.

"Harry?" said Hermione. 

"I don't know—" said Ginny frowning. "Maybe we should take him to Madam Pomfrey."

"Or maybe he will be alright now that he's not in contact with the book," said Ron. "What do you think Hermione? You know how Harry hates to be in the hospital wing—"

****

"Ennervate!" said Hermione.

"Oh," said Harry as he awoke and clutched his scar. "Headache." He looked around at Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "Who stunned me?" He asked.

"I did," said Ginny. "Sorry."

"I heard the book," said Harry. "It's definitely parseltongue and if I just—" he reached out for the book again. 

"No!" shouted all three of them together. 

"Don't touch it," said Hermione. "Let's just look at it like this first." She flipped to the first page, which had English writing on it. It said:

**__**

This book was written for a parselmouth. If you are not a parselmouth, you should pass this book on to another. It does not belong to you. If you wish to learn the secrets here, turn the page and sign your name in your own blood. I hereby trade, all that I am, to learn--

Hermione turned the page with her wand and examined the next page. It said_, I dedicate my life and death to the purification of the wizarding world._ The signature section was completely blank. But that meant nothing, thought Ginny. The blood could seep into the page like it did in the Diary. Hermione turned the page. Here were the squiggle lines that Harry had first looked at. To Ginny, they seemed to be moving. Apparently, Harry saw something different too.

"If I just—" he reached out again, and Ron pushed him back.

"Harry if you try to touch it again, we're going to have to take you to Madam Pomfrey. Can't you just look at it and read it?"

"I don't remember that much," said Ginny thoughtfully, "but it's not like there are thousands of letters in Parseltongue. We should be able to translate, without your touching it, Harry. Snakes don't have the range of sounds that human beings have. This squiggle is 's'. This one is 'sh'. This one, 'ths'." She continued through the sounds for a moment and then Harry began correcting her and putting his own sounds in.

"Not 'ths'," he said. "That's 'fs'."

"You're right," Ginny agreed.

"Doesn't sound any different to me," Ron whispered to Hermione.

"Me either," she agreed.

"Of course, I had the same trouble with 'Wingardium Leviosa ,' Ron continued still at a whisper. 

"'Wingardium Leviosa-a," Hermione corrected.

Ron rolled his eyes. As if he didn't know that spell—sometimes Hermione could be so dense.

"Turn the page, Hermione," said Ginny.

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. Neither wanted to say how creepy this was, listening to the two of them hiss at each other, but they also didn't want to leave. It seemed that the book might still have some hold over Harry and they didn't want to take any chances with Harry or Ginny. 

"There's a lot of other things I'd like to read in this book," said Harry but I think this is the spell that Salazar used to put his gift in the Sorting Hat. Hermione, get the copy we have from the library. I want to compare them."

Hermione nodded.

"OK, first line," said Harry. 

Ginny hissed, and frowned. "Is that right?" she asked.

Harry looked over her shoulder checking. "Yes, that's right," he said. "Definitely." Harry hissed and then translated. "My word makes all tremble with dread. Speak with my gift until they are dead."

Hermione sucked in her breath, "And the rest of the founders heard: What I put in the hat comes out in your head. Speak with my gift. You've NOTHING to dread?"

The next line seemed to be a bit more confusing. Harry and Ginny couldn't quite agree. "In the copy," said Harry, "We have the word, Slytherin."

"It just means snake," said Harry.

"But in parseltongue," said Ginny, "It is a very specific kind of snake. It is a young snake, that devours its nestmates—like the basilisk does—but not necessarily just a basilisk, and the way the reference is set up, I think Salazar means this is his heir." She shook off Ron's hand, which he had placed, on her shoulder.

"Then, the next part," said Ginny means eating, or giving power by feeding, but it doesn't make sense. It says 'feeding is feeding'."

"No," said Harry. "**Sisshasss**, can mean feeding or it can mean power. It is power is gained by feeding. Death/eating/devour completely—Death Eaters." 

"You're right," Ginny agreed. **Sisshasss**, but the familiar, is still the basilisk." 

"Yes, but Salazar obviously wanted his heir to "free the nest of vermin" rather than "set free". 

"So," said Ron, "Salazar asked his heir to continue his work to kill muggle borns—what else is new?"

"And squibs," said Harry.

"But it doesn't look like he's **asking,"** said Ginny. 

"We were right though about Salazar giving exact directions on how to open the Chamber," said Harry. "What Ginny and I are not sure about is—if Salazar gave his heir the choice—"

"He didn't," insisted Ginny.

"But," said Ron, "It says: Open the door with your precious voice. When where and how, I leave to your choice."

"No," said Harry. "That's what Salazar wanted the other founders to believe that he said."

"So what did he really say?" asked Hermione. 

"Just how to find the Chamber, and he sings its praises. It really is the best place to raise a basilisk, and that was Salazar's goal: to raise a basilisk and use it as a weapon. There's also nothing about a language. Apparently either the heir would already have parseltongue, or if the Hat gave it to him, which I think may be probable, he didn't have to learn it. It was just part of the gift."

"I'm sure, Salazar's gifts came with a price," said Ginny. "Let me look at it again."

"And the brave and wise stuff—the stuff about 'your toil', its just not there at all. I think he just put it in to make the other founders happy, and there's nothing about toil." Said Harry.

"No toil?" said Ginny. " So what does this word mean, Harry? **hisssuss**. Is it some kind of slave, or worker?" 

"It means all that you are—prey," said Harry softly.

Suddenly Ginny remembered another telling her—It won't take much to free me from the diary—just all that you are—" She could see the scrawled round letters swim before her eyes, and hear the basilisk hissing, just before it struck--**sisshasss**, **hisssuss**.

For one wild moment, Ginny wished that she had the diary back. She wanted to understand. She could ask Tom. She felt that it was imperitive that she understand, and then she mentally berated herself. The last thing in the world that she wanted back was that diary! Tom Riddle had caused enough turmoil in her life. She shuddered, remembering.

"Well let's see what we have," said Ron looking over Hermione's shoulder. She had written notes comparing the two verses—the one in parseltongue for his heir and the one in English for the founders.

****

English--------------------------------**Parseltongue**

What I put in the hat.-----------Speak with my gift 

comes out in your head -------until they are dead

Speak with my gift. -------------My word makes them 

You've nothing to dread------ tremble with dread.

Slytherin who --------------------Heir of mine--

weakness abhors---------------- Cannibalistic snakes

Power is here—say "yes"------Power is death-eater.

and it's yours.

A familiar I lend you; -----------Obviously the basilisk 

close your eyes and ------------ but to

you'll see.-------------------------- free the place of vermin

A powerful ally, to bind -------- (school?) 

or set free-------------------------------------------

Of evil and sloth -----------------of mudbloods and squibs?

your world she'll purge-----------------------------

----------------------------------------Abominations 

----------------------------------------cannot endure --- 

----------------------------------------ambition's urge 

-----------------------------------------Salazar's obsession

-----------------------------------------with pureblood.

---------------------------------------- abominations. 

Open the door ---------------------In snake's way 

with your precious voice-------- of measuring,

When where and how,------------ but exact directions

I leave to your choice------------- to the Chamber of Secrets-

-----------------------------------------It's the best place to raise basilisks.

For I've left a language--------------Follow my instructions. 

In the Hat that Sorts-----------------------------------------------------

My instructions, My power,------------- No language stuff is in 

your brains and cohorts------------------- the Sorting Hat.

--------------------------------------------------Salazar's actual spell is

--------------------------------------------------My instructions, My power,

--------------------------------------------------MY brains and MY cohorts

Be braver than brave --------------------Better than brave 

and wiser than wise ---------------------and Better than wise. 

For with your toil, --------------------Toil isn't right-It means 

your ambition will rise. --------------all that you are-

---------------------------------------------prey-**hissus** (Nothing 

--------------------------------------------- about the other Person)

--------------------------------------------Salazar's power, Salazar's ambition.

"This is what we have found out," said Hermione. "I think it means—"

"It means," interrupted Ginny, "That Tom never had a choice! I had a choice. I **chose** to write in that diary. It was a bad choice, but it was mine. **Mine!** Tom never chose. They TOLD HIM to put the hat on his head. THEY TOLD HIM.

"Ginny! Ginny!" Ron was trying to hold her, and speak to her. "He was no innocent! He's evil!"

"No-o-o-o-o! He was eleven!" Ginny shouted. "Don't you see, he hadn't done anything wrong—he just obeyed his teachers—"

"He did make a choice," said Harry. "He could have chosen a different house."

"He may have belonged in Slytherin, but he shouldn't have had to pay that price! He didn't know! He was raised by muggles. He didn't know any wizards. How could he know?" Ginny screeched red-faced. "If something offers a boy power—a boy who never had anything of his own—Something that says you can be the greatest wizard of all time—Something that your teacher has just told you to TRUST! How else would he answer? Who would say no?—No one—No one would--"

"I said no," Harry said softly.

"But you had already met Ron—" Ginny began.

Hermione and Ron turned to look at Harry, shock and fear written all over their faces. 

"Harry?" squeaked Ron, "The Hat offered you Slytherin?"

Harry nodded silently.

"Me too," muttered Ron. "I was always afraid to tell you, mate—"

"Ugh!" Cried Hermione. "How could it even think of Slytherin?"

"How could it think _at all_?" said Ginny cryptically, turning to leave the room. 

"Ginny, where are you going?" asked Ron. "It's late."

Ginny's voice rose into an imitation of her mother's "Haven't we told you never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. It's clearly full of dark magic!" 

Ron stared at her.

"It was Godric Gryffindor's hat," said Hermione.

"I don't care if it was __ hat. It was Full of Dark Magic and they put it on his head. **_They-put-it-on-all-of-our-heads!_** I have to think," she said, and pulling out of his grasp, she headed out of the common room. 

"Ginny wait," said Ron.

She wanted to be alone. Sometimes when she was alone, she could almost feel His presence. Almost—but it was just make-believe. Fantasy, she reminded herself. He was gone. There were only the random bits and memories, but maybe that would help her understand. She needed quiet to feel close to Him. She should have stayed in her room—put up the privacy shield—but it was hard to do that when she knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the room. They wouldn't let her close herself off like that. Even Hermione was so protective. It wasn't like first year--

As she walked along the corridor, she heard Filch, but she wasn't scared of Filch. She had far too much dirt on the old squib for him to turn her in, and he knew it. He had known it since first year.

She had reached the second floor bathroom and stood outside of it for a long while, waiting and listening. Tonight, there were no ghosts. Where were they? "Tom?" she whispered. "Tom! Damn you!"

"She knew some would say that He was already damned. He was evil, but she didn't believe it. Oh, Tom," she muttered to herself. "You were innocent."

Even as the thought crossed her mind, she wondered if Tom Riddle had ever been truly innocent, and yet she suddenly knew, there really was a Dark Wizard that had imprisoned him. Her thoughts rolled over the times when she had written in the diary—a silly little girl with fairy tales in her head—I'll free you from the Dark Wizard, Tom. But in the end she had done nothing to save him. What right did she have to be called a Gryffindor? He was in need of her help, and she had done nothing. Hot tears coursed down her face. What happened? She wondered. What happened when they put the Sorting Hat on your head, Tom?

Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to be alone with her thoughts. She leaned against the cold castle wall, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

== 

She had already decided to go back to Gryffindor when they caught up with her. She couldn't see them, but she could hear them. They were under the Invisibility Cloak.

"Psst, Ginny," whispered Ron. "Please come back to the common room. We'll leave you alone," he said.

"We promise."

"OK," said Ginny. She took one last look at the second floor bathroom. Why had she walked here? She wondered. Was it Tom that liked the dark solitude of the Chamber of Secrets, or was it Salazar? Certainly, she had never liked the place. 

Ron and Harry pulled her under the cloak with them as Filch came up the steps.

It was very cramped and Ginny leaned against the wall trying to decide to where put the arm that was nearest to Harry: down at her side? Around Harry? Harry seemed to have the same problem. He choose to lean his arm up above Ginny's shoulder against the wall of the corridor until Ron's first movement, caused his hand to side down to her shoulder, to catch the slinky material that threatened to slide off of them. "Sorry," he said as his arm brushed against her. 

"It's ok," she said smiling and relaxed against Harry's arm. Immediately, he pulled her in close. She could feel the warmth of his chest, his breath in her hair, and the beating of his heart. She could feel the racing of her own heart in her throat, but she told herself it was only because Filch could catch them any minute.

"Be very still," Harry warned. "We don't want any parts uncovered."

Ginny blushed furiously, and was very grateful that it was dark.

"Stoop down a little Ron. I think your shoes are showing," said Harry.

They stood cramped and still for an eternity until Filch had passed.

"One question," asked Ron, stepping out from under the Invisibility cloak.

"No," said Ginny.

"Did the Hat give you a choice?" asked Ron. Ginny hadn't moved, and she noticed, neither did Harry. He still had one warm arm around her; the other clutched the Invisibility Cloak.

"Not really," she said. "I already had the diary, Ron."

"The Hat knew that!" exclaimed Ron. "But maybe, it would have given you the choice of Slytherin anyway—"

"No," said Ginny, finally stepping out from under the Invisibility Cloak. "Without the Diary, my other choice would have been Hufflepuff."

==

==

Ron, Harry and Ginny had expected everyone to be in bed, but were surprised to find Lavender, Parvati, Hermione and Dean in the common room.

"We came down here because Samara and Beatrice just went to bed," Hermione explained. "Parvati had a nightmare."

"A Seeing," Parvati corrected. "I need to go to Madam Trelawney."

"No," Lavender insisted. "That woman is corrupting you. She twists everything you say."

"I agree with Lavender," said Dean.

"But I have to document it—" Parfait insisted.

"We'll do it," said Hermione. "Do you trust me to write it correctly?" she asked as she pulled a parchment and quill from her bag. **"Exscribo"** she commanded the quill.

"Yes," Parvati said. She took a deep breath, and began.

"There is a boy," Parvati said. " He's little—eleven--maybe twelve--In a wand shop. He's a Slytherin. I see his green robes and the Slytherin crest. 

"Who cares about a Slytherin?" muttered Ron.

"Shh-h," admonished Hermione. "Don't talk, Ron. Tell us what else you dreamed, Parvati."

His hood is up. I can't see his face."

"OK, Tell us about the wand shop." Said Hermione.

"Olivanders. He was at Olivanders. He had gone through boxes and boxes of wands. They are all over the ground. There is damage to the store from his trying wands. Finally he found the right wand. Olivander said it was the right wand, but sometimes when he tried to use it, it fought him. Not all the time. Just sometime. It frightened him. They frightened him.

"Who frightens him?" asked Hermione.

There was a long pause.

"I don't know for sure," said Parvati. "No one. No one is there, but--"

She faltered, shrugging. "I just don't know, Hermione," she said.

"OK. Go back to the wand shop. Close your eyes and try to remember. Tell us everything you see." 

He's a muggle born!" said Parvati excitedly.

"That's not a Slytherin," said Dean.

"How do you know," asked Hermione.

"His clothes. He has on some sort of muggle clothes."

"What do they look like?"

"Dark pants. White shirt. A tie."

"That doesn't tell us much, Parvati. Is there anything else you know?" asked Hermione.

"You know," whispered Harry. "I went to Diagon Alley the first time in muggle clothes and I'm not muggle born. For him to be in Slytherin—"

"You were a pretty special case, though," Ron whispered back

"Half blood, maybe?" suggested Dean.

"Didn't you just say you saw Slytherin robes?" asked Hermione.

"A Slytherin, playing at being muggle born?" suggested Lavender.

"Not likely," said Ron.

"This is at a different time," Parvati added. "The dream is skipping around."

"So the dream is not chronological?" asked Hermione.

"What?" said Parvati, opening her eyes.

"This is at two different times," confirmed Hermione.

"Three I think," said Parvati closing her eyes again. "He tried to hex another student. The spell backfired."

"That sounds like you Ron," said Dean. "Did he have red hair?"

"No. Black," said Parvati.

"Hey, guys, no one invited me to this slumber party," said Samara as she came down the stairs from the girls' dorm. 

The group hushed her and she stood rubbing her eyes and listening.

"He's back at Olivanders again," said Parvati. "He's angry. He says he wants the wand fixed or he wants his money back."

Olivander tells him he said the spell wrong.

He knows he said the spell right. He's angry. He points his wand at Olivander.

Olivander asks what spell he was performing when it went bad.

There was a long pause---

"Well?" asked Hermione. "What spell?"

I don't know---I don't know He's ---upset. He won't say---He's angry

He shows Olivander his hands—Oh his poor hands."

Parvati started to sob.

"What happened to his hands Parvati?"

"Look at his hands, Parvati. What happened to his hands?"

"They're burnt!" She cries. "They teased him."

"And they teased him." Questioned Hermione. "About his hands?"

"No. They teased him about the wand."

"Why?"

"It won't work right. And the wand burned him."

"Oh your poor hands," Parvati cried. "Your hands…." She was sobbing harder.

Parvati dissolved into tears-- Rocking back in her seat and weeping uncontrollably.

Lavender reached forward to hold her sobbing friend. "Just let it go, Hermione. I don't see how she can function anymore. She hardly ever sleeps."

"Why would it do that?" wondered Hermione aloud. "Why would his hands get burnt from his wand? Olivander should have fixed it. It couldn't have been working right."

"He's switched hands," said Parvati. "At the end of the dream, he's holding the wand in his left hand instead of his right—"

"That shouldn't matter," said Hermione.

"I wasn't his wand," said Samara simply.

"Don't you think Olivander would have realized that?" snapped Hermione. "He's been in the wand business longer than you, Samara—Just because you've made your own wand—"

"I'm going back to bed," said Samara sharply, turning to go up the stairs.

"No, wait," said Harry. "I think you've got something there." Harry hesitated. "Remember when Snape was talking about wand cores, and that if you couldn't accio your own wand, it was likely you could accio another wand if it had the same core, but not a core that was completely different—"

Hermione nodded.

"Well, I was just thinking. If the wand was wrong for him, how would it act?"

"Olivander wouldn't have sold him a wand that was wrong for him," insisted Hermione.

"What if it was a second hand wand?" asked Ron.

"For a Slytherin?" said Lavender. "They'd be laughed right out of their house."

"Well, they were laughing," Samara pointed out.

"You remember, Ginny," said Ron. "Both of us had second hand wands our first year. They were bad enough for simple spells, but when things got more complicated, we needed our own wands. Olivander just gave me a longer wand, but you couldn't even use the unicorn hair core. Remember?"

"I remember," said Ginny softly.

"That's very unusual," said Samara, wand cores don't usually change. 

"But not unheard of," replied Hermione.

"No," Samara continued, "But the core of a wand is like the core of a wizard. Some of the old magics even refer to people by the wood or the core of their wands—Yew for Hugh, Holly for Holly, Willow—I can't imagine what kind of event would change a wand—or a wizard-- to the point that the wizard couldn't wield it at all. Most of us could trade wands right here and do the spells fine. There wouldn't be any heat in the wand, like this dream is talking about. It must be theoretical, or symbolic in some way."

The group exchanged glances. "I think we should tell Samara about Parvati's other predictions," said Harry. "She has very different ideas than the rest of us since she studied the old magics. What do you think, Parvati?"

But Parvati was sound asleep on the sofa, Dean cradling her head in his lap.

Harry looked around. "Ginny? What do you think?"

Ginny had already left to go up to her dorm room.

"She said she had something she wanted to do before she went to bed," said Lavender.

"Well, I guess we'll have to ask Parvati in the morning what she thinks about telling Samara her other predictions.

We don't know who else Samara will tell about the predictions," said Ron as if Samara wasn't there. "This is not something that we want common knowledge in Slytherin House."

A sharp retort was on the tip of Samara's tongue, but she stopped long enough to study their auras. Something very strange was going on here between the trio's auras—something she rarely saw even among siblings or couples. She has seen it happen with the Weasley twins; once when they were trying to convince Ron to try the original Dragon Breath Mints and then again when they were trying to convince her to remove the adhere charm she had placed on them. Both times the color blend had been a soft melon color. She saw it several times when Ginny and Harry were in close proximity to each other, but their shared color was a melancholy blue gray. When auras blended as if the two auras found what was similar in the other, there was usually a reason. It could simply shared happiness, or a shared desire, but in Samara's experience it usually went deeper than that. Regardless, it only happened for a moment and only where two souls were completely of the same mind—She had never seen it happen with three but, as she watched Ron and Hermine blended a greenish blue color, primarily Hermione's turquoise, which could have been a couple thing, but then, the real surprise occurred when Harry moved a little closer, and his aura, which had always had a bit of the healer's green in it, suddenly washed the deep healer's green over both of his friends, and their auras deepened to match his. It was so beautiful; it brought tears to Samara's eyes.

At once, Samara knew that Harry had shared some sort of comfort or healing with them. What they were working on was of life and death importance to them, whether she believed it or not—whether it was true or not. She had been flippant about their concerns before, but there was something vital in the prediction and although she didn't know what it was, she knew she had somehow caused them to be hurt—Perhaps if was because of their previous association with Draco Malfoy—and truthfully, she knew just by looking at Draco's aura that he wasn't as reliable as these three and sometimes—Pansy's word fit him perfectly—dangerous.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Well, hey. Don't cry about it," said Hermione and then Harry did something she never would have expected. He reached out and pulled her into their auras. "We have to be able to trust you," he said staring into her eyes.

She felt her aura trying to blend with theirs.

"I know," she said softly. "I see that, but trust runs both ways."

"But Draco—"began Ron.

"I see Draco for what he is," said Samara, locking eyes with Harry. "More than you do—"

He nodded "Will you tell them?" he asked softly.

"I see auras," she said to Ron and Hermione. "It just kind of slipped out with Harry, but I don't usually tell people—"

"Muggles, you mean," said Ron.

"Well, yes, muggles, but really anyone. I found when I told Harry and then later, I told Ginny and both times they altered their auras when I was near. You're doing it now, Hermione."

"I'm not doing anything," said Hermione hotly. 

" Closing off," said Samara. "Sucking your aura in close to your body, putting up a wall to protect yourself. Usually Gryffindors aren't like that. Neither are Hufflepuffs, but Slytherins are and sometimes Ravenclaws."

Is my aura changing?" asked Ron.

Samara looked at him for a moment. "No," she said.

'Wicked," he said

Hermione looked from one to the other, her eyes narrowing. "This is ridiculous," she said. "I'm going to bed. It's late.

Samara looked after her.

"Don't' worry about her," said Ron. " She just hates for anyone to be able to do anything that she can't do. She'll come around. So tell us, what do you see, when you look at our auras.

"Well, usually, the basic colors stay similar, but there are layers of colors in wizards and witches—a lot more colors than muggles usually have. Some of the auras extend out as if that person wanted to embrace the world. You see a lot of that with Hufflepuffs, but Professor Dumbledore has an aura that extends outward too.

"What's Dumbledore's aura like?" asked Harry.

"Mostly, it's golden around his head with some flecks of green and purple in the gold around his body. It's almost transparent, although it can go opaque. It went to a dark green when he was calming some of the Gryffidnor's at breakfast last weekend and he has this shimmery over layers if you were looking at the whole thing through an oiled glass. I've come to believe that means the person has done Elemental wandless magic. I never saw it among muggles, so it must be a wizarding thing. I thought it had something to do with wandless magic, but I wasn't sure until Snape's wand class. Before that, there were only a few Gryffindors that had that shimmer, you Harry, Ginny, Neville and, Fred and George.

"Fred and George," muttered Ron.

"What?" said Harry. "I never did wandless magic before I got my wand in Snape's class. Well, maybe accidental—"

"No," said Samara. "Accidental doesn't make the shimmer. It has to be done on purpose."

I can't think of anything—"said Harry.

"And Neville?" said Ron. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, I'm sure of that," said Harry. "He accioed his wand before anyone else did when Snape was working on the memory charm. So doing wandless magic changes your aura?" Well people say, wandless magic alters the wizard. I guess what you see, Samara, is just the proof but I've never done wandless magic except for the accidental magic—"

Samara shrugged. "Are you sure it was accidental? Did you really want something to happen the way it did?" 

Harry didn't answer. "Did he really want to sic the snake on Dudley? Did he want Aunt Marge to blow up?"

There's a slight difference in the auras of people who simply pull the magic from inside of themselves," said Samara. "As opposed to people who have used the Elements. Yours is definitely Elemental, Harry. I don't see how you could have done that without knowing—"

"We'd better do to bed," suggested Harry. "Quiddich tomorrow. If Angelina knew we were up this late—"

Well we won't tell her," said Ron as he started to climb the stairs to the boy's dorm.

"Quiddich! Flying! That's it, Harry. You've used the Air Elemental to fly," said Samara.

"No. I don't."

I didn't see it at first either," said Samara, "But flying is magic."

"Well, yes—" said Harry a little annoyed that Samara could possibly thing it was anything else.

"I was trying to fly –I don't know—technically, I guess. Madam Hooch said to grip your broom in a certain way. I did that. She said to pull up or push down. I did that. I was making the broom go where I wanted it to, but without drawing any magic."

"Of course it was magic," interrupted Ron.

"No," said Samara. "It wasn't. Not Elemental magic."

"Then as Madam Hooch was working with one of the other students, I just let my broom hover. I was thinking how beautiful it was up in the air—and then it just hit me—Air Elemental."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Lavender just looked at her blankly. 

"I know where the magic in flying comes from. There are only two possibilities. Either, the wizard is using the broomstick itself as a wand, and pulling the power from himself, or he is drawing on an elemental source—most notably—air. Then I thought, it couldn't really be used as a wand. Brooms came before wands historically and anyway, the broom doesn't have a core, so what would be the magical essence? As I am thinking this, I am soaring faster and higher. I am thinking about how flying is like an art form—a dance--I could—would---um—I'm thinking about –"

A serene almost angelic smile came over Samara's features. 

"Thinking about what?" Harry asked.

"Nothing really, I guess. Just feeling the movement and all of the sudden, Madam Hooch is up beside me, struggling to keep up. She says for me to get back to the ground and ships me out of the class."

Samara looked around at the Gryffindors. "I never really got to the point of consciously pulling from the elemental, I just was thinking about doing it, and my flying improved so dramatically, Madam Hooch noticed and took me out of the beginning class. Imagine if I _tried_ to pull from the elemental? Imagine if I taught you, she whispered. Imagine the Quiddich games—"

Why didn't you think of this earlier?" Ron complained. "The game is tomorrow!"

"You were fighting with her," Lavender reminded them.

"There's other games," said Harry. "But, I think we need to practice this before Slytherin." As he started up the stairs to the boy's dorm, he thought about the rush he got when he first flew a broom. That time he chased Malfoy down in first year. It was so effortless—so natural. When he touched the Dragon's egg last year, he lost himself in the flying. It was a whole different kind of magic. A magic outside of himself. "Air Elemental," he murmured. "You may be right, Samara."

-

When Samara got to the room, Hermione was awake, sitting in bed reading. "I'm glad you're still awake," said Samara. "I have something I made for you a while ago-- Samara went to her drawer and brought out the tee shirt on which was printed "Muggle Born and Proud." A girl with bushy brown hair cavorted around the shirt.

The only place I still have long hair," lamented Hermione. Running a hand through the short thick curls that covered her head, and now reached almost to her shoulders. "Thanks Samara."

Samara frowned at the privacy shield around Ginny's bed. 

"She already had it placed when I came up," said Hermione. "You won't get it down. I've tried before."

Samara took her wand from her hair and attempted to disrupt the shield, the equivalent of knocking. Nothing disturbed the shield. 

Hermione looked at her, from over the top of her book. Her aura flushed with dark turquoise and Samara had the feeling that the words, "I told you so," were hovering on Hermione's lips, but Hermione said nothing.

"She's pretty good at that, isn't she?" commented Samara. 

"Yes," said Hermione, closing her book. "I'm going to sleep. Shall I put out the light?"

"I'll do it," said Samara. "Do you think Ginny will like this?" she asked Hermione, as she pulled the tee shirt from her drawer.

It had a tiny, sweet yellow kitten on it. The kitten stood up and stretched and mewed, then it stretched again and this time, it became a lioness. The tiny mew, become a roar.

"She'll love it," said Hermione. "It's so precious." Hermione stroked the kitten and continued to stroke it, as it became a lioness. Hermione's aura mellowing into yellow.

Samara pulled two more tee shirts out of her drawer. Both had growling Gryffindor lions on them. "For Harry and Ron," she explained. "I want to give the shirts to them before Quiddich game.

****

Tee shirts depicting your house to all of my faithful reviewers. Author blows kisses. THANK YOU:

blue-blond sorcerress: Ask and you shall receive. Your chapter with Sirius—don't expect too many of them though—But Sorry. No Ginny/Harry. Harry's much too busy and in case you haven't noticed, Ginny's taken.

Kemenran Once again, your most original review is appreciated. LOL.

Reiven Glad you're excited to read my fic. Draco and Samara will be back soon. Kauket means exactly what she says: The two are one, but then, how much can you trust a snake?

Silverfox Love your reviews and love your fics. Harry didn't miss Neville's breakthrough. It's coming up, I just wanted to show that the Neville/Snape stuff was on-going without boring you. After all, Crouch used a time-turner. It's going to take a while. Neville/Snape finale coming up next. Sorry you guys had trouble with Harry talking to Kauket. Maybe I should re-check it. I didn't think it would confuse you. Please let me know if anyone else was confused. Basically, Kauket thinks of everthing in terms of food, which gives power and relationships are always prey/predator relationships. I agree that everyone has some of every house and one of the things I wanted to discuss in this fic is how, when you put people in houses, like the Sorting Hat did, the people tend to become like their house, and yet all of them are individuals, even the bit characters like Crabbe.

Plash Ricrem Glad you liked Filch's punishment. Sure beats cleaning the owlry. Also glad you weren't too confused by the Kauket/Harry conversation.

Trillium: Yes, Snape in Hufflepuff would have been very bad, but then Sirius was just being a joker, like usual. Unfortunately, as you found out in this chapter, our twin jokers are having a bit of a bad time. Sadly, it's called growing up in wartime and taking some adult responsibility. Poor twins, but don't worry, they'll snap out of it and be back to their pranks soon.

(Bluetigereye13@aol.com) : Glad you enjoyed. More coming.

Ilwinterhofal: We will soon learn what happened to Hedwig and she will return. Also, of course, that means we will hear from Hagrid too.

Elfmoon87: Glad you like Snape, Peeves and Myrtle. You will be seeing more of all three and not in the way you expect. More of Snape's enlightened teaching methods coming up. By the way, folks if you want a good read, go check out Elfmoon87's fics. They are really good.

Melbell Crookshanks, huh? You haven't figured out what happened to him? Well, you'll have to wait for the Slytherins to tell you then. As always, there is a reason for his strange behavior.

==

OK, it's **your turn** now. GO REVIEW. **10 REVIEWS=ONE NEW CHAPTER**. Sure beats paying for the book, doesn't it?

Lady Lestrange

==

****


	38. ch 37: Just a Game and Just a Memory

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Just a Game: Just a Memory

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Fanfiction was being ornery. If you can't see my work here, it's also archived at harrypotterfanfiction.

(A/N: I know, I have to come up with a good name for the Ravenclaw chapter. Why isn't anyone helping me? This is your review challenge. Help me out. Think of a good name, and you get a yummy picture of your choice: Tom, Draco Harry or Ginny under an Invisibility cloak.)

****

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. Stay tuned for more Neville and his awesome auror parents coming up after the Quiddich game. The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Now that Harry's hand is good enough to play quiddich, don't you think it's time for him to go to the Chamber? Soon. Very Soon.

****

AND NOW ON TO THE FIRST QUIDDICH GAME:

Just a Game: Just a Memory 

Ginny was nervous as she entered the Great Hall. She really didn't want to eat, but Samara had insisted that she needed her strength to play Quiddich this morning. She wished they could have started off the season with the Hufflepuff game. At least they weren't playing Slytherin, but Ravenclaw was tough enough. She sat with the rest of her teammates as planned at the last practice. That way, they could go over any last minute changes. 

Harry looked excited. He was going over some plays with Ron since most of the practices had been with Lyle as keeper. Ron looked as scared as she felt, thought Ginny. She put a smile on her face for his sake.

"Ready to bury Ravenclaw?" asked Colin tactlessly, and then bit his lip as he saw the look on the twin's faces. It was obvious they were thinking of Lyle Applegate who was cremated just yesterday. "Hey, good game, OK," said Colin softly punching Ron on the shoulder. Colin's little brother Dennis was sneaking forward to get a picture of Colin between Ron and Harry.

"Yeah, thanks," said Ron. 

"OK," said Fred. "Here it is. The Weasley wonder and for lack of a better name the Pink Drink."

George was pouring a small amount of a smoking pink potion into each of the team members juice glasses. "I think we should call it Peppermint pepper up," said George, "but Fred is worried about infringement lawsuits from the Pepper up Potion Company."

"What's this?" asked Angelina, eyeing the concoction suspiciously.

"It's rather like pepper up potion, but with a burst of energy. It will help to keep us focused on the game.

"I'm focused," said Harry. "Pushing the glass away."

"No no no." said George. "You have to drink it."

"Are you sure it doesn't have anything illegal in it, Fred?" asked Angelina. "We don't want to get disqualified for illegal substances."

"No," said Fred. "Snape checked it out."

"Oh terrific!" said Harry eyeing the glass. "That makes me feel all cozy."

"Did you ask if there was poison in it?" asked Ron.

Christi leaned over to Ginny. "We should check with Snape or Mrs. Figg—not that I don't believe your brothers."

"If Snape had anything to do with it," I'm not drinking it," declared Ron, pushing the glass away.

Ginny, glanced up at the head table. Mrs. Figg was in a heated conversation with McGonagall and it didn't look like disturbing her was a good idea. Anyway, Ginny, who had been in Snape's ADADA class now for almost a whole month, was feeling brave. She was a lot less scared of Snape than she had been in the past. She could almost see a human side to him. He was still a slimy git, as her brother would say, but he wasn't a monster. She stood and taking her smoking glass with her, she approached the head table. Figg and McGonagall's conversation dropped to hushed tones, but Ginny still caught what sounded like Lestrange. She wondered if it was Ethan or Edward they were talking about. 

"Excuse me, Professor Snape." Ginny said. "My brothers made this potion. Before we drink it, the team would like to know, did they check it out with you for illegal substances?"

Professor Snape looked up from his conversation with Dumbledore. "Yes," he sneered. "They checked the potion out with me. Couldn't you have asked them that, Weasley? It contains no illegal substances unless they added something later."

Ginny nodded and downed the contents of the glass. It tasted very pepperminty, but not horrible as she had expected. Immediately her sinuses cleared and her eyes started to water. 

"It also contains no beneficial substances that I could see," continued Snape, although it has a pleasantly strong peppermint taste." Snape turned to Dumbledore. "You may like it Albus."

Ginny thanked them and returned to the Gryffindor table with the news. By the time she sat down, she felt pleasantly warm and a little more keyed up than usual. Her eyes had stopped watering and she realized that her peripheral vision was improved. She leaned forward. "Harry," she said. "I think you should drink it."

He frowned at her, but swirled the pink liquid around in his glass. After a moment, he took a sip, and then another sip. Soon he had finished the glass.

After Harry Potter drank his Pink Drink, the rest of the team followed suit, just as the post owls started to arrive. A huge, tawny owl swooped into the Gryffindor table and came to rest in front of Harry Potter. "I wonder what this is?" Harry said aloud. He would recognize any owl that came to him—one of the Weasley owls was pretty much the only ones, other than Hedwig. 

"So who's it from?" pestered Ron, as Harry untied the letter from the owl's leg. He gave the owl a bit of bacon and sent it off to the owlry for some food and rest. Then he opened the letter.

"Hagrid—" Harry whispered.

"Why didn't he send Hedwig?" asked Ron worriedly.

Harry held up a hand to forestall any more questions until he had a chance to read the letter. A frown creased his forehead as he scanned the contents.

"Bad news?" asked George.

Ron shrugged.

Harry was busy reading.

Dear Harry,

I got your letter --seve severel-- a few days ago, but thought to give Hedwig a little rest. She –apearent—appearently had a run in with some crows or ravens. Now, don't ye worry. She's OK. Nothin broken. Jus some cuts and fethrs lost. I'll send her back to ye jus as soon as the rest of the pecks heal.

Anyway, the letter ye sent with her was lost, so I hope nothin is wrong at Hogwarts. As fer with me, one clan of giants agreed to the plan. (seein as how your owl was waylaid, I best not say too much about that plan) But I had to give up one dear ta me heart to get the cheiftain to say yes. I had ta promise to give em Fluffy. Was probably for the best tho-- One of them heads was always hungry and he made travelin hard. Not many Inns like ta take in pets, ye know. 

I found me mum, but she doesn't pull much weight with the giants cause she was with me da fer so long. She's travelin with us now. Anywise, we're goin on from here. I jus won't tell ya where) ta find some giants that Olympe knows, but she says they ain't her relations—Mum doesn't believe her either—'bout her not bein half giant and all.

"Olympe," thought Harry with a frown. "So that was Madam Maxime's first name—And Hagrid was on first name basis with her."

"Well, what?" Ron urged. "You going to tell us what's wrong or not, Harry?"

Hermione had moved over to the part of the table where the team was sitting. "Was the letter bad news?" she asked Harry.

"Is bad news, written across my forehead?" snapped Harry.

"Hey, mate, we're just worried. You looked upset," said Ron.

"It's Hedwig," said Harry. "She's been hurt. Hagrid has her. He says he'll send her along when she's better."

"Well, no one will take better care of her than Hagrid," said Hermione. "Don't worry. She'll be fine."

"Who said I'm worried?" said Harry, getting up from the table, and leaving his half-eaten food behind. "It's just an owl."

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. "When has he ever considered Hedwig 'just an owl'?" Hermione said.

"Never," answered Ron with a concerned look at Harry. 

"He's been having some major mood swings lately," said Hermione. "Remember what you said about spotting the prophecy child?"

"It can't be Harry," said Ron. "First of all he was here at Hogwarts before 'Hufflepuff's loss' and even if the Hat wanted to put him in Slytherin, Harry doesn't have much in the way of Hufflepuff traits, or I wouldn't want to say this to his face—but, Ravenclaw. I mean, his grades are no better than mine."

"I was thinking about that," said Hermione. There was a big change in Harry since 'Hufflepuff's loss' though—The whole spell that brought You-know-who back. Has he ever mentioned that night to you?"

Ron shook his head. "No. Never."

And Ron, there's something else, Harry's protection came from his mother right?"

"Right. So?"

"What if she was a Hufflepuff? That would be our second meaning—bilinguis. Hufflepuff's loss could also mean the loss of a Hufflepuff's protection on her son, Harry."

"I always thought she was a Gryffindor though," said Ron. "I think Harry said it once—both of his parents were in Gryffindor."

"I don't think he ever told us," said Hermione. "I wonder if he even knows."

"I'm sure—all of the marauders were in Gryffindor."

"Wrong," said Hermione, wrinkling her nose. "Sirius and Peter were in Slytherin."

"What!" Ron looked completely scandalized.

Hermione nodded. "I couldn't find Lily's family tree. I guess it was because she was muggle born, but Black and Pettigrew are both pureblood, Slytherin families."

"That doesn't mean Sirius and Peter were sorted into Slytherin," said Ron, thoughtfully.

"Hey, Ronnikins," teased George. "Better wake up, and head for the Quiddich pitch. "We need you."

"Come on!" Fred tugged on Ron's robe. 

"Stop," demanded Ron. "You're going to tear it."

"I bought it, didn't I?" said Fred. 

Ron flushed red. "I'll talk to you later about this, Hermione. Don't tell Harry yet, OK. We need him focused on Quiddich."

Hermione nodded. "Meet me right after the game?"

"Yes," said Ron. "You know where."

"She does, does she?" teased Fred. "And where might that be? Astronomy Tower?"

Ron flushed even redder. "We have a Quiddich game to play," he said.

"And I don't think that's the only game our little Ronnikins is playing," added George knowingly.

****

"Mutus! Mutus!" Ron stared first at his wand and then at the now silent twins. "Whoa! Wicked. Samara, you were right," he called. "Stronger intent and less swish. Now, my dear brothers. Let's go play Quiddich. If you promise to behave yourselves, I'll let you talk. But remember," Ron sang, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Nod once if you understand."

Both twins looked at each other, and then back at their baby brother and nodded.

"Nod once if you agree to behave yourselves."

The twins looked at each other again and reluctantly nodded.

Ron studied them for a moment. "I like them so much better this way," he said.

"Ron," warned Hermione.

"OK, OK—**Finite Incantum!"**

The Quiddich team headed to the locker rooms, but before they got there, Fred and George cornered Samara. "No more lessons to our little brother," said Fred.

"Right," said George. "We like him just the way he is. Don't you go changing him."

Samara looked after them in confusion. 

"What did you do?" asked Neville. 

"I didn't do anything," Samara said to Beatrice, and Neville and Lou.

==

In no time at all, they were all dressed in their scarlet robes and ready to begin the game.

"You know," said Fred, "We're really going to drive Lee Jordan crazy this year." 

"Why is that?" asked Ginny. 

"And here's the Gryffindor line up," mocked George. "Johnson, Potter, Prentice, Weasley, Weasley, Weasley and Weasley."

Ginny giggled. "Guess he'll have to call us by our full names."

__

I'll call you by your full name, Virginia Weasley. If you'll come— 

Come to me, Virginia, dear. Come to me.

Ginny stiffened at the sound of The Voice, from first year, in her head. Not now! She thought! It was just a memory from the terrors of her First Year at Hogwarts. Go away, she thought, but it wouldn't listen to her. It's just a flashback, she told herself. Ignore it. It can't hurt you now. Tom's gone.

Samara touched her shoulder. "What's wrong, Ginny?"

"Nothing." Ginny shook her head. "Just nervous, I guess. Wait until your first game."

"And now," announced Lee Jordan to the cheering crowd, "Here is the Ravenclaw line up."

  
"Playing at Seeker is the renowned and beautiful Cho Chang.

The chasers, Adele Nemitz, Roger Davis, and Ming Chang.

The beaters, Jarl Irving, Morag McDougal

And at keeper is, Stewart Ackerly

For the Gryffindors

The seeker, the one and only, Harry Potter

The Chasers, the awesome veteran Angelina Johnson

Joined by Christi Prentice and Ginny Weasley

Veteran beaters: Fred and George Weasley

And at Keeper, Ron Weasley.

Please observe a moment of silence for Lyle Applegate, Gryffindor player who was killed in service to the Light. The Gryffindor Quiddich Team would like to dedicate this game to him.

And now, Madam Hooch blows the whistle, team captains come forward to shake hands. 

There's a beautiful kickoff on this bright, sunny morning. The players are in the air and there goes the quaffle! It's Ravenclaw in possession. Watch out Angela. Davis is fast. Passing to Nemitz

Uh oh, there's a bludger! And another one. Nemitz is hit. There's that Gryffindor double trouble Weasley twins. 

She drops the quaffle, picked up by Ginny Weasley who passes to Angelina back to Ginny and Angelina scores that's 10-0 Gryffindor. Nemitz is back in the play. She's a tough one. 

Ginny clapped happily as she realized that she had been a part of that play. It was gorgeous.

While she was day dreaming, she caught sight of a bludger headed for her and she dipped lower to avoid

it . That put her out of passing range for Angelina who intercepted and lobbed the quaffle to Christi. Christi missed it, but George smacked it with his bludger bat to keep it in play and it smashed into Cho's broom!

"Foul!" cried Madam Hooch. "Attacking the seeker with the quaffle"

"It was a reflex!" complained George. "I didn't attack her."

But Roger Davis took the foul shot. Ron looked exceptionally nervous as he flew in a zig zag pattern, guarding the goal. Roger flung the quaffle expertly through the highest hoop and although Ron attempted to get there, it was just out of his reach.

Ravenclaw scores! The Ravenclaw end bust into excited applause.

Then the quaffle was back in play and it somehow was in Ravenclaw's hands. Ming passed to Roger and he took the opportunity to lob another quaffle through the hoop.

"No more," muttered Ron as he took his defensive stance.

Ginny heard Him again. It's my imagination. A flashback. It's not real.

__

Come to me, Virginia, dear. Come to me.

"Please," Ginny thought. "I need you to be quiet" Please, but even as she said the words in her head, she realized that he would not yield to her, even if he could have heard her.

"Look out, Gin!" yelled Fred, and she ducked just as a bludger careened into the side of her head. It graised her temple, making her see stars, but she rubbed the sore spot and continued to play. Another bludger shot by her and she had to roll low on her broom to avoid it. Christi had moved up to take the quaffle and "Christi Prentice scores!" shouted Lee Jordan. "Nice one Christi. That makes the score tied up at 20 all."

Christi did a little dance on her broom, making loop-de-loops. Christi scored twice more making the score 40-10 Gryffindor. 

"Go Christi!," shouted Angelina, as Ming dropped the quaffle and Christi dove to pick it up, but Davis beat her to it.

"Double coverage on Davis," Angelina shouted to Ginny. "Forget Ming. She's not a threat."

Then suddenly, the whole quiddich pitch seemed to fade a little to Ginny.

__

Come to me, Virginia.He said. Come to me.

The quaffle smacked Ginny flat in the chest and she caught it by reflex. She was back in the game. Flying toward the goal, she threw the quaffle back to Angelina who, rocketing forward lobbed it back to her. She was close enough to shoot, but she froze and instead tossed it back to Angelina. The Ravenclaw beater, McDoogle, whizzed by her, chasing a bludger. In his wake, she heard Him again, this time he was insistent, just like he was when he lured her to the Chamber against her will. She tried to fight him then and lost, but this time, maybe--_._

Come to me, Virginia. Come now.

She never saw the bludger that hit her squarely on her right shoulder. It jarred her hands loose from the broom and although she had many times sat a broom without her hands, today she found herself tumbling to the pitch. She hit the ground with a hard "Umph" and as if through a fog she heard Lee Jordan's voice. "Oh no! Gryffindor chaser, Virginia Weasley, is unseated! And Madam Hooch calls an official time out."

Tears stung Ginny's eyes. She was a menace. How could she have lost her concentration during the game? Tom Riddle and his diary were gone, and he was still ruining her life. She silently cursed him. I hate you –hate you—hate you—"

Madam Hooch and her Gryffindor teammates were crowding around her. "Are you all right, Ginny?" asked Ron nervously. 

"I'm sorry," murmured George. "I should have had that bludger!"

"Is she ok?" Cho Chang touched down beside her, followed by her sister and one of her Ravenclaw teammates, the beater, Jarl Irving.

"I'm ok," croaked Ginny as soon as she caught her breath. "Knocked the wind out of me when I hit the ground. Bruised and embarrassed, that's all," she said.

"You'd better go to the hospital wing to be sure you haven't broken any ribs," said Madam Hooch.

"Just bruised," Ginny assured her.

Madam Hooch nodded and blew her whistle, signaling time in.

Ginny was replaced by Colin Creevy, who was flying conservatively, but well. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep up with Roger Davis. She watched the game for a few minutes, holding her bruised ribs. When she heard Him once again, whispering in her mind—

__

Come to me.

She stood, swaying slightly. 

"Hey," Joe, one of the back up beaters, said. "Are you alright, Ginny?"

"No." She answered. "My ribs hurt. I'm going to see Madam Pomfrey after all."

"I'll take you." He stood.

"No, it's alright," said Ginny. "I can make it by myself. You watch the game."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

__

"Yes," said Tom, just as he had when he had lured her—forced her into the Chamber the last time. "We don't want anyone with us, Virginia. Just the two of us."

" Yes," muttered Ginny excitedly. "Just us, Tom" 

"I could come with you," said Samara.

"No," said Ginny. "What if one of the twins was hurt? You're the back up beater aren't you?"

"But you don't look well," said Samara.

"That's why I'm going to Madam Pomfrey," said Ginny in exasperation.

Ginny made her way slowly from the Quiddich field to the girl's bathroom. She didn't want to go there. It just happened. Tom wanted her there. She wouldn't go. She would go to her room. She was so tired of fighting the diary. She just wanted to sleep. Please, Tom, she thought, just let me sleep. It had been days since the diary had let her sleep. She was so tired. 

__

Come to me, Virginia, and you can sleep forever

The bathroom was deserted. Not even Myrtle was there. This couldn't be right," thought Ginny. "Where was she supposed to go?" Then she remembered. The diary was gone. The basilisk was gone. There was no reason for Him to want her to go here. Tom Riddle was no longer a part of her life. Perhaps just a part of her death. 

__

Come to me!.

She pulled herself back from the thoughts. How could a flashback do this to her—make her go where she didn't want to go? Maybe she was losing her mind, like the medi-witches thought. No. She was in control of herself. She wouldn't go. She would just go back to her room. She wouldn't tell anyone-- Ginny turned around and ran smack into Edward.

"What are you doing here?" he growled, grasping her by her shoulders and shaking her.

She cried out in pain.

"Stop it!" she's hurt," said another Edward. She was seeing double—no they were twins—what was Ethan doing here?

__

Come to me, Virginia. Come to me.

"I'm taking her to Madam Pomfrey," said Edward wrapping his arm around her bruised ribs. 

"No," Ginny said. "I have to find him."

"It's ok, Ginny," said Edward. "I'll take care of you. Ethan, the game must be over. Hurry."

Ethan nodded, and left the bathroom.

"Why's Ethan here?" Ginny asked. "You didn't let him in Gryffindor, did you?"

__

Come to me.

"No," said Edward, "But it is a weekend. He might come over to visit Gryffindor tomorrow."

Ginny appeared either not to hear, or not to care.

__

Come to me.

"He calls me," said Ginny breathlessly. "I have to find him. I--I don't know how."

Edward looked at her glazed eyes for a moment, seeing the tears starting to form, he made a sudden decision. He turned her in his arms and pushed up her sleeves, first her left and then just in case, her right. Both arms were unmarked. He looked at her in confusion. She was acting exactly like a Death Eater who was being summoned by without access to a portkey or floo, but she had no Dark Mark. "Who," he asked. "Who calls you?"

Ginny looked at him with hope in her eyes. "Tom," she said. "Tom Riddle."

"Tom?" Edward said. "I don't know who—"

"He has other names," Ginny replied. "Some will not say his name at all— They are afraid of him. They whisper: He-who-must-not-be-named."

Edward sucked in his breath through his teeth. There was only one place to take her, and he intended to be the one to bring her. "Come." He said, taking Ginny by the arm, "I will take you to him."

He took a step, but Ginny seemed bolted to the floor. She was staring unseeingly at one of the faucets. "Come on," he said again, tightening his grip on her arm. 

==

"Did you know you have your mother's eyes, Lestrange?" interrupted a sing-song voice from somewhere around the ceiling.

"Get out, Peeves," snapped Edward. "I don't have time for you."

"Oh I think you have plenty of time," sang Peeves in an annoying nasal tone. 

"Plenty of time to think of a rhyme—"

Obsidian eyes as black as coal. 

Obviously, as black as your soul

Maybe yours is too ugly to suck

Or maybe you have the Devil's luck.

"Get out, Peeves," before I call the Baron, said Edward.

"Oh, I don't think you'll find him." Peeves flew annoyingly into Edward's face. He's very busy," said Peeves, knowingly. "Busy as a bee—buzz! Buzz! Zzzzzzzz!"

Peeves hissed at Edward, faking a knowledge of parseltongue, but suddenly Ginny came back to herself and she knew exactly where she was although she didn't remember coming here. She wouldn't have come here. She hated the Chamber. She felt panic rising in her.

"Tom?" she whispered, confusedly.

But Tom didn't answer, instead Peeves flew straight through her head and out of the door.

Ginny screeched and shuddered, the sudden awful cold from the Poltergeist's contact, driving every thought but escape from her mind.

"I have to go," she said abruptly, pulling from Edward's grasp and running from Myrtle's bathroom.

"Ginny!" Edward called after her. "Peeves! Damn you!"

Peeves mischievous laughter could be heard echoing down the corridor, mingling with the sound of the Gryfffindor voices. 

"Honestly, Harry," said Fred. "I thought you had the hots for the girl. 

"Yeah," agreed George, "You should be able to tell her apart from her eleven year old sister!"

"They were both a blur!" said Ron. "Anyway, George, if you had gotten the bludger that took out Ginny maybe we would have had a third chaser."

"And if we had a decent keeper--" began Fred.

"Stop it," said Angelina. "We all played our best."

"Yeah," said Christi. "They had to resort to a stupid trick to beat us. There has to be something in the rules--"

"Christi," said Harry. "They're Ravenclaws. Do you honestly think they didn't check out the rules. I screwed up."

"Don't take it so hard, Harry," said Angelina. "None of us were sure which one was Ming and which one was Cho in that dive."

"But if I'd have just seen the snitch first--" Said Harry.

"Don't worry about it Harry." Said Angelina. "You'll be able to recognize the Slytherins. Couldn't mistake Malfoy for anyone, now could you?"

"No. I guess not," said Harry despondently. He couldn't help thinking how differently Angelina was taking their defeat than Wood would have. Wood would have chewed his head off. Somehow, Angelina being so nice made the defeat twice as hard.

"Well," said Hermione as they entered the common room. "They only beat us by ten points. Don't take it so hard. It's only a game."

"Hermione!" shouted the team in unison. Ginny, looking pale as death, sank into a chair by the cold fireplace. 

"What did Madam Pomfrey say?" asked Samara, sitting beside her.

10 REVIEWS = ONE NEW CHAPTER

****

REVIEW NOW. It's cheaper than buying the book!

==

****

NOTES TO MY FAITHFUL REVIEWERS:

Elfmoon87: Welcome back! Glad you are ROFL. I get depressed when you guys don't get my jokes. Wicked Wizard of the West. He he.

****

Melbell: Yep. Crookshanks is smart.

****

Reiven: Thanks for at least trying to think of a name for my Ravenclaw chapter. No one else has! Don't worry. Soon you'll be able to speak parseltongue like a—well—snake. Of course anyone should know the difference between shis and hissus, preditor and prey---but only Death Eaters really need to recognize Sissshass-A-Sissshass, great-one-always-hungry.

****

Kemenran: So articulate as always!

****

Silverfox: Glad you liked the stuff about Tom, and I like Neville too. Ginny knows her second choice would have been Hufflepuff, because the Hat talked to her, just like it did Harry. I imagine it said something like—By Merlin! There's something very foreign here! That's not you, is it dear? No. I see you are a Weasley--very brave—but also loyal and hardworking. Could be a Hufflepuff, but what's that? Yes, I see. Not Hufflepuff then. You're probably right, and all your brothers are there to protect you from whatever that is in your head—Better be-- Gryffindor!

****

Tania Nightqueen: I'm working on the premise that you really can only have one know-it-all in the room at the same time. Hermione and Samara are very much alike and therefore, clash at times, but actually, they would be awesome if they put all that brainpower together. They would then figure out the entire plot and the poor author would have nothing else to write about. So, sadly, they can't see eye to eye. Plus, you have to remember what a trying day Hermione had. She does have a bit of a short fuse tonight, and she didn't slap anyone. She just decided she wanted to get away from them—a little R&R (read and relax) before bed. It's that Ravenclaw in her. Glad you enjoyed.

****

Trillium: Yes. The poor twins, but if the twins are depressed. It just shows how bad things really are.

****

Plash Ricrem: Thanks for the "excellent chapter" review. Your tee shirt will be owled to you as soon as I find an owl to deliver it—darn muggle villages. Can't find anything you need. Would you like a cute kitty like Ginny's or just the lion part?

****

Ilwinterhofal: Thanks for letting me know that you could follow Hermione's notes. Yummy chocolate cookies! Were they baked by the house elves? Must be cookie day in Hufflepuff!

****

Elfmoon87: You were reading for hours! Oh cool. Author jumps up and down excitedly. Most of the prophecy stuff has been figured out since the beginning. Then I went through JK's books and tried to find anything that she wrote that would look like it fit into the prophecy, and made an outline which I have been ignoring ever since—well not really ignoring, but not following as much as I thought I would. 

****

Reiven: If a squib married a muggle, Slytherins would say of course the offspring would be a mudblood, which of course, means dirty blood. In a Slytherin's eye, there are only purebloods and mudbloods—unless of course, you are making a potion, in which case, I wouldn't use the blood of a squib and a muggle for mudblood. It might have a little too much magic, and if the potion calls for half blood it might not have enough magic. Better be safe, or you might have to throw out the whole cauldron. These things are delicate, you know. Ravenclaws would say the offspring of a squib and a muggle is a half-blood, because they believe that even squibs have magic within them. By the way, I think it's now official, you are a Ravenclaw. You catch everything in my chapters—love you—and now this question--which I don't think a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff would care to find out.

Mella deRanged : Harry? The prophecy child? Hmmmm? And of course he's going to re-enter the Chamber of Secrets. Didn't he say so? I wouldn't promise you that and not deliver. Three more chapters to wait, now that Harry's hand is healed. Ahh-Lockhart is in St. Mongo's. The proceeds from the book probably go to keep him in a private room. Harry wouldn't want to take that away and inflict Lockhart on some other poor sick soul. After all Harry's a Gryffindor. Now, of course, if he were a Slytherin, ..

****

OK. It's your turn now. Please Review. Either that or you can pay $17.00 for the rest of the book—send via paypal to--NO.NO.NO.NO. Just kidding! I don't make any money from this. Honest! Just review. Make me happy. I'm cheap. Aren't you glad the next chapter only "costs" 10 reviews instead of money? Well, what are you still reading this for? REVIEW!


	39. CH 38: Fortune Favors the Brave

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Fortune Favors the Brave

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. Stay tuned for more Neville and his awesome auror parents coming up after the Quiddich game. The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Now that Harry's hand is good enough to play quiddich, don't you think it's time for him to go to the Chamber? Soon. Very Soon.

****

Fortune Favors the Brave

On Tuesday evening, Neville planted himself in front of Harry Potter. "Please, Harry. I really need you to come with me."

"I don't know, Neville. You seem to be holding up pretty well. You did the last session by yourself. I feel—rather self conscious. I mean, the first time, I just wanted to make sure Snape wasn't—well, who knows what Snape would do, but now--You might not want me know about all of these memories—" Harry frowned at his half finished Defense homework. He still hadn't started on Charms or Transfiguration. Harry moved Crookshanks off of his lap, and looked around for Hermione—or Ron. For some reason the cat had decided to take a liking to him.

"If Professor Snape knows my memories, you can know them," said Neville. "You're my friend."

"Thanks," Harry said softly.

"In fact, Harry, there's something I wanted to tell you, about my parents. I can't just tell anyone, but I thought maybe you—since your parents—" Neville broke off biting his lip.

"Go ahead, Neville. What did you want to tell me?" asked Harry.

"Well, I asked permission to go to see my parents last weekend. Professor Snape thought it would be a good idea."

"I wondered where you had gone," said Harry, as Crookshanks leapt back up onto his lap, and proceded to dig his claws into Harry's legs, adjusting what he decided was his bed.

"Ouch! Crookshanks!" Harry pushed the cat off of his lap.

"I wanted to know if they remembered—And yet," said Neville, "I was afraid they would—"

"Neville?"

"When I visited, my Mum always would hold out her arms and I used to think she wanted to hug me, but she never would. I—I--remember her hugging me." Neville paced away from Harry and looked out of the window. It was a bleak and cloudy day, threatening rain. Neville stared outside for a moment, and Harry couldn't help remembering the Longbottoms talking about him before the Death Eaters came. If things had been different—How many times had he thought that—If only things had been different. If only—If only—If only Voldemort had never been born. Neville sighed and turned back to Harry, before continuing to talk about his mother. 

"When I came forward, she would back away and then she would make all these motions with her hand. I don't know why I never realized that the motions made sense if she had a wand in her hand. She never would let me come to close to her. Sometimes she would blow a kiss to me, but she never touched me. She would never let me touch her. And sometimes she would cry." Neville took a deep breath. "The medi-witches said that sometimes crucio does that—it makes any human touch painful—They said, don't take it personally--"

"Are you sure this isn't something you would rather keep private," asked Harry.

"No," breathed Neville. "I wanted someone to know. Could you see me telling this to Professor Snape?" Neville gave a half-hearted little laugh—"and my Gran. Gran Longbottom—Well, it bothers her that Mum has moments when she seems to understand that there are other people around, and Dad, who's her son, doesn't ever respond. I've figured out what the hand motions were, Harry. Mum had done that same protection spell on me so many times; I used to think it was part of a lullaby. I don't know why I didn't realize what the hand motions were a long time ago. This last time, when I went into St. Mongos and she began making the motions, I copied her, and she stopped. She looked at me. I mean, I don't think she knew I was her son, or anything, but she knew I was trying to copy her. She knew. She seemed kind of surprised at first and then, she got really serious. She corrected me. By—by touching my hand—Neville got tears in his eyes as he talked. "I could tell it hurt her to touch me, so I tried really hard to get it right—the next time--and when I was finished, she said "Safe." She seemed really happy, for about ten seconds, and the medi-witches were almost doing cartwheels. It was the first word she's said in two years that's made any sense. Then she began staring into space again. I tried to tell her , about Barty Crouch, but she never even looked at me after that.

"And your Dad?" asked Harry.

Neville shook his head. "Dad doesn't understand." Neville paused. "He just cries if I try to talk to him, and sometimes he just screams and screams and they have to give him a potion or put him in a sleeping ward. The medi-witches have finally gotten him to the point that he isn't in pain all the time, but if something sets him off—they believe that his mind replays the crucio spells that put him in St. Mongo's in the first place. I'm afraid to talk to him, Harry. I don't want to cause him any more pain."

Harry didn't know what to say. On one hand he was sure that Neville's father would want to know that he was safe, but on the other hand, if talking to him precipitated another crucio nightmare, then of course it was cruel to continue to bring back those memories. Harry stood, nervously fingering the fine material of the Invisibility Cloak. 

"Are you going to put that on and come with me--Please?" asked Neville indicating the Cloak. 

"I guess so," said Harry, pulling the cloak around himself and disappearing from sight. 

"We need to hurry," said Neville. "Professor Snape hates it when I'm late."

"What's your hurry?" asked Edward as he entered the Common room carrying a purring Crookshanks. He glanced around the common room. "Talking to yourself, were you, Longbottom? Where is it you have to go in such a hurry?"

"Snape's office," said Neville. With his hand in his pocket, unconsciously clutching his wand, he sprinted out of the common room.

When Neville returned to Snape's office, he felt more in control of himself than he ever had. Apparently either his time with his parents or these little private study cessions with Snape were helping his self control tremendously. He almost didn't jump every time Snape breathed down his neck.

"Longbottom! You're late." Neville jumped and all of his new found confidence seemed to drain out of him.

"Sorry Sir."

"Do you think I have all evening to wait for you?" Continued Snape, his robe billowing as he paced.

"No, Sir,." said Neville softly. "I got lost again."

Snape Harroumghed, and didn't bother to take away house points, but he noticed Neville's hands were shaking as he crumpled and recrumpled the front of his already wrinkled robe. Perhaps, Snape thought Neville wouldn't make a fool out of himself, if he didn't get him too nervous beforehand. Snape glowered at his unwelcome visitors. "We have company, this evening," said Snape. Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey stepped forward into view.

"Hello, Neville," they both said.

"Why are they here?" asked Neville.

"Dumbledore's orders. To protect your well-being. Fillius is the best in Britian in charms—making and breaking them. St. Mongos uses his services when a charm can't be broken by normal means. And Madam Pomfrey is here to monitor your vital signs and stop us if—Well--Let's just start, Longbottom, " said Snape.

Why—then—Do—do we have to stay in the dungeon? Madam Pomfrey--"

Because," said Flitwick, "Because you started to do this work _here_, in the dungeon and _here_ will help to continue to jog your memory. The same with Professor Snape. He is familiar to this memory and since you started with him, it is best to remain with him—unless he needs help." Flitwick reached forward and patted Neville's hand. 

Neville looked with trepidation at the silvery flowing contents of the basin. 

Snape drew his wand. "Before we begin with the memory charm," Snape said, but Neville had pulled his wand and his voice was low and menacing, "There is no memory charm."

Filius and Poppy exchanged glances

"Oh, well perhaps not. We shall see," said Snape, "But now at least I know there is no Imperious Charm coming my way."

"Very good, Severus," Fillius said softly.

"About that," Neville began. "I am ss-sorry. Truly s—sorry, P—profes—ssor."

Snape nodded. "Shut up and look at the memories," he snapped. Neville looked, and so did Harry.

Professor Flitwick leaned into Snape and said something softly to him. Snape said nothing, he just continued to scowl at Neville and now, Flitwick.

__

In the pensieve, the only sound was the sound of the rocking chair moving and the growing howl of a cold November wind. 

"I'd hate to see that Potter child raised by muggles, Frank," said Anne Longbottom.

"Me too."

"He's just Neville's age," said Anne.

"It's not that Dumbedore wants him to be raised by muggles. It's that he wants the boy to be safe."

"There are a lot of places in the wizarding world which could be safe," spat Anne.

"Such as living with two aurors, perhaps?" said Frank with a twinkle in his eye.

"Perhaps," she said moving behind Frank and rubbing his tense shoulders. "Why don't you lay Neville in his crib," said Anne. "He's asleep."

There was a flash of light and a soft pop outside that had nothing to do with the wind—followed by another and another and another—

Neville sucked in his breath, but seemed much less concerned about this part of the memory than he was just day before yesterday. He seemed almost in control. He thought his parents seemed to have given him strength. He counted the pops--nine—ten—eleven—twelve--They sent twelve Death Eaters to take out his parents—no that was wrong. There was one in the floo, Neville remembered.

==

Frank pulled his wand and handed Neville to his wife. "Take the baby," he said shortly. "Alert the Ministry."

"I'm not leaving you," she said stubbornly

"It's going to get ugly."

"That's why I'm not leaving you. Together we can handle it."

Frank turned to the fire, and threw in some powder. "Minister—"he began, but the fire glowed green. "Bloody hell!" Frank swore and tried to extinguish the fire before the wizard was through the floo—"Get the baby out of here," he shouted. "You can't fight with him in your arms, Anne. At least put him in his crib."

Baby Neville awoke and began to cry.

Teenage Neville was breathing fast, but hadn't broken down into tears.

"No. I want him close-by." said Anne. And Neville watched her do the same ward that he had watched her do just three days ago at St. Mongo's. He tried to copy her motions, but they were too fast.

She was hurriedly resetting the wards around Neville's playpen, just as a Death Eater appeared in their fireplace. Frank sealed him in before he could come out or floo back. He looked like a muggle picture, frozen in the fireplace.

Anne had finished the playpen, placed Neville in it and pronounced "Mutus!" silencing Neville's cries. "I'm sorry baby," she whispered. "You're safe. Mum will be back soon." She then transfigured the whole playpen into a large over stuffed chair. She did all this in a matter of seconds.

"She's awesome," whispered Neville, tears now streaming. "I wish I had known her—This wasn't the first time she had performed that ward for me. I wonder how many times she did that. I'm not afraid. I'm really not afraid that I will get hurt."

"Well, that could be because you were so young in this memory," said Snape.

"I'm always afraid," Neville said softly. "But when I was one year old, I wasn't afraid. I knew the spell would protect me. It had protected me before." Neville raised his wand and began to copy the lines and flicks that his mum had used to put up the ward.

"That's right," cheered Flitwick. "Oh Bravo, Neville."

Snape was scowling as usual.

"I did it right?" asked Neville. "Yes. Almost flawlessly, except that it would have been better if you had reinforced the spell with the words."

"I don't know the words," said Neville.

"Well, they are –" began Flitwick.

"Can we please, just get on with this?" growled Snape.

"Yes, of course," said Professor Flitwick. "Stop after charms class and I'll go over it with you, Neville."

  


They continued to watch the penseive.

Neville was basically a quiet child so even though it felt strange to have his crying silenced by the spell, he was not unduly upset. His parents had seemed intense, but not panicked. He trusted them with the infinite faith of a one-year-old, and he watched curiously from his safe hiding place.

Suddenly, the air felt wrong—heavier. Neville knew something had happened, but he didn't know what. He looked at his parents. 

The teen age Neville understood. The Death Eaters had put up apparition wards. Now that he knew what they were, he felt them here at Hogwarts. The 12 Death Eaters that it took to subdue his parents, didn't want the aurors Frank and Anne Longbottom to escape—especially not now—after the defeat of the Dark Lord.

They were hungry for information, but more than that, they were hungry for revenge. Neville clenched his fists as he forced himself to watch. He found his wand in his pocket and wrapped his hands around it. He knew what was coming and silently urged his parents on, wishing somehow by his support he could change the final outcome.

They don't want us to disapparate" said Anne. "Why?"

Frank, in the penseive shrugged. I don't know—I wasn't planning on going anywhere." He grinned at Anne. 

Dear God, thought Neville. He thinks this is fun! He's not afraid in the least—he's—he's excited. 

"At least not until I've caught a few of these sons of bitches," said Frank, his eyes blazing fire, he raised his wand. "Ready?"

Anne nodded, determination in every line of her stance, and wands raised, side by side, they threw open their front door and confronted the 12 Death Eaters who had surrounded their house. Four of them were down before the Death Eaters knew that the Longbottoms had decided to bring the fight to the Death Eaters instead of waiting inside for them to attack. 

Anne found herself move into a defensive position beside her husband. They were surrounded and being pushed inexorably back toward the door of their home. As if on a pre-planned cue, Anne and Frank moved through the front door and into their sitting room. The door shattered, showering them with fragments of wood.

"You're going to pay, Longbottom," drawled a soft feminine voice. 

"I've never hurt you, Narcissia," said Anne. "Give up now and we'll see what we can do for you with the Ministry. Think of your baby. Do you want him growing up without a mother?"

"_You and your kind killed my sister!"_ Narcissia shouted.

"I didn't. Her death was her own doing," said Anne.

Baby Neville couldn't count and he didn't know the people surrounding his parents, but he didn't like them. There were two women in front. One had pale blond hair escaping from under the black hood and the other woman he could see nothing of—except a strand or two of dark hair and her terrible eyes. They seemed to be somehow connected to one another, which made them even more terrible. They frightened him and if he hadn't been muted, he would have screamed and screamed—

==

"I saw her in my dream," the teenage Neville whispered. "I saw them both—no—three—three sisters."

"Do you often have prophetic dreams, Longbottom?" asked Snape.

"No, Sir," said Neville softly. "I never remember my dreams, now. I meant my baby dream that night. One died. One hid, and one –Neville's face scrunched in concentration. He shook his head. "I can't remember—"

"He could have been a seer," said Flitwick

"The most fragile of gifts," said Madam Pomfrey. "I doubt I can help him recover that."

They turned back to the pensieve, and only Harry wanted to ask "What about the other sister? One dead—that was Laurel. One hid—Narcissia? And what about Valeriana? Didn't Snape say that she was the worst? But she was in Askaban."

==

Five men stood with Frank and Anne Longbottom. "Now!" hissed the man beside the lady who had spoken earlier, and there was a blinding flash of light.

"Crucio!"

When Baby Neville opened his eyes two more men were lying on the ground, but his parents were also on the ground: twitching and crying. Wands were raised.

'They were so brave," thought Neville while the tears streamed steadily down his face. "They were unlike any parents he had imagined. He loved them. How could he have learned so much about them in just these few memories? How could he have lost them to these parasites? He clenched his fists. Remembering saying once to Malfoy—'I'm worth 12 of you, Malfoy'. Whatever made him say that back in first year? Perhaps some part of him remembered this. Remembered, it took twelve Death Eaters to bring his parents down." 

"Let's skip ahead a little," whispered Snape, adjusting the pensieve. 

They had just stopped the **crucio **spells. Only his mother's ragged breathing was heard. She began to cough and spat clots of blood on the carpet. She lay, twitching uncontrollably, her hands clenching and unclenching.

"Tsk. Tsk, Valeriana," said Narcissia. "Too rough. We don't want to kill her before we get the information. You'd better let someone else take over."

Lucius put the point of his wand under his father's chin. "Where did the Ministry Muggle lovers take Our Lord?" he asked menacingly.

"I don't—" Lucius spun around and pointed his wand at Mum. **"CRUCIO!"**

"Albania," breathed his father. 

"It's a big country," said Lucius. 

"I don't know where!" moaned his father. "I swear—"

"I believe him," said Desmond Lestrange.

"One way to be sure," said Narcissia pulling a small vial from her pocket. "Veritaserium."

She pulled open father's lip and dropped some into the space between his lip and his clenched teeth.

"Why--Why didn't you use it before?" Da croaked.

"You've turned too many of our friends over to those Azkaban monsters," said Lucius softly. "You've got a long way to suffer before you die—"

Neville had stopped crying. He sniffed softly, and clenched his fists. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Lucius Malfoy sneering at his father. 

"Tell me how much you know about our Dark Lord," said Desmond. Da began to speak, but it didn't sound like him. He sounded far away and so sad—

Once again the memory seemed to blink and the pensieve went silver. 

Snape clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles were white and he muttered a long line of swear words that shouldn't have been said in front of a student, but Neville didn't notice. Neville had gone for his wand. 

Then he hesitated, bringing his left hand up to his forehead as if he were in pain. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Professor?" Neville asked. "I didn't try to hex you again, did I?

"Don't you remember?" asked Snape softly. "Why did you want to hex me?"

"Because—because—"

"Just say it," snapped Snape.

"Because you're a slimy, greasy git and you're always unfair to the Gryffindors," whined Neville miserably.

Flitwich chuckled and Snape glared at him.

"No, that's not the memory," said Snape.

Harry could almost feel that Snape was in danger of biting his tongue off. If Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey hadn't been there, he was certain that Gryffindor would have lost points for that comment.

==

In the pensieve, baby Neville couldn't see any more. A black robe blocked his view. "I've found the child," said Barty Crouch. "I can't get him out. He's protected."

"Let me see." The woman, Valeriana came over and stared at the now visible Neville. He looked into her hooded black eyes and was afraid. She examined the wards for a moment and then pointed her wand at him. "Open," she said. The fire of the spell rolled around the outside of his hiding place. 

"_Avada Kedavra_, would get through it," said Barty.

"Be my guest," said Valeriana gesturing. "Until I know what he's protected by, I'm not trying Avada. I don't want to end up like my dear, departed sister."

Barty nodded. "I guess you're right. These children are dangerous."

Valeriana sighed and stooped down to his level. "Hello, little wizard," she said softly. "Get the Mother."

Barty dragged Neville's mother over to his hiding place, but Neville did not think she looked like his mother. No one was still living inside of her body. Her eyes were as smooth and blank as a lake on a clear day. "Your son needs you," Valeriana hissed. "You have to open the ward. He's going to starve to death! No one will find him!"

His mother stared at him unseeing. "Mum-mum-mum-mum" said Neville planitively, but no sound came out. The others could see his lips moving and encouraged him. His mother did nothing, but occasionally twitch or moan. Once she shivered all over and opened her mouth and screamed. Neville began to cry.

"She's useless," spat Valeriana, pushing her aside. "OK little wizard. You are going to have to do this yourself."

"Are you crazy?" asked Desmond. "He's a baby. He can't do magic."

"Have you had a good look at the window?" countered Valeriana, glaring at her husband. "All I need is a crack." Valeriana began cooing baby talk at him. She sat next to him for the next half-hour coaxing him to reach for a stuffed owl, a magic rattle that showered sparks like a wand, a cookie, a bottle—

Desmond joined the other four Death Eaters who were ignoring both Neville and Valeriana. They were having their own conversation, discussing the possible conclusions that could be drawn from Frank Longbottom's veritaserium testamony.

"Interesting revelation," breathed Barty Crouch. "So what are we going to do, now that the Dark Lord is—gone—"

Lucius settled himself on the Longbottom's sofa. "Do you really think we can put him back together?" He asked.

"I think we should just start over with a new one," said Narcissia. "After all we already know where the muggle line is—that was the hard part."

"Squib," corrected Desmond. "Squib line—they are still wizards—wizards without magic."

"New what?" asked Lucius.

"New Heir of Slytherin of course" Said Narcissia, with a smug smile. "Everything is still in place to summon Salazar. The only one who will die in the forests of Albania is Tom Riddle. How hard can it be to seduce a muggle? Some cousins of the family still live in little Hengleton, don't they?" 

"Are you volunteering, Narcissia?" said Barty

"She's a little busy right now," replied Lucius dryly.

Desmond suppressed a chuckle, and winked at Lucius. "Valeriana too. Twice as busy as Narcissia as a matter of fact. Of course the current available squib may be female—"

Lucius curled his lip in disgust. "In that case, Barty can have—"

A soft buzzing sound caught everyone's attention, and Lucius' comment ended with a vulgarity.

"Forget the child, Valeriana. Marshall's magic detector is buzzing." Said Barty. "Someone tried to use the floo."

"We need to get out of here," urged Desmond.

Valeriana turned back to Neville. 

"Sorry we're so rushed," said Lucius turning to the Longbottoms as if thanking them for an evening of entertainment. With a soft laugh, he continued, "Naricissia and I must be leaving. Young Draco is home terrorizing the house elves, and my lovely wife needs her rest."

Narcissia snickered and released the wards that prevented anyone from disapparating. "Don't take too long, sister," said Narcissia as she looked at Valeriana who was still waving the bottle in front of the Longbottom brat. "Marshall's magic detectors have never been wrong."

"No one will search the child's memories anyway, Valeriana. There's no reason for anyone to believe he has anything important to remember," said Lucius.

As Narcissia and Lucius disapparated, Desmond approached his wife, who was still intent upon the baby—black eyes boring into blue ones. "Your sister's right," he whispered. "The Ministry will think nothing happened here, but Auror torture and—"

"SH-HH-H!" She snapped at him, her concentration entirely on the child.

At last, Neville's hunger was getting the better of him. He wanted the bottle—He reached, but something 

blocked his hands from it "Ba-ba-ba-ba" he murmered—He wanted it. He wanted it. HE WANTED IT!

He almost had it. He knew he did, when the flash of light blinded him and the sucking pain removed the very thought of hunger, along with every other thought, from his mind. He saw the gleeful black eyes staring at him and he knew nothing but fear. He crumpled up inside of himself and sucked his thumb. He looked at his Mum and Da outside of his safe place—which had not been safe. He didn't know who they were. He only knew that devils had black eyes and no where was safe.

==

"She blocked my memories," Neville muttered. "She hurt my parents-- me."

"And now you have the opportunity to see at least some of the people who started this, in Askaban where they belong," said Flitwick.

Neville nodded. 

"All you have to do is see what's hidden—It's when they gave your father the veritaserium."

Neville nodded and then his face screwed up in pain—

"Every time I try to remember, I feel like there's a wall of bees—no—It's more like--knives in front of me—Blocking them--It hurts," said Neville. Neville ran his hands over his body, shuddering as if pushing off bugs or knives--

"Damn her," spat Snape. "I knew she'd use—" He shook his head, as Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey looked at him expectantly.

"Let's see what I can do," said Flitwick jumping down from his chair and moving right in front of Neville.

"Neville," said Flitwick. "I'm going to take one of your memories and put it in the pensieve. I'm taking one of the memories that is blocked. While I'm pulling it out, you will feel mostly pressure, until we try to dislodge the memory from you. Then for a few seconds, it's gonna hurt—like pins and needles all over your body—or a swarm of bees--I'll try to be quick. Where's your wand?" 

"S—ss.—Professor—S—snape."Neville pointed at Snape, who patted his pocket, where the wand lay.

Very well then, put both hands on the chair in front of you and concentrate on the chair. Try not to move.

"NO," said Professor Snape. "Not on the chair. On your arms, Longbottom. Concentrate on your arms. Do you remember what I did when we were breaking the Imperio?"

"Yes, but—I don't want to--"

"But I want you to remember. I want you to focus on that. That memory. It might be strong enough-"

"But I—"

"Focus!" growled Snape. 

Flitwick gently pulled the memory, but as soon as he tried to release it from Neville, a long groan tore from Neville's throat. He was gripping the chair so tightly that Snape and Flitwick both thought it would splinter. Suddenly he let go of the chair and doubled over, clutching his belly—

"His pulse and blood pressure are up," said Poppy.

"Got it," said Flitwick triumphantly, while Neville panted like he had just run a race, his arms wrapped convulsively about himself. 

"OK, relax, Neville. We're going to wait until your heart and blood pressure return to normal," said Poppy. "You need to wait a while before you do the next one." She told Flitwick.

"The next one—" squeaked Neville.

"Poppy, I have potions you may not have," said Snape. "Something to take the edge off—"

"No," said Flitwick. "Not if we're going to look at the memories. We could use a sleeping potion or a charm if we didn't want to keep the memories, but I don't want to risk interfering with the memories any more. I think Neville's lost enough of himself. Right Neville?"

Neville nodded shortly, while reaching his hand under his shirt.

"There's no blood, Longbottom," said Snape. "But with the right spell, a talented witch, like Valeriana can make you feel as if you just lost half of your guts. I'm assuming that was what you felt--"

"Talented?" said Madam Pomfrey scandalized.

"Yes, Poppy," said Snape. "Valerianna may not side with Professor Dumbledore, but you certainly cannot deny her talent—Dark talents, but talents nonetheless."

"But—" began Madam Pomfrey.

"We'll go slowly," interrupted Flitwick. "When you want to stop, Neville, just say so. We can continue tomorrow or the next day. We can do one memory a day, if that's all you can handle. It might take a while--"

"No," said Neville. "Those parasites kept me from my parents for fifteen years. I want every memory back. I want them back now. Tonight." He gripped the back of the chair and glanced at Flitwick. "Just do it," he said, locking eyes with Snape. 

Flitwick nodded raising his wand, but before he began, Neville felt Madam Pomfrey move forward and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. A moment later, although he saw no one, he felt another hand on the other shoulder. Harry Potter, thought Neville.

"Ready?" said Flitwick.

Neville nodded, determination in every line of his face, but instead of looking at Snape. Neville looked into the swirling pensieve where they had put his last thought—the testamony that Valeriana had been so anxious to hide:

++

"I know everything about _In integrum restituere_," Frank Longbottom said. Antonin Dolohov told me, before he died.

"To restore what to it's former power?" wondered Harry as he mentally translated the spell's name.

A hush fell over the group as if they were in a trance and couldn't speak. They barely seemed to breathe. 

"Tell us," said Valeriana.

Frank Longbottom continued in a veritaserum monotone. "Dolohov believed that Salazar Slytherin did not die. He left his soul—his consciousness in the Chamber of Secrets—so that he would live forever. He left spells that could only be performed by his heir. They had to be done in parseltongue. 

"Not what—" thought Harry. "Who—Salazar Slytherin, revived by his heir--"

Harry turned his attention back to the pensieve. 

"Because The Riddle line had run to squibs, and there would be no magical heir, a witch—" Frank coughed and seemed to come to himself slightly. "My wife," he whispered. "Please—"

"Are you asking ME for mercy, Longbottom?" scoffed Lucius.

"I know you, Lucius," said Frank. "The aurors will find you—"

"Well, we'll have to be sure they don't find us," said Barty. "Constant Vigilance! Along with the help of Marshall Avery's toys." 

"Didn't you notice that your dark wizard detectors aren't working?" questioned Lucius. "Or maybe we aren't dark wizards—" 

Young Barty Crouch laughed pushing his death eater mask off of his sweat streaked freckled face. Frank looked at him, recognition dawning. "Surely? Bart? Barty? You aren't one of these," Frank said. "Go home. Go home to your father. This life will—"

"My father isn't home," said Barty coldly. "He's at the Ministry where his true family lives. This is my family now."

"Barty—"

"Continue now, Longbottom." demanded Lucius, drawing on the power of the veritaserum. "You were saying—There would be no heir—"

"A witch was chosen to bear the heir of Salazar Slytherin," said Frank. "They found Salazar's squib descendant and she seduced him." 

"They?" questioned Valeriana. "Who are _they_?" 

"Doogle, Malfoy, Lestrange—"

Desmond sucked in his breath.

"Dolohov, Black, Rosier, Crabbe, Goyle, -- "Frank's tone was low and monotonous.

"Avery, Patil, Effler, Ogleby, Snape--

"Kill him," hissed Naricissia. "Kill him now! He knows too many names."

==

And each of those names was like a knife stuck in Neville. Something crunched beneath his hands.

"He's broken the chair," said Pomfrey "And his pulse is up again. We need to stop."

"No," croaked Neville. "Take the next memory! I want to see the rest!"

"But Neville—" began Flitwick.

"Do it now," demanded Neville. "Before I change my mind."

Neville now clung to Snape's suggestion that he focus on the cutting of his arm that Snape had given him. He could almost feel the burning of the cut Snape had given him, and then his poor tired brain couldn't quite focus and the sharp searing pain pierced his middle again. He cried out, and then Flitwick was putting the memory in the penseive, for all to see:

==

"Kill him," hissed Naricissia. "Kill him now!

"All in good time, sister," said Valeriana. "Tell us about this witch that seduced the muggle."

"Doogle," coughed Frank. "Doogle and Riddle. Their child was Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle was groomed by the cult to hate muggles. His mother disagreed with his treatment, and so she was killed by—a ritual sacrifice and the cult—gave her power to him."

"They decided to put him in the muggle orphanage and then they--controlled the muggles. They watched him—all the time. Constantly. Constant Vigilance. They raised him to be Salazar's son."

"No!" screeched Valeriana. "We raised him to _BE_ Salazar himself."

"Shut up, Valeriana," said Desmond. "You tell him too much!"

"He's not going to live to tell it again," said Lucius. "We should kill him now."

"Have you told anyone else these things?" asked Narcissia carefully.

"Only Anne."

"What else do you know about this, Frank?" asked Narcissia in a deceptively soft voice. 

"That's everything I know," replied Frank, still under the effects of the drug. "My wife—"

"Is dead," said Lucius viciously.

"No." said Frank. "You lie. I would know if she were dead." Frank turned his steely blue eyes toward Lucius and blue eyes to blue eyes met in a test of wills. "Tell your Keeper, there are worse things than death," said Frank in utter calm.

"I know," said Lucius. "I have a number of them in mind for you—"

"Things so dark—so empty of life," Frank continued his voice rasping with the repeated screaming. He didn't seem to hear Lucius' threat. Frank's voice sank into a whisper as he retreated into a world where Lucius had never been. His eyes, fixed and staring, saw another world, another reality. "There are things that suck the life from living souls—And your soul Lucius—Damned--And the life of your child—forfeit—All for naught—All for that devil snake—who cares nothing for you--" 

Lucius drew his wand, but Valeriana was quicker: **"Crucio!" **she shouted

Frank's voice rose to a scream and then was swallowed by the gurgling of blood.

Narcissia's hand had gone instinctively to her belly and her unborn child. 

"Kill them both," shouted Barty, his pale face now red with anger.

"No!" hissed Valeriana through gritted teeth. "Don't kill them. He dares to curse my family! 

"Valeriana, I don't think it was a curse," interrupted Desmond, but Valeriana didn't listen. 

Her voice rose to a fever pitch. "Let them live in a crucio nightmare for the rest of their lives. –all of us together—that should do it. We want everyone to believe that he is a babbling idiot" she laughed harshly. "So let's make sure that he is one!"

She looked around at her companions. "Are you with me?" she asked. "Are you?" she screeched. 

They pointed their wands at Frank Longbottom. 

The clarity of the vision was already leaving him and Frank Longbottom's last coherent thought was that at least they hadn't found Neville.

****

"CRUCIO!" said the six of them.

"Again! **CRUCIO!"**

"CRUCIO!"

Teenaged Neville was sitting in a crumpled heap, crying. "They didn't deserve that," he whispered.

"No one deserves that," said Madam Pomfrey. "That's why it's an unforgivable curse. 

Madam Pomfrey wanted take Neville to the Infirmary over night, or at least to walk him back to Gryffindor Common room, but Neville asked to be alone. Harry walked in Invisible silence beside him, until they were well out of the dungeon. Then he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, but still said nothing.

"She's wrong," said Neville, softly.

"About what?"

"There are those who deserve it," Neville said. 

Harry nodded. "He could certainly think of a few himself—certainly Voldemort, that Valeriana woman, the Malfoys—" Harry's mouth was suddenly dry.

"Do you think you could do it?" asked Neville.

"Me?"

"I mean, Moody—well Crouch said that none of us could do the unforgivables. Remember. He said we could yell 'Avada Kadavra' and he probably wouldn't get more than a nose bleed—If I had known then—who he was--" Nevilles's hands were clenched into fists.

"Intent," said Harry softly. "It's how much you really want to do it—"

Neville nodded. "Crouch said a lot of things," replied Neville. "Like Constant Vigilance—watching the Dark Lord—but I never understood—"

"I don't think anyone did," said Harry.

They had arrived at the Fat Lady. Neville turned around and held out his hand to Harry. "Thanks Harry," he said as Harry shook his hand. Thoughts tumbled through Harry's brain. If things had been different, maybe he would have been raised as Neville's brother. A few weeks ago, that wouldn't have been very appealing, but now, Harry felt differently. He would be proud to call this boy brother. Neville let go of his hand and turned back to the portrait hole. "**'fortes fortuna adiuvat**", he said.

"Good," said the Fat lady, as she opened the door. "Fortune favors the Brave. You remembered and you didn't even write it down!"

Harry had the feeling that tonight marked a whole new beginning in Neville's life, and perhaps his own.

Later, that night Harry lay in bed thinking about unforgivable curses. Could he do it? Neville had asked. It was a question he had never wanted to ask himself, and yet, he wasn't so naïve as to think that one day, he wouldn't have to answer that question with an action—or with his own death. And yet, what about the fact that his and Voldemort's wands were brother wands. Harry ran his fingers against the smooth holly wood of his wand. Inside was a phoenix feather. Fawkes' feather. A phoenix was a sign of life and rebirth. Was this wand ever meant to take a life? How was a spell like Avada Kadavra forced through it? How could Voldemort kill with such a wand, and yet, Harry knew that he did. He had seen the images of his parents and Cedric and the others come from Voldemort's wand. Voldemort had certainly killed them, and in some way, the phoenix feather from Fawkes had participated in that action. Gripping his own wand, it felt so wrong. It felt rebellious in his hand. This wand, his wand, Voldemort's wand, didn't want to kill.

==

****

Quick! Review!

I want to know what you are thinking about this chapter right now, while it's fresh in your mind. You can read the answers to reviewers later. Lady Lestrange

THANK YOU TO MY LOYAL REVIEWERS. YOU ARE CATCHING UP TO ME SO I HAVE TO KEEP MOVING TO GET THESE CHAPTERS OUT ON TIME. THANKS FOR HELPING ME AND MY MUSE BY REVIEWING. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY OTHER STORIES, PLEASE DO SO. LADY LESTRANGE

****

Kemenran: Oy Oliver Twist. More gruel coming up soon.

****

Reiven: Ethan in the Gryffindor common room—think that will be interesting? Do you? Me too. LOL. OK, so you're SLYTHERIN. You need to learn how to say this word: MUDBLOOD. I haven't even seen you type it yet. Technically, speaking that means dirty blood, which means, that to Slytherins, muggleborns are ALWAYS mudbloods. In fact, I'm not even sure if muggle born is one word or two—I've never written it. The word is Mudblood. Say it 10 times, just for the practice. Just let it roll of your lips. It's so much more descriptive than muggleborn, and easier to say too. Mudblood. Mudblood. Mudblood. (Sorry to all you non-Slytherins who are cringing.) Now that we have that out of the way, let's look at half bloods. If you like them, you never mention the fact that they are half bloods, because of course, that would mean dirty blood, and you would have to call them mudbloods. However, if you are a true Slytherin you probably wouldn't associate with half bloods anyway, and so that word would just roll smoothly off of your lips—mudblood. Technically, speaking, that would mean that they ARE half bloods, but Slytherins are more concerned with purity than technicality. So technically, why all this concern about half bloods? Aha! I know! You're a mudblood, aren't you? (love your reviews—so fun)

****

Mella deRanged: Do you want to hear the truth about why Harry didn't win the game? OK. It's a secret. Don't tell anyone, ok? I thought of this cool title—Just a Game: Just a Memory—but to use that title, doesn't it sound like someone has to say, "It's just a game?" and if they say that, it sounds like they are trying to console the losing team. So that's why Ravenclaw won. That and I couldn't have Hufflepuff win could I?

****

Elfmoon87: Do you know why it didn't take as long to read? It was shorter. The last three chapters were gigantic 10K words or better and this was back to the normal 6K. Also, thanks to you for finding Madame Maxime's first name for me. I looked for hours in GoF, because I thought it said her name, but when I couldn't find it, I thought maybe I was mistaken. I didn't think to look at OotP. It's changed in the last chapter. Madame Maxime's first name is Olympe.

****

Silverfox: Thanks for your help. In the Raven's Nest. Maybe.

****

Trillium: Yes, I thought JK needed a little variety. I mean who would go to see the Quiddich games if Gryffindor always won? Where's the mystery and excitement? Anyway, Harry had a hurt hand—remember Samara's book bit him. He was worried about Hedwig. Their keeper was new, nervous, and inexperienced. One chaser, Ginny, didn't exactly have her mind on the game—so if ever there was a time to lose this was it.

****

Ele: Begging on your knees usually doesn't mean much to a Slytherin, but in your case, I'll make an exception. Here's the next chapter. I will however, expect a review before you get up off of those knees.

****

The Elemental Sorceress: Thanks for the review. Writer's Block? Well, sometimes I don't know what to write, or more often, I write myself into a corner and can't figure out what the characters will do to get out. Sometimes I walk around and try to imagine the conversation between the characters and I kind of act it out or talk to myself—a little like Ginny—OK don't tell them at St. Mongo's—I escaped. He-he-he- I also try to think of my story right before I go to bed, and actually, one chapter that's coming up next visit to Slytherin was a dream, well, nightmare actually, so welcome to my nightmare. Sometimes, I have to do something totally different, and that's where my other little short story, THE SLYTHERIN TRUTH: The Real Story of How Harry Potter Got His Scar, came from. I was overwhelmed with all the darkness I was writing in Seers' Truth, and wanted to write something silly and fun. It sort of cleared my head for the next "hold your breath" chapter in Seers' Truth.

****

Ennui: Welcome. I have to ask you, did you stay up half the night to read all the way to chapter 39 in one sitting (gives me warm fuzzies) or were you just too lazy to review earlier and stuffed all your favorite parts from chapters 1-39 into one review? Glad you love it either way.

****

Reiven: (Anonymous) OK, you're not a Ravenclaw. Lol. Olive Hornby and Myrtle had this conversation in chapter 34--Ravenclaw. I'd just a call it a mudblood though-- 

About Harry Potter. Technically he is a pureblood, but that wouldn't stop a Slytherin from bringing to mind the fact that he was not from a pureblood family, since his mother was a mudblood.

Ye think? Werewolves? (Silly muggle. There's no such thing as werewolves) However, I believe that if a muggle were bitten, he would become a werewolf just like a wizard would. He would, however, have a much more difficult time finding wolfsbane potion in his local apothecary/pharmacy.

PLEASE REVIEW. At least you don't have to pay for this book.

==

Coming up next, Hogsmeade and then The Chamber of Secrets.

==


	40. CH 39: Opening Doors

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

CHAPTER 39

Opening Doors

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. No. NO. Wait a minute. The next chapter is RETURN TO THE CHAMBER. I think it might be worth 15 reviews. Hmmmmm? LOL Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FOUR times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from? In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Now that Harry's hand is good enough to play Quiddich, don't you think it's time for him to go to the Chamber? Me too. Next chapter—**Return to the Chamber. I think that might be worth 15 reviews, What do you think? hmmmm?**

For now, a relaxing time at Hogsmeade awaits—he-he-he-

****

Opening Doorways

Vaguely, Harry heard the sound of rain on the roof. He wasn't sure if it was real or in the dream. Harry had dreamed this dream before. He was running—running through the corridors of Hogwarts and suddenly he was in the third floor corridor, but Hermione and Ron weren't with him. He was alone. He was out of breath from running. He got by the three-headed dog, but the Devil's snare was crushing him, and he had no idea what to do about it. He was going to die. Suddenly the vines changed to a slithering basilisk. Harry was caught in its coils and it was speaking to him in parseltongue. "I've been patient, Harry Potter. I've waited so long for you. But then, patience is a gift of the snake. The prophecy child means nothing if you join me, Harry Potter. Just say 'yes', Harry Potter."

"No!" Harry screamed and rammed the sword through the roof of the snake's mouth, killing it. Basilisk blood and venom was running down his arm, burning him. He knew he was already dying. There was no phoenix to save him now. He ran again, feeling like Voldemort was coming again. "I have conquered death, Harry Potter," a voice called. "You don't have to die. Join me. You know cannot win against me." Harry ran somehow climbing up the slippery ramp to the girl's bathroom. He knew that he couldn't stop. The thing that Voldemort had become was only a moment behind him. He had to get to Dumbledore's office, but the staircases changed and suddenly he was running right to Voldemort. It was speaking from its blanket. Wormtail was holding it. "You cannot escape. You must travel to the end of the Maze and there I will have you!" Harry reached for the Tri-Wizard cup and it turned into a snake as he laid his hands upon it. "Hisssuss!" It breathed, just before it sunk its fangs into Harry's arm. Harry pulled away and began running again. If he could just get to Dumbledore, he knew he would be safe.

In the dream, he had finally reached Dumbledore's office, shouting the password and bursting through the door, but Professor Dumbledore wasn't there. Harry was holding Samara's book, with a finger inserted between the pages to mark the place he wanted to show Dumbledore. It was important that Dumbledore see this now! Where was he? Where was he? Why was he never available when Harry needed him? Harry paced nervously back and forth in Dumbledore's office for a moment and then he spotted the Sorting Hat. "Was it too simple to just ask the Hat why it wasn't working? Would it answer?" Silently he put the book beside the pensieve, which was sitting out on Dumbledore's desk. He picked up the old Sorting Hat, and put it on his head. Fawkes flew to the desk and looked curiously at him. 

"Ah, yes," said the Sorting Hat. "I stand by what I said—you would have done well in Slytherin—"

"Can you tell me," asked Harry, "What happened to you?"

"Only if you choose Slytherin," said the Hat.

"Please—Lives are at stake—" said Harry softly. "OK—Slytherin.". Fawkes began to cry; large golden tears fell on his hand.

And the Hat began to talk rapidly in parseltongue—

The sudden searing pain jolted through Harry. Both of his hands were clutched over his scar, which was burning with intensity that he had never felt before. Not only was his scar burning but so was his right hand—the hand that was covering the scar—the hand that had been holding the book—the hand bitten by Samara's book—the hand brush burned when Snape took his wand—

"Slytherin!" shouted the Hat, and Harry awoke shaking. 

His hand and face was wet with his own tears. Harry scrambled for the bedside table and his glasses, but his shaking hands knocked them to the floor. Searing pain still ran from the crook of his right arm to the tips of his fingers.

When he reached down to pick up his glasses, he heard Edward's snake muttering. Parseltongue, he thought. He had to remember what the Hat had said to him in parseltongue. He shuddered. Never would he choose Slytherin. Never—Never--But if lives were at stake—whose? Ron's? Hermione's? Ginny's? He would. He knew he would. He couldn't stand by and see his friends suffer. As the moments slipped away, so did the memory of the dream, and try as he might, Harry couldn't remember a single word of the parseltongue that the Sorting Hat spoke to him.

Harry lay in bed, sweating for another few minutes, but he knew he couldn't go back to sleep. Finally, he got up, showered, threw on a pair of muggle pants and a sweater and headed down to the Common room with a few books. Maybe he could get a little studying done before it was time to go to Hogsmeade. He had his defense and charms both finished by the time the rest of Gryffindor Tower started to stir. Samara came downstairs first, hesitating at the bottom step when she saw Harry sitting at one of the small tables in the Common Room. 

"Reading auras again?" Harry asked.

"Well, it's kind of hard not to," she said running a hand through her hair which was tumbling down her back instead of neatly coiled around her wand. "Your aura is as much a part of you as your hair color to me."

"Where's your wand?" Asked Harry.

She pulled it out of her robe pocket. "I was just going up to see Aggie. I wasn't really ready to meet anyone." She ran another hand through her hair, self consciously trying to smooth it."

"I didn't want to see you go off without your wand—not these days," said Harry.

She stared at him for a moment, and then cleared her throat. "Has Hedwig returned yet?" she asked.

Harry shook his head.

"I'd be really worried if it was Aggie. You must feel awful." Samara shivered.

Harry did a warming spell on a chair next to his and gestured to it. "Sit down," he said. "It's freezing in here without the warming spells."

"I know," said Samara with a little laugh. "I'm actually getting good at them—Do you think Hedwig is warm and dry?"

"I'm worried about her," said Harry, "but Hagrid is good with animals. She couldn't be in better hands if she's hurt."

"Hagrid." Said Samara. "He's the one with the hippogriff, right?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Oh, he's on the Wall at Hufflepuff."

"Wall?" Said Harry.

Samara proceeded to tell Harry all about the Wall in Hufflepuff and how Hufflepuffs of note, specifically, Hagrid was now on it. Harry listened intently. 

"Well," he said at last. "That explains some things about my room."

Samara looked at him confusedly, reaching out and capturing his right hand in hers. Although she had been shivering, she felt very warm to Harry. He hadn't realized that his right arm had been aching until the warmth spread through him and the aching eased. "What about your room?" Samara asked.

"Edward." Said Harry at last, "And the wall he's painting." Harry considered disentangling his hand from hers, but he didn't move. "Are you going to Hogsmeade, or are you considered a first year?"

"No," said Samara, releasing his hand and sitting back in the chair. "I have permission to go to Hogsmeade. I'm meeting Beatrice and Ginny and Edward as soon as I'm finished with Aggie." Samara pushed her hair back again. "Well, I'd better go," she said, "They'll be waiting for me."

Harry nodded. "And I'd better wake Ron, or we might miss Hogsmeade altogether." They headed in separate directions, each to their own concerns.

==

When Harry and Ron finally got to the Common Room, they discovered Hermione sitting in a chair by the cold fireplace waiting for them.

"It's about time," she said, as she snapped her book closed. "I was ready to go to breakfast without you. Were you planning on just filling up on sweets and butterbeer today."

"That sounds like a good idea," said Ron, grinning.

Hermione rolled her eyes, and straightened her hat over her curls. "You're hopeless," she said, as they went down to the Great Hall. 

Most of the students had already headed off join their friends on their way to Hogsmeade. Only a few were still left at the tables catching the last bit of breakfast. 

A small non-descript owl delivered Hermione's paper.

"Hey," said Ron. "That's not the Daily Prophet."

"Well," said Hermione, straightening her hat. "I just thought that since Dumbledore has more faith in Witch Weekly, I should change my subscription—"

"But Rita Skeeter writes for Witch Weekly, now," said Harry.

"True," agreed Hermione, glancing through the headlines. "But I think the Ministry owns the Daily Prophet. They won't print anything that Fudge doesn't approve—Oh my gosh—"

"What is it?" asked Ron, reading over her shoulder.

"Dakon Garr has been arrested," said Hermione.

"The goblin that runs Gringotts?" said Harry.

"That's the one. This could start a whole new Goblin Rebellion," said Hermione. 

"Oh please," moaned Ron. "Binns went on enough about the last one."

"So what does it say that the goblin did," asked Harry.

Hermione hushed them as she read.

"Hermione!" insisted Ron. 

"Honestly," she said. "If you want to know, you should buy your own subscription."

"No money," said Ron simply.

Hermione began to read half way through the article:

"And in proceedings today, Dakon Garr was arraigned on charges of embezzlement and fraud. He was unable or unwilling to tell Ministry officials the whereabouts of 2.5 million galleons, which were—" Hermione's voice dwindled as she began to scan more quickly, reading to herself.

"Hermione!" said Ron and Harry together. 

"He got off," she said, summarizing the article. "The Ministry found him guilty, but the Goblin Tribunal said that Goblins are not punishable through the wizarding legal system, so he was transported to the Goblin Tribunal for examination."

"And the money?" asked Harry.

Hermione shrugged. "Gone. The article said it was shunted through muggle banks, but no one knows who has it."

"Wish I could get away with that," said Ron. "2.5 million galleons and no one knows where it is. If I lose a knut, Mum goes bonkers."

"Anything else interesting?" asked Harry.

"Not really," said Hermione. "Some muggle attacks that are suspicious, but there have been some of those almost every day. The Ministry keeps checking to see if there is a logical explanation for the muggles bombing one another or if there is any magical interference."

"The Ministry—" interrupted Harry. "So can we trust the Ministry to find out if there really is any magical interference?"

"Well," said Hermione taking a final bite of toast. "I guess not, but I don't know if anyone else is even looking. Maybe some of the reporters, looking for a scoop—"

"So what does Rita write about?" asked Ron.

"She had the article about Gringotts," said Hermione.

Harry, Ron and Hermione hurriedly ate a few more bites of breakfast before deciding to make their way to Hogsmeade. They were almost at the door when a low "hoot" caused Harry to turn. 

"Hedwig!" He put out his arm to allow the sailing bird to light on it. A letter was attached to her leg and she obediently put out her leg to allow him to remove it, but Harry was so glad to have her back, he went back to the table to get some scraps of meat for her. He smoothed her feathers and Ron and Hermione promised to wait for him while he took her to the owlry. Harry checked over every inch of her. She seemed to be in fine condition, pecking him playfully as he fed her the scraps of bacon.

Finally, the trio got to Hogsmeade. The rain had finally let up and Harry was glad that for once it was just Ron and Hermione with him. He had something important he wanted to tell them, and he didn't want Edward or Samara or even Ginny for that matter, eavesdropping. 

"I need to stop in Dervish and Banges for some wand polish," said Hermione, "And after that, pick up a book—"

"We could meet in The Three Broomsticks," suggested Harry.

"No, let's just stay together," said Ron. "Unless you had something you needed to get, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "No. Not really." The boys trailed after Hermione who was busily comparing which wand polish was supposed to enhance spells and which just cleaned.

Ron was looking at the prices. "Do you buy wand polish?" he asked Harry, as he looked at his own fingerprinted and scuffed wand. 

Harry shook his head. "But I heard Quality Quiddich Supplies put a branch store here in Hogsmeade. Do you want to try to find it?" asked Harry. 

"Like I could afford a broom," said Ron woefully. He shrugged. "Well, maybe later," he said, leaning over Hermione's shoulder. "Did you get what you wanted, Hermione?" 

"I think so," she said. "But I wanted to ask if they had any sort of tonic for Crookshanks too. Do you think he's been acting strange lately?"

"Definitely," Harry agreed, but the shopkeeper of Dervish and Banges, carried only a general supplement called "Feel Good Cat Treats". Hermione decided to buy some anyway.

"Couldn't hurt," agreed Ron. "You know, Harry, I was thinking, tonight might be the perfect time to go to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Tomorrow," said Hermione.

"We need to see if the basilisk eggs are there and destroy them as soon as possible," said Harry. "And something else," whispered Harry shouldering between Ron and Hermione. "I learned something about Salazar Slytherin from Neville-- "

"Hi!" said Samara jovially as she swung herself around Harry. He looked around to see Beatrice, Ginny and Edward, all laden with packages. "We're on our way to Three Broomsticks. Want to join us?"

"Sure," replied Hermione, effectively stopping any further discussion about the Chamber or Salazar. As they were walking they passed a narrow side street where Samara paused. 

"Sally?" She called. "Sally Anne?"

Harry glanced down the side street to see none other than Vincent Crabbe emerge from a small shop, called Madam Puddifoots. His meaty arm was wrapped around a petite blonde Hufflepuff and surprisingly, her arms were wrapped around him too. Giggling, they were both nibbling their way to the center of a chocolate frog. 

Immediately, the couple turned and without acknowledging Samara, hastily re-entered the little shop.

"I've never seen him without Malfoy," said Ron amazed.

"I don't think they wanted Draco to know they came here together," said Samara, glancing up at the darkening sky. "I'm sure they would appreciate your not saying anything to Draco."

"Oh, well, Draco Malfoy and I aren't exactly on speaking terms," said Ron.

"We should hurry," said Hermione. "It looks like its really going to storm."

Harry chuckled as he picked up his pace. "Anything that gets Malfoy on edge is fine with me."

Feeling relaxed and at ease, Harry hurried with his friends into the Three Broomsticks, just as the rain started to fall. Nothing prepared him for the voice he heard. 

"Herm-own-ninny! I have been vaiting for –" Viktor broke off, horrified. "Vat have you done to your hair!" He unceremoniously yanked off her hat, which had taken her quite a while to arrange over her curls. "vere has all your beautiful hair gone?" he moaned, running his hands through her thick curls.

"I cut it," Hermione lied, grabbing her hat and jamming it back on her head. "And I told you not to come Viktor."

"But Herm-own-ninny," said Viktor, wrapping his arm around Hermione. "Vhen you said you need help vith the Basilisk--" 

"Sh-h-h," hissed Hermione, pushing away from him.

"Get your hands off of her," said Ron, pulling his wand. 

By now, they had an audience. Harry also took out his wand and saw with satisfaction that Ginny, Samara and Edward followed suit, apparently unsure what sort of situation might arise. Beatrice had turned into a bunny and ran under a neighboring table where Harry was dismayed to notice sat Malfoy and some of his cronies.

"No, no, no," bustled Madame Rosemerta. "Put your wands away this instant, or you must leave."

"Leaving is exactly what we want him to do," said Ron in a low voice.

"Herm-own-ninny?" said Viktor. "Do you vant me to leave?"

Hermione looked helplessly from Viktor to Ron to Harry and then at the curious patrons of the Three Broomsticks. "Yes," she said softly. "I think it is for the best, right now."

Viktor slouched away from Hermione, turned to look at her. "I vill owl you," he said, and then disapparated with a pop.

"Well, well, well," said Malfoy. "The Mudblood the center of a bar room brawl. Who would have thought she was hot enough to fight for—Of course," he continued lazily. "It's always the quiet ones that—"

"Draco!" began Samara, but Ron was in no mood for words. As shower of red sparks flew from Ron's wand, but Draco ducked and the table in front of him shattered with whatever spell Ron had used on Draco. Glass and butterbeer flew everywhere.

"You're getting quicker, Weasel," Draco drawled.

"Enough!" roared Madame Rosemerta.

Hermione turned on her heel and crying, sprinted out of the doorway, into the pouring rain. Ron followed right behind her leaving Harry standing with Edward and Ginny and Samara and all of the packages that they had accumulated. Harry started to pick up the parcels, as Madame Rosemerta turned red-faced with anger from Draco to Harry. 

'We're sorry," said Harry, pocketing his wand nervously.

Samara had stuck her wand back in her hair and headed over to Draco.

"Left holding the bag again, Potter?" said Draco as he sauntered up to the bar, ignoring Samara, while his companions were practically rolling on the floor laughing. "For the damage," Malfoy said as he laid a galleon in front of Madame Rosemerta, and smirking, took her hand in his. "I hope this little-- show wasn't a bother." He now absently reached out to put an arm around Samara, but she shifted away. 

"Draco, why do you have to antagonize them?" she asked. "It wasn't necessary."

"Of course it was, Samara. The Weasel would have been disappointed if I didn't. It gives them a chance to show off their Gryffindor bravery."

"--Not a problem at all, young Mr. Malfoy," Madame Rosemerta was saying, and with a flourish of her wand she did **"Repairo!"** on the table and called a house elf to clean up the butterbeer and glass.

Draco leaned close to Samara and said something softly. She laughed, but returned to the Gryffindor table, leaving Draco with Goyle and a few other Slytherin boys that Harry didn't know.

"I should go," said Harry, glancing at the door.

"Don't be a fool Harry. I'm sure Ron can console Hermione all by himself, " said Edward. "Sit down. Have a butter beer."

"But Ron and Hermione are my best friends," said Harry as he sat between Samara and Edward. "I mean Ron and Hermione? They fight all the time--" He looked from one to the other and Samara pushed the warm butterbeer into his hands. 

"Drink up," she said. "At some time during the conversation, Malfoy left and the rabbit hopped back over to their table. Harry picked it up, and sat stroking it absently, thinking of all of his losses. All of them he had attributed to Voldemort until now. How was he going to share things with his two best friends now that Hermione and Ron were a couple? How could it not be awkward?

Harry was jogged back into the conversation, by Ginny's voice. "Well Harry's been to Knockturn Alley alone," she said. 

"You have?" asked Edward, letting Ginny's hair curl around his fingers as he talked. "My Granny never let me and my brother go alone. We always had to have someone else with us—You know—in case we got into trouble." Edward leaned on the table. "So how was it?" he asked.

With effort, Harry smiled at Edward, thinking McGonagall wanted him to be friends with Edward. Never in a million years could Edward hold a candle to Ron, but at least he could be civil. But if he hurt Ginny--"Nothing much happened," said Harry. "I met a hag selling fingers and then Hagrid found me and we went back to Diagon Alley."

"Busted!" teased Edward, leaning away from Ginny who hardly seemed to notice whether Edward was there or not.

Harry grinned, took a drink of his butterbeer, and started to relax. Conversation drifted through classes to Quiddich to what they bought in Hogsmeade. Edward and Samara carried most of the conversation. Ginny sat quietly sipping her butterbeer.

"Have you been to Honeydukes yet," asked Samara. "I want to get some chocolate."

"No," said Harry. Not yet.

"Well, let's go then. It's almost time to get back to Hogwarts," suggested Edward downing the last of his butterbeer and standing. He pulled Ginny to her feet and she looked at him with that trusting innocent expression that Harry had thought was reserved for him. 

As Harry looked at the packages he had to carry and the rabbit that he was still holding in his arms, he came to the sudden realization that 'the rabbit' was Beatrice. Gently, he sat her on the chair and tried to remember just where he had touched her when he was petting her. Although he was pretty sure his hands stayed on her back and her ears, he couldn't quite look her in the eye when she transformed back into a girl.

"Honeydukes, here we come," said Edward, and Harry dug in his pocket for money to help pay for the drinks.

A couple came in the door and stopped, looking for an empty table. 

"Lauren! Alvin! Over here," called Samara, waving. "We're leaving." Samara left her chair open for a regal blonde girl who was dressed in a casual gray robe and a tall Slytherin boy with her. The boy wrapped his arms loosely around Samara and said "Rematch!"

"Quit!" Samara said pushing him away.

"Gee. That was easy," said Alvin.

"Was not. We can't play that here," hissed Samara.

"You beat him, Samara?" asked Ginny.

"Yeah, he's easy."

Edward chuckled "Haven't played me yet," he said as they headed for the door. "I didn't know you knew the game, Samara."

Harry looked from one to the other puzzled. He caught Beatrice's eye but she looked as confused as he felt. 

"Come over to Slytherin later, Samara," called Lauren, her face brightening with a smile. "I'll tell you all his weak spots."

"Tomorrow," promised Samara. "I'm playing chess with Aldwin later tonight."

"What weak spots?" muttered Edward.

"Ha!" said Ginny, giving Edward a little push.

"Why don't you come too Ginny?" called Lauren. "It will be good practice."

"We'll be there," said Edward, draping an arm lazily around Ginny's shoulders.

"Tomorrow afternoon," Ginny clarified. "We have Quiddich practice in the morning."

"Oh, well, you'd better practice," Alvin called as they started toward the door. "You're going to need all the practice you can get, before you play Slytherin."

"Does anyone want to tell us what you were talking about?" asked Beatrice.

"Quit," said Samara. "It's just a game I learned in Slytherin."

"So they were both Slytherins," said Harry. "Even the girl—"

"Yeah," said Samara. "Alvin Nott and Lauren Avery."

"Laurel—" said Harry stopping in his tracks. 

"No," said Samara. "It's Lauren. Laurel was her mother, but she's dead. Died when Lauren was a baby."

Harry looked back at the willowy blonde, his mouth suddenly dry. This was the girl whose mother died trying to kill him.

As the students headed to Honeydukes, Harry made his excuses and said he needed to get back to the dorm to do some schoolwork.

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend," said Samara throwing an arm around his shoulder. "It will wait until tomorrow. You have definitely been around Hermione too long."

When they entered Honeydukes, they discovered a group of students leaving the store. "Hey!" said Samara, tapping one of the boys on the shoulder. "Hi Terry. How's your book?"

"It's still stunned!" He exclaimed. "I could just kiss you."

"Later," said Samara with a wink. "Too crowded here."

Laughing, the Ravenclaws left the store.

"You are such a tease," said Ginny.

"It takes one, to know one," replied Samara.

Harry expected Ginny to have some quick reply back to Samara, but she said nothing. She simply smiled as if at a secret joke and leaned her head back on Edward's shoulder.

"Should I get Chocolate Frogs or Beans?" asked Samara thoughtfully.

"Oh, what? Were you talking to me?" asked Ginny. "Sorry."

Harry bought some gum and frogs and beans and several other sweets that he didn't recognize. He had quite a bag full when he came into the common room.

==

"So, what did Hagrid write in his letter?" asked Ron looking up from a game of chess with Lou. Hermione was no where in sight.

"He's on his way back," said Harry, putting a warming spell on a chair and sinking tiredly into the soft cushions. "He should be here before Christmas."

"Oh well, there goes our free period," said Ron moving his queen forward the length of the board. "Checkmate."

"Good game," Said Lou. I'll get you next time." With a yawn, he gathered up his chess pieces and headed up to the boys' dorm. 

When Lou was gone, Harry asked about Hermione. "I have all the stuff she bought," said Harry. 

"Just take it up to our room," said Ron. "I told her I'd take care of it. She wanted to—" Ron hesitated. 

"Hey Ron," said Harry "This is Hermione we're talking about. We've been friends a long while. I mean if you—well—"

"She wanted to try to grow her hair," said Ron.

"She what?"

"She's been working with McGonagall and Beatrice. Apparently it's similar to the animagus spell—changing some part of your body by concentration. I don't exactly understand what she's talking about. You know how Hermione is, but she's excited."

"Is she trying to be an animagus?" asked Harry.

"No. I don't think so. It's just that she wants her hair back, and Beatrice mentioned that when she turns into a rabbit she has to grow her ears, so Hermione wanted to know how and one thing led to another and now Hermione is trying to grow her hair."

"Do you think it's working?" asked Harry.

"Has Hermione ever done a spell wrong?"

"Not that I know of," said Harry.

An unaccustomed silence descended over the two friends. At last, Harry broke it.

"Ron, about you and Hermione. I don't know how I didn't see—I mean it might be a little awkward at times. But-- I don't want to get in the way."

"No way, mate. Hermione and I talked about this. We're friends. All three of us. We've done things together for too long to stop being friends just because—" Ron broke off his ears turning red. "Well, just because." He finished. 

"You've talked about this? How long have you two been a couple?" asked Harry. 

"Well, there wasn't an exact date," said Ron. "There have been little things. I'd brush against her by accident and she'd blush and then she'd be lugging those hundred books around and I'd help her and she'd snap at me and then one day, she was telling me how I'd made a dozen errors on my defense paper and I leaned over her shoulder to see what she was talking about and—and-- I just kissed her. It shut her up."

Harry laughed, and shook his head. "I can't believe you, Ron. 'It shut her up' What kind of romance is that?"

"Well, then she kissed me back," said Ron softly. "And that Viktor. He just makes my blood boil. He thinks he can come back any time he wants to. Well the only reason why Hermione went to the Yule ball with him in the first place is because I was too slow to ask her. He can go right back to Bulgaria and stay there."

"He did help us with the basilisk," said Harry.

"Yes, well Hermione and I had a long talk about that too. She said she didn't say anything in her letter that would have made him think he could come here. In fact she specifically said don't come. There is someone else in my life. That's the way she wrote it: 'Someone else in my life,' said Ron. "But the dumb bloke came anyway. Must have taken too many bludgers to the head!"

Harry laughed aloud. "So what did you do with his autograph?" Harry asked. 

"Incendio!" said Ron, pantomiming throwing the piece of crumpled paper in the air and firing off the spell. 

"Sounds like you're taking lessons from Edward."

"He's not half-bad, you know," said Ron. "Once you get to know him, he's almost nice."

"You don't still think he's the prophecy child, do you?" asked Harry. 

"I don't know what to think," said Ron. "All of the things we learned about Salazar doesn't bring us any closer to fixing the Hat. Maybe Dumbledore is right. We just have to keep our eyes open for this prophecy child." Ron stretched, and together they headed up to the boys' dorm. "So when do you want to make this little trip to the Chamber?"

"I thought tomorrow afternoon," said Harry. "We have Quiddich practice in the morning. But Samara and Edward and even Ginny are going to play that game over in Slytherin tomorrow afternoon."

Ron nodded. 

==

The next day, Ginny returned from Quiddich practice, showered and changed clothes and she was still waiting for Samara.

"Samara!" said Ginny, exasperated. "You've done that glamour charm six times. You look fine. Let's go." Her own hair was stuck in a pony tail and she wore the make up potion that the twins had given her, which covered her freckles rather well, but did nothing to enhance her appearance.

At last, the girls met Edward in the Gryffindor Common room and headed over to Slytherin. 

"You know," said Ginny. "We should have went over right after lunch. We're going to have to wait for someone to let us in now"

"Draco knows we're coming," said Samara. 

"And I'm sure he's sitting by the door waiting for you," Edward teased.

Samara stuck her tongue out at him. 

"Might get stuck that way," said Edward.

Quickly, Samara sucked her tongue back into her mouth. She thought of her mom telling her when she made faces at her brothers, that her face was going to get stuck that way, and she's laugh, but here in the wizarding world it was a threat that an adhere charm could make real.

Once in the dungeon passageways, Samara hesitated. 

"It's this way," said Edward.

"Are you sure?" asked Samara looking down the long corridor that went off diagonally from the main one. "Is there a short cut?" she asked.

"Undoubtedly," said Edward, stopping. "But I don't know it. Do you?"

"No," said Samara, with a frown. "We'll go your way. I'm not sure."

Three corridors further along, Ginny confessed that she was lost. 

Samara laughed. "I tell Draco that every time he brings me here. Of course, he always uses a different passageway to confuse me."

"Probably not," said Edward. "The passages change, like the staircases. You did realize that was Salazar Slytherin's invention, didn't you?"

"What? The moving staircases?" said Ginny.

"I hate those things," said Samara. "They never go the way I want them to— Someone should have cursed him silly when he thought of that."

Edward laughed, leaning his hand against the blank wall.

"Are you sure this is it?" asked Ginny. 

"This is it," said Samara looking around her and simply sensing, more than seeing the corridor. "But it won't open without a Slytherin's touch and we don't even know the password. I guess we could knock." She put her knuckles to the wall in a sharp knock and called out. "Hey! Slytherins? Anyone in the Common room? We came to play Quit."

Just then, Samara noticed the tiny snakes that she had seen when she and Draco had last entered the Slytherin Common room. They were certainly easy to miss, carved into the stone like that.

"I don't see a doorway," said Ginny, "But—" she broke off, her eyes on the snakes. She licked her lips as if she was about to say something, and her aura completely changed from its normal blue to yellow and then back to blue.

"Whoa!" Said Samara. "What did you just do, Ginny?"

"Nothing," said Ginny. "I was—just—thinking of opening—doorways—"

"Hey! Come in," said Lauren as she opened the passageway to the Slytberin Common Room. "Alvin wanted you to say the password, but I told him it wouldn't matter with the new wards—even if you knew it—"

"So, what is the password?" asked Edward.

"Gryffindor Sucks," said Lauren. "Alvin thought it would be funny to hear you guys say it. Sometimes he's so immature." Lauren rolled her eyes dramatically and Samara laughed.

"That's not very nice," said Ginny.

"You're in Slytherin now," said Lauren. "Leave 'nice' at the doorway. You know Pansy, and Alvin and Vince and Greg. I don't think you've met Gloria, have you?"

"I did," said Samara. "She went to Ravenclaw with us."

"That was a laugh, wasn't it?" said Gloria. "They call all those educational things in their common room _Games. _As if they are supposed to be fun." Gloria edged her way between Ginny and Edward, and looked up at him. "Now, Slytherins know how to have fun," she said, her aura darkening as she wrapped her arm around his.

Samara glanced back at Ginny, expecting her to be feeling a little threatened by Gloria's claiming Edward's arm, but Ginny had seated herself in front of the roaring fire, and her aura had again turned a bright yellow-orange.

"Are you allowed to have the fire lit?" asked Samara. "Oh, yeah," said Lauren. "But Snape says we have to extinguish it before lights out. He does wander in here to check every now and then."

"No he doesn't," said Pansy. "He hasn't been in the Common room since school started."

"But he could," Lauren protested.

"OK, I'll play the winner," said Draco as he sauntered in from the boy's dorm, followed by Alvin Nott.

"We haven't started yet," said Lauren.

"Where's Ethan?" asked Edward.

"Knocked out on the floor. You can go **enervate** him if you really want to."

"Draco, what did you do?" asked Samara. 

"Nothing he didn't deserve. Seriously, he's not knocked out. He's just looking for the counter curse."

"For what?" asked Ginny and Edward together.

****

"Papulae," said Draco, and Samara burst into laughter.

"There isn't one," said Samara. "You just have to wait for them to go away."

"I know," said Draco. "Brilliant isn't it?"

Ginny was digging through her bag, and came up with a small bottle of potion. "Here," she said handing it to Edward. "Go give this to your brother. It won't get rid of the pimples, but it will cover them up. Look it's hidden my freckles. Fred says, it will cover up any spots."

"I wondered what was missing, Weasel," said Draco.

"It's Ginny," said Ginny softly.

Draco shrugged and looked away. "Won't matter. I expect the Gryffindors to be out cold in three minutes flat."

"Is that a bet?" asked Edward from the doorway.

"Oh, if your mother could hear you—_Gryff_," Draco said. 

"Not one word about my mother," said Edward pulling his wand.

"Uh-uh-uh--remember what happened to your brother," said Draco, his wand also out. "I'm faster than you are, Edward. You're out of practice."

"We came here to play Quit," Samara reminded them, pulling Draco away from Edward, and Ginny needs some instructions. "Why don't you show her Edward? Here, Alvin," Samara threw him the bottle of potion. "Go give this to Ethan. Just tell him it's the next best thing to the counter curse."

Alvin nodded and left the room.

Still eyeing Draco, Edward moved behind Ginny and arranged his arms over hers. "Now, I pull from the Earth Elemental—we're just using Earth, right?" 

Lauren nodded. "Yeah, at least with Ginny. From what I saw in class she's not ready for anything else."

"Lauren showed me how in class," said Ginny. "But I pretty much 'quit' before I even started."

"Anyway," Edward continued. "I pull from the Earth, through you. Now, it's going to feel strange, because it's my magic, not yours. You are in charge of releasing the magic. If you can't keep up with me, the magic builds up in your body, and—um—"

"Hurts like hell," said Blaise, "So you say 'Quit' or you act really stubborn and wait to pass out and we have to take you to Madam Pomfrey and it ruins the whole game."

"We're not taking anyone to Madam Pomfrey," said Lauren. "If you pass out, we take you up to your dorm and put you to bed."

"Without any supper?" asked Gloria.

"They won't want to eat," said Pansy.

"You can't do that," said Blaise. "If they don't get the foreign magic out of their system, they'll be so sick they won't be able to move tomorrow."

"So don't forget to put an ever-clean trash can by their bed," said Ethan from the doorway. "I think Lauren is right. Anyone too stubborn to say 'quit' deserves to be sick." His dark eyes were on Draco as he spoke. "Why should we have to take them to Madam Pomfrey?"

"OK," said Lauren with a shrug, "Except for the Gryffs, they might not realize—"

"What?" said Gloria. "Even a Gryff knows when they're in pain."

"Well, it starts as a kind of tingling, like your arms falling asleep," said Lauren. "That's when you know you aren't releasing fast enough."

"Can we just play?" said Pansy exasperated. "They'll catch on. Alvin! I challenge you."

Alvin moved up to the center of the little circle and Pansy put her arms over his. In a matter of seconds, both were sweating. Samara could see their auras flickering—warring with each other's magic. Pansy was losing, but not by much. A second later, Pansy pulled her hands away. "You win," she said. "I can't keep up."

"But you did a lot better than last time," Lauren encouraged her.

"I challenge Ginny," said Alvin.

"Do I pull from the Elemental?" asked Ginny. 

"No, you release," said Alvin, adjusting his hands over hers.

"And don't touch," said Lauren. 

"Why don't you touch?" asked Ginny.

"Because if you do," drawled Draco, his eyes a smoky gray and his aura suddenly darkening to a deep rose color, "The magic becomes shared. And it--doesn't--hurt—"

Samara's breath quickened and it was difficult to drag her eyes away from Draco when his aura looked like that. 

"Yeah, doesn't hurt until Lauren get a hold of you afterwards," laughed Gloria, now hanging onto Ethan's arm. 

Ginny's aura flushed, but the make up she had on kept the group from knowing how embarrassed she was. She glanced at Alvin, and with a little grin at Lauren, she said, "OK, let's go."

As soon as Alvin started, Ginny sucked her aura close to her body and shuddered with the effect of the strange magic. Her hands clenched into fists, and she closed her eyes.

"Release!" Samara shouted at her, and it seemed as if Ginny finally remembered what she was supposed to do. She opened her hands and pushed the magic from her, but she was no where near fast enough. Within seconds, she gave a little cry and crumpled.

"You're supposed to say 'quit'," said Pansy.

"Ow. Ow. Ow." Ginny sucked breath in through her teeth, and held her head. Samara reached for her, but Draco held her back. 

"Don't touch her," he said. "She'll get it."

"Tom?" Ginny whimpered and then her aura cleared, going pure golden yellow and suddenly she thrust the foreign magic from her, in one powerful push.

"OK," she said, and shuddering again, her aura returned to blue. 

"Who's Tom?" whispered Blaise.

"Boyfriend?" surmised Lauren in the same soft tone.

"That was awful," said Ginny. "Samara, it feels like a swarm of bees all over your body, only inside—Yuck—" She shivered again. "It's worse than a ghost flying through you."

Edward helped her to her feet. 

"Well, that's why you have to release faster," drawled Draco. "Who's your challenge, Alvin?"

"Lauren," he said and the group groaned, but Lauren moved forward to join Alvin in the center of the circle. A moment after they had begun, Alvin wrapped his arms around Lauren and she turned towards him, opening her mouth for his kiss. Their auras blended instead of warring, and it was obvious neither of them was going to say 'quit'. 

Pansy threw a pillow at them. "Get a room," she teased.

"And not ours," said Blaise, laughing. 

Lauren looked up at the circle. "I win," she said. "I challenge Samara."

"You aren't going to beat me this time," said Samara, taking a deep breath and consciously attempting to protect herself from foreign magic. As she looked at her own arms, she saw that her aura was pulled in and thickened on the outside. 

"Of course I'm going to beat you, Samara," said Lauren. "Don't get your hopes up."

""Ready," said Samara as she took her place in the center of the circle.

A frown creased Lauren's face as soon as she attempted to pull the Elemental through Samara. "What did you do?" Lauren muttered. "I feel like I'm pulling through quick sand." 

Effortlessly, Samara released.

Lauren was obviously becoming exhausted. "OK," she said at last. "You win, Samara. Who's your challenge?"

"Well, Alvin wanted a rematch," Samara reminded them.

"Oh, not really," said Alvin, who was in a conversation with Vincent and ignoring the game completely. 

"Now, Alvin," said Samara. "Last time you said it was just beginner's luck, so I have to have a rematch."

Alvin came to the center of the circle, took a deep breath, and extended his arms. Samara began pulling from the Earth in a gentle steady fashion to allow Alvin time to compose himself. After a few seconds, she increased the pace a little, again allowing him time to adjust. After a moment she increased the pace again, and then a little more, and a little more. Alvin shuddered. She knew he was almost at his capacity, so she just held there, but after only a moment, Alvin shouted, "Quit!"

"Honestly, Alvin, the first little sign of pain--" said Lauren. "It's not like she'd really hurt you."

"I'll take you on," said Draco, coming to the center of the circle, and extending his arms. Samara put her hands above his and then dropped them down on the backs of his hands and nuzzled his neck, remembering the feel of his magic.

"Samara," said Draco, "Stop it."

"That's it. I win," said Samara.

"No, you don't," said Draco coldly.

"Honestly, Draco. It's just a game," said Samara, readjusting her hands over his. "Ready?"

"Any time."

She began slowly as she did with Alvin, upping her pace a little at a time.

"Are you trying to bore me to death?" Draco asked.

"No, just rationing you," whispered Samara, and she felt him falter, moving his hands as if he wanted to touch her, but he caught himself in time.

She pulled abruptly from the Elemental and let the magic slam into him. It was a race now. Each time, she tried to pull a little more—a little faster—and each time Draco managed to release with her. Faster—faster—faster—But Draco was still with her. She felt him releasing in perfect rhythm to her pulling. She tried varying the pace to confuse him, but still he stayed with her. She closed her eyes concentrating—She needed to pull more at once. She pulled the magic to herself in a huge amount making her own skin tingle with the effort and she thrust it upon him. Once—Twice—She felt him shudder, but she was also tiring. She felt dizzy with effort. She pulled again, as much as she could handle, the room swimming with her effort as she let her eyes fall open. She pushed the load of magic into him and his aura went a ghastly white and then blood red as he shuddered with the effort of expelling it from himself. It was only then that she realized he was not going to say 'quit'. She was hurting him, but he would not admit it. He would pass out before he said it. She started to pull again, and again the room swam with her effort. Her arms tingled painfully, and her fingers felt numb. Did she really want to beat him that badly? She let the magic drip from her unheeded. "You win," she muttered, wrapping her arms around him and letting the rest of her magic pour into him like a healing balm for both of them. The two of them sank, exhausted to the floor.

"That has to be some sort of record," exclaimed Blaise. "You two were at it for almost an hour."

"I thought you had him for a while," said Lauren.

"Probably too tired for another challenge," taunted Ethan. "I think she wore him out."

"You wish," muttered Draco, but Samara could feel his quivering muscles and see his washed out aura. He was indeed, exhausted. It was unfair of Ethan to want to challenge now, but as Lauren said, this was Slytherin, not Gryffindor."

"Give me a minute," said Samara tiredly. "I don't think I can get off of his lap. My legs are shaking." She lay her head on Draco's shoulder and pulled from the Earth, one last time, as much as she could handle-- This time, her effort was not to best Draco, but to give him some of her magic to counteract his exhaustion. She let the magic run over her and into Draco. He opened his eyes in surprise as he felt the remaining strength of her magic. "You—" he began sharply, but she smothered his words with a kiss, and he clung to her as her magic poured into him. Samara heard the randy comments of the group, but she didn't care. No doubt Draco was angry with her because he now realized that she had 'quit' when she still could pull magic, but it was more important that he beat Ethan. She pulled a little more magic, shaking with the effort, and as she pulled away from his kiss, she murmured against his lips, "Beat him senseless."

Draco nodded. "I intend to."

Lauren and Ginny helped Samara to the sofa where she sank down beside Blaise. Samara realized that in the time it took her and Draco to finish their match, another game had started. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were in a tight match that had been going on for nearly five minutes, Blaise told her. 

"Actually, there is usually dominant wizard or witch in the first minute of the match. Five minutes is a long time."

"Who do you think will win?" asked Samara. 

"Vincent," said Blaise confidently. "Greg is a big baby when it comes to pain."

Just then, Greg called 'quit.'

"Are you rested enough yet?" Ethan asked Draco.

"So is Ethan the stronger of the twins, or Edward?" asked Ginny innocently.

"I am," said Edward.

"No you're not," said Ethan. "You're the one that ended up in Gryffindor, aren't you?"

Edward yanked out his wand. "Pimples will be the least of your worries—"

"Stop! Stop!" called Samara. "There's an easy way to see who is the stronger wizard. Why don't the two of you play quit, and then Draco can take on the winner. Not only that, it will be a fairer match with Draco. I mean, how much can it count when I practically beat him for you—" Samara said sweetly.

"Samara," said Draco warningly.

"I think you can beat Ethan," Ginny told Edward. 

"Of course I can beat him," said Edward.

"Only one way to find out," said Blaise. "Who's pulling and who's releasing?"

"I'm pulling," the twins said together.

"Pick a rune," said Blaise, taking a small leather bag from her pocket, and sorting out some of the runes. Both Edward and Ethan reached into the bag and pulled out a stone.

"Ha!" said Edward, "Kenaz, the rune of fire."

"Lagu," said Ethan with a smirk. "Water drowns fire. I'm pulling."

"Damn," said Edward moving into the circle. The match began with an immediate clash of power, Edward nearly sinking to his knees with Ethan's first onslaught. After five minutes, both of their auras were nearly transparent, drained of power. Flashes of red signified pain and when Edward swayed, woozy, even Blaise commented, calling "Quit, Edward. No one's taking you to Madam Pomfrey!"

Edward didn't answer, but Samara could now hear him grinding his teeth together, determined to beat his brother. Ethan opened his mouth, panting with exertion, and a whispered word came out of his mouth, **"Crucio!"**

An angry outcry came from the Slytherins watching. "No spells!"

Edward collapsed, shivering, but the spell had little power because Ethan was already exhausted.

Ginny had pulled her wand and was glaring at Ethan. 

"Save it, Weasel," said Draco softly. "He's mine. I would have thought that we should give you some time to recover, Ethan, but after than trick, why should we play fair?" 

It seemed that most of the Slytherins agreed with Draco. Apparently, Ethan wasn't very well liked, thought Samara. She wondered why. Within a few moments, the other game, which was between Blaise and Vincent was over, Blaise winning in less than a minute. The group gathered around Edward who was rubbing his arms as if to try to bring the feeling back into them. Ginny looked worriedly at him. "I think we should go back to Gryffindor," she said. "It's almost supper time."

"No," said Edward shortly. "Not yet."

"Don't worry," said Draco. "This won't take long."

"I've beaten you before," taunted Ethan.

"But Carman isn't here to help you now," drawled Draco.

Samara pulled Ginny aside, explaining to her that she could help Edward with her magic. She brightened, and sat beside him, wrapping her arms around him. Samara could tell that Ginny got it right, by the look of surprise on Edward's face and the immediate improvement in his aura. Her attention turned back to Draco who looked positively gleeful. In a way, she was glad that Edward had lost. It would have been hard for her to watch Draco beat Edward. She liked Edward. Ethan, on the other hand, had gained her complete loathing for the nasty spell that he had lodged at Pansy. Now, his win by cheating didn't sit well with her either. She wanted to see him beaten.

The match began with bitter fury. There was no gradual building of magic. No testing of wills and no mercy. It was obvious that Draco wanted to take him down, hard and fast. Within a minute, Ethan was sweating. Within two, it was obvious that Draco was winning, and Ethan was hurting, but he was too stubborn to say quit. "If we tell Snape why you are sick," muttered Draco. "He won't let you stay in bed all day tomorrow."

"Just quit, Ethan, It's over," said Edward, who obviously harbored no hard feelings about how his brother had beaten him. 

"And no one will be setting up your wards tonight," Draco sneered. "Who knows what might happen in the middle of the night." 

The fact that Draco was speaking, told Samara that he could win anytime he wanted to. He was prolonging the game, either to make Ethan suffer or to allow Ethan time to say 'quit.' But Ethan said nothing. Then with no fanfare whatsoever, Ethan crumpled under Draco's last onslaught of magic and dropped into unconsciousness.

"I'll put him to bed," said Edward, wearily levitating his unconscious twin. "And I'll set up his wards." He looked directly at Draco, who shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'll help you," said Ginny, pulling her wand and following Edward, into the boys' dorm, her aura flickering strangely between blue and golden. "You know can't set a good ward when you are tired," said Ginny.

"We'll meet you at dinner," called Samara after them. The other Slytherins were already disbursing to their rooms or to the Great Hall for dinner. 

Draco wrapped his arms around Samara. He lifted her off of the ground, swung her around and deposited her on the sofa. His magic was a riot of movement and color depicting his excitement over his beating Ethan. "So why did you let me win?" he asked. "I could have beaten you."

"Maybe," said Samara, "But you were hurting. I was hurting. I thought, what sense does this make? Just Quit. I couldn't stand to hurt you," she whispered, "So—"

He kissed her. "So are you hungry?" he asked, the play of his magic distracting her terribly.

"Starved."

He kissed her again, holding her closer and she felt his magic enfold her. "And you want to go to dinner now?"

"Well, not right now," she murmured, opening her mouth for yet another kiss, and luxuriating for a moment in the feel of his magic before releasing her own magic to him. Immediately his arms tightened around her, and he deepened the kiss, leaning her back against the sofa cushions. She felt her hair come loose as he entangled his hands in it and her wand clattered to the floor.

++

****

Kemenran: Love your originality.

****

Ennui2: I can't take credit for Neville saying that he is worth 12 Malfoys. JK had him say that. I always wondered why, so in my fic, I gave him a reason. Hope you liked it. As far as Tom knowing that his "loyal followers" created his horrible life—no of course, he doesn't know—Why do you think the Death Eaters were so afraid—But I'll bet he's going to find out. Think he'll be a little pissed? Lots more Ginny/Tom to come.

****

Elfmoon87: Glad you like my Neville. Love Elfmoon's fics. Go read them.

****

Reiven: Hey, I think that great-great-great-great-great ancestor's third cousin twice removed on her father's side of her husbands second brother's son's wife of the great Salazar Slytherin's grand uncle, was my grandmother. Ohmygosh, we're related! Well, didn't JK say that all purebloods are related somewhere? Aren't you anxious to find out where the Weasley's are in that family tree? Hmmmmm? 

By the way, I went to your site and read your bio. Liked your quote of the week: ~"Elizabeth is safe just like I promised, Elizabeth is all set to marry Norrington just like she promised, and you are going to die just like you promised, so we are all men of our word, except for Elizabeth who is in fact a woman."~Jack Sparrow -- Ahem -- Captain Jack Sparrow. But REMEMBER: "Where's me eye—Where's me eye—" was MINE. And it's much funnier rolling out of the Quiddich stands. SEE: DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE by Lady Lestrange. Back me up, Reiven, I wrote it first, didn't I?—er eye?

****

DanielG715: The Longbottoms are perhaps worse than dead. They aren't coming back. Perhaps it was a little bit of overconfidence that got them where they are, but remember, we're seeing this from a Gryffindor point of view—Harry and Neville. Of course they are seeing them as shining examples of the epitome of Gryffindor bravery. Lol. Sorry chapter 1-3 are monotonous. I needed to introduce the new characters because none of JK's could fit the bill I needed. If I, instead of JK had written this from the beginning, we wouldn't need that 'Here's Samara. Here's her story. Here's Beatrice. Here's her story.' I tried to make it as painless as possible. If you have any specific suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Email me at ladylestrange@hotmail.com

Glad you aren't indifferent to Samara. Seems like some readers love her and some hate her. Interesting.

I think Snape is deadpan because he doesn't want anyone to know his feelings, not because he doesn't have any. Also, JK never lets us see him talking to Dumbledore or the other teachers. We only see him with the students, ie; Harry. Don't we all act differently with our peers than we do with well—people you want to see "an image"?

Glad you like Ginny.

My Harry plot is complex. I like it that way. I can choose to make mine PG-13. (JK is stuck writing for 9 year olds and adults in the same book. Poor lady, that has to be torture.) I believe everything that happens in a plot should have a cause/effect. For example, Tom hates muggles because he lived with them and saw them as vermin. Harry on the other hand, lived with them, and we, the reader, know they were vermin, but he didn't become a power-mad Dark Lord. Why? Some part of everyone is how they are brought up and the **choices made**, but some part is also the **choices** **offered** to them by parents, and others in authority. Cause/Effect is exactly what makes the plot move forward. Furthermore, everything and everyone should have a reason for being. Example: Dobby in CoS is simply a way to throw obstacles in Harry Potter's way. He has no real reason to be _yet_, although I'm sure JK will give Dobby a real job before book 7. He's already grown as a character as we compare him with Winky and through him, we can understand a little of the house elf, Kreature. It's not "plot twists" but what naturally must happen when given a certain set of circumstances because of who the characters ARE. For example, Given who Tom/Voldemort is, how do you think he will react to his loyal followers making his life miserable? Think a few sparks are coming? Given who Harry Potter is, how must he react to someone in trouble? Think the brave Gryffindor will come to the rescue? Given who Ginny is how will she—no. I can't tell you that. Given who Draco Malfoy is, how will he react to—well, maybe I shouldn't tell you that either—Sigh. Stick with me. I promise a fun ride, but the faint of heart should exit now.

****

Ele: Tom as innocent. LOL! LMAO! ROTFL! Let's remember the diary did not contain a 'soul' , it contained a 'memory'. There is no evil wizard, Virginia, only who we became—Lord Voldemort.

****

Blue-blond sorcerress: With Sorceress spelled wrong

What are you talking about Ravenclaw? Obviously you're not a Ravenclaw. You can't spell Sorceress! And even when you were told it's spelled wrong, you didn't care to change it. What Ravenclaw would purposefully leave her penname spelled wrong? Furthermore, your entire review was so filled with misspellings I could barely read it. There is a dictionary at the very top bar in fanfic. See it? Right there. Move your mouse and click on it. You can start with 'fraternal' which means brotherly or 'despicable' 'indispicable" is not a word. If you are a Ravenclaw, I'm sure you can figure it out. 

Do you think it's cool to continually cut up someone's work, when you cannot do half the job many of the reviewers have done? Do you think it makes you look smart to attack the other reviewers? Sorry. Your misspellings and grammatical errors make you look like a fool; however, I would prefer you stop reading my story altogether. You have no right to criticize me or my readers or my reviewers. Have you written a story at all? No. I could retaliate for your many nasty reviews, but maybe I'll be nice and just block your reviews instead. Please STOP reading and reviewing my story. I will not tolerate any more hate mail addressed to my reviewers. -Lady Lestrange

****

Raven173: Just for you, I wrote the protection spell—and the Latin took me forever, and I'm still not sure I got it all right—so you'd better appreciate it. Very perceptive of you to notice those little things in the Malfoy's mannerisms. I loved thinking of Draco at home alone with a bunch of little creatures who can only OBEY him. Lol.

****

Trillium: Thanks for your help with the Ravenclaw title. I love Ravenclaw. 

Of course there had to be Ravenclaws in the cult that brought back Salazar Slytherin! Do you think Slytherins could DO THIS without a little Ravenclaw brains? Could Crabbe and Goyle resurrect Salazar Slytherin? So, assuming that Crabbe and Goyle can't, what would happen when Ravenclaw brains fall into the wrong hands? Imagine Paravati Patil's seeing gift in Slytherin, with Draco Malfoy working on the prophecy instead of Harry Potter. Can you see what a disaster that would be? (Well, maybe not a disaster in a Slytherin's eyes—but--)Think about it. Parvati can't even concentrate on anything but the seeings, because that is her gift. She would be a victim in Slytherin. Let's look at Olgleby. You met Aldwin. He's a philosophical genius, but he doesn't believe that there _is good or evil._ Do you see how he could be talked into doing this? After all, he would think, it's just an experiment. It's just hypothetical, not really wrong.

You know how Marshall Avery was turned. He was seduced by a beautiful woman (doesn't that happen all the time in stories—OK little stereotypical maybe, but it was fun) and then he wanted to save his child, Lauren. Now he's in too deep to turn back. Sorry it's not all black and white like Cho thinks it is. Snape's grandmother was an Avery. Here's someone who was obviously bright, just like Snape himself, but the rules of Ravenclaw didn't allow her to exercise her magic to it's full potential. She felt stifled in Ravenclaw in spite of or perhaps because of her brains. Slytherin allowed her to 'grow' in any direction she wanted to without being censored. Would a Ravenclaw believe in censorship? Do you now see why some Ravenclaws would turn? Effler you haven't met yet. Here's how I see it. I really tried not to stereotype Ravenclaw. I wanted them to be smart, but each in their own way. I wanted to put this little bit below at the end of the Ravenclaw chapter, but it didn't fit, so I'll put it here, just because it was fun, and you asked about Ravenclaw, so any excuse will do--

Samara says, "I like Ravenclaw, but I wouldn't want to go white-water rafting with them."

"What?" says Ginny confused. 

They all get in the raft, but no body would paddle.

Morag (S-R)says, This going to be fun! Let's see how close we can get before we go over the waterfall! I calculate we can—

"That's alright in theory, Morag," Terry(Analytical-R) interrupts, "but not here, on the river. Let's go do it on a piece of parchment. I'm sure the current differs depending upon which side of the river we choose and the angle of our approach."

"Terry," Aldwin (Philosophical-R) said, gripping his shoulder in comradery. "Over the waterfall is but another great journey. It really doesn't matter if we go over it or not, because in the end we shall all die, and Death itself is but a journey. In fact that reminds me of the rune, Lagu, water, it's vital part of life, but a constant danger, too, filled with floods, and whirlpools and waterfalls. Our journey through life is filled with risks, Terry. They can't be avoided by conscripting them to some parchment! Just like our waterfall, Lagu contains the elements of transience, changability, and a lack of control— Essentially feminine in nature, the rune encompasses the sensual, the unconscious, the intuitive, psychic abilities—" 

Cho: (G-R) Why would you get into the raft if you weren't planning to go over the waterfall? We all should have known there was a waterfall--

Ananda: (H-R) Cho relax, enjoy the water and sunlight. Take joy in the quest for knowledge, learning about the river and the rapids together. I'm sure if we all work together; we can get the raft onto shore before we get to the waterfall. It will all work out for the best.

Cho: NO, Ananda. We made our choice when we got into the raft. We're going over that waterfall.

Ginny: "Samara, what are you doing during this conversation?"

Samara: "Levitating the damn raft!" 

****

Some of the readers have asked for a summary of what aura colors mean. 

I put some of this on the "Full Summary", but fanfic disallowed it because it had the http's and www's and dots. So, I put some of the information there for you. If you want to visit the websites, you have to put the www's in the appropriate place and add the DOT COM or DOT HTML SLASHas indicated.

auracolorsDOTCOM This is my favorite quick reference website, because I remember it, not because it's the best, and it doesn't have the turquoise color listed.

Other good websites:

Solrravendotcom SLASH auracolorhealingdothtml and of course, Thiaooubadotcom

The largest and most complex is, psychicpatdotcom SLASH glossary SLASH a SLASH aura_defDOTHTML with no spaces of course between the slashes.

****

Hesed: Glad you like Neville. He was always one of my favorite characters. I wanted him to have a part in my story that didn't make him look like the Gryffindor version of Goyle.

****

Ilwinterhofal: argh! I wanted to see that huge review that fanfic ate. Thanks for what you wrote though. I've started doing (control-c) on all my long reviews before I push send, because I've done that same thing before. Then you can save it on notepad and send the long review when fanfic gets itself back together. Just a thought.

****

Reiven: There were so many mistakes in bbs review I couldn't figure out what she was talking about at first. I just wonder how she's going to find every "indispicable error" when she obviously can't find her own. Ah, well, *IMPERIO! Bbs, you shall from this moment forward, keep a civil finger on your keyboard. * There, that should do it. Lol.

****

Ok, It's your turn now. REVIEW. The next chapter is "RETURN TO THE CHAMBER" How soon do you want it? --Lady Lestrange

==


	41. CH: 40 The Chamber of Secrets

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 40

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

Now that Harry's hand is good enough to play Quiddich, don't you think it's time for him to go to the Chamber? Me too. So here it is:

****

The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 40

After lunch on Sunday, Harry, Ron and Hermione, with brooms in hand, headed toward Myrtle's bathroom.

If we can't use the second floor girl's bathroom there's another way into the Chamber," said Harry, "But I'd rather be on familiar ground if we can—" Today, the girl's bathroom was deserted. "I wonder where Myrtle is?" said Harry.

"Probably pouting in her U bend about something," said Hermione.

"Check," said Harry, and Hermione shrugged, double checking the stalls to be sure that the bathroom was indeed empty.

"Just get on with it, Harry," urged Ron. "I want to get this over with."

"No, wait," said Harry. "I have something I need to tell you—now that we have some privacy." His voice dropped to a whisper. "It's about Salazar—"

"What?" asked Hermione.

Harry took a deep breath and told his friends about the Slytherin cult. "It's purpose was to return Salazar Slytherin to life and Tom Riddle's mother was part of it."

"That's sick," said Ron, after Harry explained. "His mother just gave her baby to these freaks?"

"Well, I think she might have had second thoughts, but they killed her, and put Tom in the muggle orphanage anyway," said Harry.

"Harry, I thought you said Tom's father put him in the orphanage," said Hermione.

"I know, that's what Voldemort told me last year," said Harry. "But if you think about it, that doesn't make sense. I kind of assumed that because his father was a muggle, he ended up there, but Voldemort said, his father went back to his muggle parents before he was even born, because his father found out she was a witch. He abandoned her."

"But," Hermione continued, understanding alighting, "If he abandoned her before Tom was born, then, surely she would have been with magic folk when she had the baby, not with muggles, so why would Tom end up in a muggle orphanage?"

"Exactly. Unless the magic folk, put him there," finished Harry. "They wanted him to grow up hating muggles, because he was Salazar's heir. In fact, the one woman actually said he was Salazar himself!"

"Who said that!" cried Ron.

"Valeriana Lestrange."

"Lestrange," breathed Ron. "Related to Edward, do you think?"

Harry nodded. "His mother."

"It can't be," said Hermione. "Edward and Ethan are thirteen. She would have had to have been pregnant when she was torturing the Longbottoms, and that would mean that—that—when he said he was born in Askaban—"

"He wasn't joking," said Harry softly. "I know she and her husband, along with Barty Crouch went to Askaban for torturing the Longbottoms," continued Harry. "I saw her trial in another pensieve, Dumbledore's."

"Harry, why didn't you ever tell us that?" asked Ron.

"Because Dumbledore asked me not to, for Neville's sake. He didn't think it would be right for me to tell people that Neville's parents were in St. Mongo's if Neville didn't want people to know."

"We're not talking about 'just people' knowing," said Ron. "You could have told _us_."

"No, Ron," said Hermione softly. "It was Neville's to tell, not Harry's." She sat back on the edge of one of the sinks. "Poor Neville," said Hermione. "It must have been terrible to see his parents—like that."

"I think he's alright with it, actually," said Harry. "His parents were awesome. It took twelve Death Eaters, to over come them, and only two escaped."

"The Malfoys," said Ron. "You told us that. Do you think, now that Neville remembers, charges could be brought against them?"

"I doubt it," said Harry. "They have too much money and too many friends in powerful places. It's going to take more than the memory of a one year old."

"Anyway, they were already questioned about that crime, years ago," said Hermione. "According to The Daily Prophet, the Malfoys said they were under imperious, and they had witnesses that they never left Draco alone with just the house elves."

"Hermione," asked Ron, "How many Daily Prophet articles have you read?"

"Well, when Neville started having his sessions with Snape, of course, I looked up the Death Eater's trials," said Hermione. "I was just thinking I should try to find something about when Tom Riddle was born, but there was no crime, unless—what did you say his mother's name was—"

"Doogle," said Harry. "I don't know her first name, but under veritaserium Frank Longbottom listed a whole group of cult members. Most of them are Death Eaters now."

"Doogle," said Ron. "I remember that name from somewhere—"

Hermione paused thoughtfully. "Maybe I should look up when Tom Riddle, Sr. was killed, but that would probably be too late and it would only be in the muggle papers."

"You do entirely too much reading," said Ron.

"And you do too little," retorted Hermione.

Harry ignored their voices, and stared at the tap with the tiny snake on it. It seemed to take forever for him to make a sound. He was having trouble concentrating with his headache and his friends bickering.

Ron, Hermione, watch for ghosts," said Harry, hoping to get them to stop arguing.

"I wonder where they are," whispered Hermione.

"Donno," said Ron. "But—"

She shrugged, and then hushed him. "Sh-h-h. Be quiet. Let Harry concentrate."

There was a hissing sound and the chamber opened. Hermione and Ron came forward to look down the dark, featureless tunnel. A musty smell was coming from the depths.

"Harry," said Ron, seriously, "this stuff about Salazar Slytherin—We can't tell Ginny. You saw what she did when we were talking about the Hat. I mean, if there is any possibility that this cult could return Salazar Slytherin to life and if Tom Riddle had some part in it. Well, we might as well, just send Ginny to St. Mongo's now. I worry about her."

Harry nodded, and they turned their attention back to the dark tunnel in front of them that led to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Should we use our brooms?" asked Hermione softly.

Harry shook his head, taking the lead. "Come on," he said as he began the slide down into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry found himself filled with resolve. He wasn't searching with his heart filled with dread as last time, when he thought there was only the remotest chance that Ginny was alive. Now he was searching with optimism for something entirely different--basilisk eggs. He was sure they were in time. He heard the movement behind him as Ron and Hermione slid down the pipe. Finally, the pipe leveled out and he was spat out onto the floor of the Chamber, but it wasn't the floor he remembered. He lit his wand to be sure. It was clean swept. There was no litter of rat's skulls, or tiny animal bones. In fact, there was very little in the way of dirt or for that matter, spider webs. In the silence he could still hear the water dripping somewhere in the distance, but this part of the floor was dry. There was no other sound except for the rapid beating of his heart.

"I don't think we need to worry, but any movement, any sound, close your eyes," said Harry as Ron and then Hermione landed on the stone floor. 

"But Harry," began Hermione. "There can't be a basilisk here yet—there hasn't been time to hatch another clutch of eggs."

"Whoa!" said Ron looking around, "Who let the house elves in here?"

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.

"It's been cleaned," said Harry. "A lot. At least there are no spiders or spiders' webs, Ron."

"Yeah, They've all been eaten." He replied sullenly.

"Come on," said Harry, hurrying down the passageway in the dim wandlight. Ron and Hermione also lit their wands, throwing grotesque shadows upon the wall as they moved.

"It's not here," said Harry, bending down to touch the floor. "Not a trace."

"What?" asked Hermione.

"Last time we were here," said Ron. "There was a huge basilisk skin down here. Are you sure this is the right place, Harry? I think it may have been further on."

"No," said Harry. "It was right there." Harry pointed. "I remember Lockhart falling against that pillar and I ran around that pillar. I slipped on the snakeskin when I ran. It was right there."

"And that's where the partition fell down," said Ron. "Somebody, fixed it—put all the rocks back—How?"

"Well, I remember reading that basilisk breath causes rock cave ins," said Hermione. "If the chamber was made for basilisks, maybe it's spelled to fix itself."

"Well, it wasn't spelled to clean itself," said Ron. "It was disgusting last time."

"Come on," called Harry. He was several feet in front of them and already his wandlight looked no brighter than a firefly. By the time they caught up with him, he was standing in front of the solid wall on which two entwined serpents were carved in the stone. Their emerald eyes glittered menacingly, as if ensorcelled to repel intruders. Upon closer inspection, Harry realized that they weren't snakes, they were basilisks.

"Whew, they are creepy, aren't they?" said Ron, as he eyed the serpents. "They look almost real."

"Open," Harry hissed.

"Only for the speaker," the serpents hissed back. 

"What?" Harry looked at the carved basilisks that now seemed to be just carved, but for a moment there, they seemed very real—too real—their scales glinting golden and green in the wandlight. "Did you hear that?" Harry asked in English.

"They hissed back at you," Hermione said. "What did they say?"

"They said, they would only open for the speaker."

"Oh, well." said Ron, putting his arm around Hermione. "All the way down here for nothing—"

"Ask again," urged Hermione. "Tell them we want to help."

"It is necessary that my companions enter," hissed Harry.

"They are hisssus," hissed the first serpent.

"As you wish, Master," hissed the other. 

"But say the word," hissed the first.

"And we will rid you of them." The second continued.

"No!" Harry hissed back. "No, don't do that." He hesitated a moment and then on impulse, said, "Close your eyes," to the serpents.

"We cannot, Master. Only you can remove our eyes from the spell." Said the serpents together.

"Well, don't harm my friends," Harry hissed sharply.

"What are they saying?" Hermione asked. "They sounded angry, somehow."

"No," said Harry. "They're not angry. "They just wanted to be sure I really wanted you to come with me."

"Like extra safeguards in case you were forced to open the Chamber?" said Ron.

"Something like that," replied Harry.

"Well, that's good, I guess," said Hermione. "Isn't it? ISN'T IT?"

"I'm not so sure," said Harry as he moved forward into the Chamber, and all eyes were drawn to the enormous statue of Salazar Slytherin. Harry shivered. He couldn't help remembering Frank Longbottom's testamony, that Salazar Slytherin's soul was kept in the Chamber of Secrets.

"Just a bit arrogant, wasn't he?" Hermione deduced as she looked at the immense statue of Salazar Slytherin.

"Do you think he made it himself?" asked Harry. 

"I don't know," said Hermione. "I guess I just assumed—"

"You would think," said Ron. "If he made it himself, he would have made it look more handsome."

"I can't imagine anyone being that conceited. The statue must be nearly as high as the Quiddich stands," said Harry.

"I don't think it's that big," said Hermione, eyeing it, "But it is a showstopper. So where are the basilisk eggs? You said you thought you knew where they would be." She looked at Harry expectantly.

"I thought it would be--open," said Harry. "No one shut it last time I was here, but I do know how to open it." Harry took a deep breath. "If there are basilisk eggs or--baby basilisks," said Harry, "These sounds will open the hiding place and call it—or them. Maybe you should shut your eyes, just in case."

Hermione nodded.

"Glad to," said Ron. "Who wants to look at old Monkey face up there anyway?" 

Hermione laughed, the sound breaking the tension, and Ron reached out taking Hermione's hand in his own. "Don't want to get separated, if—if—"

"Good idea," whispered Hermione, blushing even in the dim light.

"Here goes," said Harry, and then he looked around for one of the carved snakes. There was one right in front of him in the center of the chamber. It was carved from milky white sandstone, and limestone, shimmering pink and gray granite and rusty oxidized minerals in carbonate streaked red and orange through the scales. These rocks were not supposed to exist next to one another, and yet here, in the Chamber they existed side by side, through magic. 

The serpent was an amazing work of art, but it had no eyes. As Harry looked at its face he suddenly realized that some of the serpents in the room were snakes and some were basilisks. Some had huge emerald eyes and some had small emeralds. Some had eyes made of jade and aquamarine. Others had no stones at all for eyes. Had someone removed them? Or did Voldemort have them? Harry wondered if he dared to ask one of the carved snakes on the wall. Would they tell him?

"Harry?" whispered Ron.

"Yes," said Harry, coming back to the present. "I'm ready now." The chamber echoed with Harry's hissing. " Speak to me, Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwart's Four."

Nothing happened.

Harry waited another moment and repeated the hissing.

"It's not working," said Harry.

"Are you sure you remember the password," said Hermione. "One little phrase out of sync—one syllable mispronounced and it may not open."

"I'm sure I'm saying it right," said Harry.

"What are you saying?" asked Ron, curiously.

"Speak to me, Slytherin Greatest of the Hogwarts Four."

"Oh, there's the problem," said Hermione.

"What?" asked Ron and Harry together. 

"Harry, do you _believe_ that Slytherin was the greatest of the Hogwarts four?"

"No, of course not," spat Harry. "Oh, of course. Intent. Well." He shrugged. "What are we going to do?"

The trio stood thinking, studying the architecture and the myriad carvings. They were quite intricate. Harry didn't have the time to appreciate the scenery last time he was here.

"It's hard to believe my little sister opened this," said Ron. "How could she believe that Slytherin was the greatest of the Hogwarts four?"

"Not Ginny," said Harry. "Voldemort." Harry paced past several of the serpents, his wand light reflecting wildly as he walked. "I could ask one of the serpents," suggested Harry. "Maybe there is another way to open Salazar's mouth."

Hermione shook her head. "I don't like you talking to them, Harry. I don't trust them."

"Let's just fly up and have a look," said Ron. That sounded like a reasonable idea, so the threesome mounted up their brooms and flew closer to Salazar's mouth. Dirt was caked on his upper lip and the ancient remains of some sort of nest was in his nostril. There was no movement. No life, and no way to open it without the correct password.

"Harry, I have an idea," said Hermione as they coasted back down to the ground. "What _do_ you believe about Salazar Slytherin?"

"Aside from his being a crazy, sadistic bastard—"

"Technically, he wasn't a bastard," said Hermione. "Since—"

"Hermione," interrupted Ron.

"I just thought," continued Hermione, "If you could think of something that _you believed_ Salazar Slytherin was the greatest as—maybe the spell would work."

"The greatest git," said Ron.

"No wait," said Harry. "That might work. I believe he was a power-hungry—wait. WAIT. I have an idea." With a shiver, Harry thought of what he knew to be true of Voldemort.--the great one, always hungry. "Close your eyes," he said, and then Harry lifted his head and hissed, "Open for the blood of the Sissahass A Sissahass," and with a sickening grinding of stone on stone, Salazar's mouth began to open. Wider and wider it opened until there was a great gaping maw between the stones of the upper and lower lips.

"Hey! It worked," said Ron. "What did you say, Harry?"

"Does it matter?" asked Harry, evasively. "It doesn't look like anything is coming out. I'm going to fly up and have a look."

"We'll come," said Ron mounting his broom. 

"No," said Harry. "Wait for just a minute. Let me be sure it's just eggs."

Ron and Hermione agreed and Harry lifted up to the edge of Salazar's mouth. Now he could see the interior of Salazar's mouth with his wandlight. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. He stared in amazement. 

"Well, Harry?" called Hermione from the floor. 

"Come on up," said Harry. "I don't see anything here." There was a small antechamber in front of them decorated in gold and marble and velvet, and to the right, there was another door with golden twin serpents guarding it. "Open," hissed Harry and the door opened to a long marble corridor.

"Harry," squeaked Ron, "There's something here."

Harry turned left toward Ron's voice. There was a large room that looked like nothing so much as a huge round bathtub filled with sand, jutting out from the tub in a veritable maze was sand filled tunnels. A playground for the baby basilisks. Harry stooped to touch it. Warm sand. There were no signs of eggs or basilisks, but this was definitely a perfect place for a basilisk. As Harry ran his hand absently over the sand a thousand thoughts filled his head. Someone could have come into Hogwarts itself to retrieve the eggs or the baby basilisks, already or Dumbledore could have ordered the place cleaned after Ginny's experience and the giant basilisk skin was taken away. Maybe they were mistaken—maybe—it was just—And then his hand connected with something in the sand—something thin and strong and wiry. He held it spellbound. Even though it was only a tiny piece, he knew what it was: a piece of dragon hide thread. He handed it silently to Hermione, but it was Ron who spoke. "Common Welch Green," said Ron softly.

"So they did it," said Hermione with her no nonsense logic. "We just have to find the nesting ground."

"You don't think this is it?" asked Ron. 

Harry shook his head. "Too small."

"We could split up," said Hermione. "Check the tunnels—"

"No," said Ron and Harry emphatically. 

"We stick together," said Harry. "And we don't have to check the tunnels. I can't imagine Salazar crawling around in the sand. There had to be a way for Salazar to check on the eggs, without dirtying his hands--probably from up here." Harry started up the steps to the right, and found himself in one of the most luxurious sitting rooms he had ever seen. 

"Looks like Bloody Buckingham Palace," said Ron. "Who did he think he was?"

"The greatest of the Hogwarts Four," said Hermione, deadpan. "And they were the Greatest Witches and Wizards of the Age."

The trio wondered through room after room. "Look at this," Ron exclaimed touching a golden snake candlestick. "Do you realize this could probably pay my Hogwarts tuition for the next two years, and Ginny's too? And this—" said Ron, sitting and bouncing on a rich velvet covered bed, and rubbing his hands against the cushions. "That's it," said Ron. "I'm moving my trunk. As soon as we get rid of the basilisk eggs, I'm moving in. This place is fantastic."

Harry pulled open a drawer. He froze. There, staring up at him was a horribly familiar white mask and neatly folded beside it were several black robes. All were immaculately clean.

Hermione sucked in her breath.

"OK," squeaked Ron. "I'm ready to go now."

"Wands out," said Harry as they exited the living quarters and made their way silently up several more flights of stairs.

"Do you think this comes out somewhere in Hogwarts?" asked Hermione. 

"In Slytherin?" breathed Ron.

"I think we're still too much underground," said Harry.

"Harry we've been climbing for ages," said Hermione. "We should be at ground level by now." 

Ron shook his head. "Look at the walls." Said Ron, running his hand along them. They were covered with a thin glaze of dampness, which shimmered on the walls. Suddenly he stopped. "There's a door here," said Ron excitedly.

"Are you sure?" asked Hermione. "I don't see anything."

"There's a door. There's definitely a door."

Harry moved forward, running his hands along the wall to inspect. "I don't see anything either, Ron, But, I can feel—"

"Harry, will you just tell it to open," said Ron exasperated.

"Open," hissed Harry and the door of the room dissolved as if it had never been a part of the wall."

"Oh." Said Hermione. "Ron, how did you find that?"

"I was touching the wall," said Ron. 

"What do you think it is?" asked Harry, peering into the room. 

"Indoor Quiddich Pitch?" suggested Ron.

"No, the ceilings not high enough—it's big enough though—How can it be this big?"

"Charm?" suggested Hermione. "Like in the tents at the World cup?"

"Maybe." Harry reached down and touched the dirt at his feet. "It's not sandy enough," he said "I don't think this is the hatching ground, but feel this dirt, Ron. It's not dirt."

"It feels like your Invisibility Cloak, Harry. Like it's part liquid, and yet not wet." Said Ron as he sifted some of the dirt through his fingers. "It feels—It feels—I don't know—Strange--Let's get out of here."

"It looks like some sort of amphitheater," said Hermione as they closed the door and resumed climbing. "You know, for concerts and things—But it felt like it could suck the magic right out of you like a dementer."

"Not like a dementer," said Harry quickly. "It just felt very snake-like."

"Slytherin," said Hermione.

"Hermione, Hufflepuff is on that side of the castle," said Ron, pointing "And Harry just opened the door with parseltongue. Of course, it's Slytherin. It's _not_ an amphitheater."

"Small coliseum?" suggested Harry wryly. "Slytherins might get a kick out of seeing some gladiators—duel," Harry finished thoughtfully as he climbed the stairs. 

They could see another door, one more flight up.

"Hush," said Hermione, and then they all heard it, the sound of voices, giggling and teasing—making no effort to be quiet."

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his pocket and threw it over them all. They stood utterly still and listened.

"That's Malfoy," whispered Ron. "And Pansy and Alvin Nott—"

"Quit!" shouted a voice.

"Definitely Alvin," said Harry.

"Honestly, Alvin, the first little sign of pain--" said Lauren. "It's not like she'd really hurt you."

"I'll take you on," drawled a lazy voice. 

"Oh gawd," moaned Ron. "Do you think we're under the Slytherin Common Room?"

"As you mentioned, Hufflepuff is that way," whispered Hermione, as she gestured.

Harry motioned them back without saying a word. He was afraid if he opened his mouth; the sound would carry to the common room. The threesome began the long walk back down to the Chamber of Secrets. About half way there, Harry turned left, but Ron said they should go right. Hermione thought right, so they went right. At the next intersection, Harry again wanted to go right, and this time Ron said left. Hermione wasn't sure so they followed Harry's way. After walking about a city block to the right, they came to a dead end, so they turned around and followed Ron's directions for a while. At the next intersection there was again a disagreement about how to get back. "I think it's this way," said Harry wiping sweat from his forehead.

"No, this way," said Ron.

"For heaven's sake," said Hermione. "It's that way." She started walking and Harry grabbed the sleeve of her robe. "Stick together," he snapped.

"I wasn't going anywhere," said Hermione. She frowned at him. "What's wrong, Harry?" 

"I just don't think that's right," he said. "Stay put for a minute. Let me think." Harry took a couple of deep breaths and rubbed his hands over his face.

"Harry?" said Hermione

"Well, what are we going to do," snapped Ron. "Wait for some Sytherin to come and save us. It's like a maze—a maze—" Ron whispered looking at Harry.

"I'm sorry," said Harry wiping beads of sweat off of his brow. "Mazes just make me feel a little—nervous."

"It's OK, mate," said Ron, clapping his shoulder. "We'll get out of here together."

Harry went chalk white. 

  
"I know," said Hermione. "The compass spell you used in the Tri-wizard maze--She pulled her wand and laid it across her palm. "Point me," she said and the wand spun wildly.

"What do you think?" Asked Harry worriedly.

"Some kind of interference. Either strong magic or—" Hermione shrugged. "OK, which way do you think; Ron? You've been right so far. You must have been paying better attention to the direction we were taking when we came."

"Left," said Ron unhesitatingly. 

"Do you remember all of these intersections on our way up here?" asked Harry.

"Or are you just guessing?" added Hermione.

"I remember a few, "said Ron, "but we may have missed some of them because we were going the other direction. I just have a knack for remembering moves—it's almost like chess— or –we could be lost," Ron finished lamely. He stopped as they found themselves in a room that they had not seen on the way up. 

"Oh my," breathed Hermione as she looked at the shelves upon shelves of potion ingredients. Against the opposite wall was a bookshelf, which Hermione naturally gravitated to. "We weren't here before. Do you think these rooms are moving? Like the staircases?"

  
Harry shrugged thoughtfully. "Maybe—" He seemed much calmer now that they were in a room instead of the changing maze-like corridors.

Ron moved to the practical potions area. "Someone was in the middle of something here," said Ron. "Look, the cauldron is not even covered. It's got a scum on top of it—"

"Don't touch it!" screeched Harry. 

"Why?" asked Ron.

Harry held up a book that was bookmarked with a piece of basilisk skin. "It's the Elixir of Life," said Harry "Only Quirrel didn't get the Philosopher's Stone to put in it. At this stage, the potion is deadly poison and cursed. It's the Stone that reverses the effects of the poisons." At this point, Harry wondered if even the house elves with their special brand of magic could touch the Elixir of Life, and if the house elves could just _pop_ into the Chamber, then surely someone would have known about the location of the Chamber of Secrets years ago. No, thought Harry, a parselmouth had to have let them in—Harry suppressed a shiver. "Let's see how many of the basilisk potion ingredients are here," said Harry softly.

"Ok," said Ron. "I don't remember that many. Hermione, we need you," Ron called.

She looked up dreamily from the book she had been reading. "I wonder if this will be on OWLS," she said.

"Forget OWLS," snapped Ron. "We need you to help remember the ingredients of the basilisk hatching potion. "

"Let's see," said Hermione, counting off on her fingers, "There was --------

Dragon blood, procured from a first time nesting mother--

Werewolf blood

Goblin blood

Gnome blood

Giant blood

Unicorn blood

The boys checked off the ingredients as Hermione recited. 

She looked at her fingers for a moment. "I'm missing a blood," she said. "Oh right. Muggle blood."

venom from King Cobra

venom from Saw Scaled viper

venom from the Black Mamba

2 dragon's eggs

toads

Devil's snare

Rue

"There's something else—Oh right. The snake parts of the cobra, viper and mamba and the seven live snakes and, of course, the basilisk skin. I think that's it."

"They're all here," said Harry. "Except the live snakes and toads. No one would have gotten all those obscure ingredients unless they were planning to actually make the potion."

"We don't know if they finished," said Ron.

"Yes we do," said Hermione. "If they hadn't, the bones of the live snakes should be here and the cauldron would be sitting here beside the Elixir of Life. It wouldn't be—wherever the toads are."

The boys looked at her for a moment, Ron moving to a cabinet where he found another golden goblet, filled with a clear substance that looked like water and a crystal bowl full of what looked unmistakably like unicorn blood. "Hey, this cabinet is warmer than in the room," said Ron. 

"Unicorn blood and—" Hermione frowned, "that clear substance could be a number of things that have to be stored at room temperature," she said. "Better not touch it."

"But that cup must be worth a fortune. It's solid gold," said Ron.

"And it belonged to Salazar Slytherin," said Harry.

"But he's dead."

"It's probably cursed," replied Hermione. "Put it back. Honestly Ron. Don't you ever use your head? You don't even know what's in the goblet—"

"I know what this is," said Ron reaching for some thin blue sticks that were stacked neatly on an ice covered shelf. In the process of reaching, he knocked over the golden goblet, and its contents spilled over the floor. Immediately, it started to smoke, eating into the stone."

"Well, it's not water," said Hermione, magically drawing the scattered droplets back into the goblet. "**glomerare camella**."

"I knew that charm," said Ron. "I was just about to do it."

"I was!" he protested as Hermione looked askance at him.

"We have to find those eggs," Harry moaned, moving to the door and looking out "Do you remember this?" he asked confusedly as he looked at the corridor, which had _definitely_ changed.

"We'll have to come back," said Hermione. "We've been gone a long time. People are going to start to miss us, and we still don't know which way to go." 

"OK" said Harry, pushing himself away from one of the walls. "Let's go back."

Hermione looked at the changed corridor. "Do either of you boys know which way?"

"That way," said both of them, pointing in opposite directions.

Harry sat down on the cold stone corridor. "It's magicked," he said. "I should have thought of it. Salazar didn't want any trespassers to get out of the Chamber, if they managed to get in." Harry was shaking, and his teeth were beginning to chatter. He laid his head on his hands.

"Harry, get up," demanded Hermione. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm just really, really cold, all of the sudden," he said. "And I don't like mazes."

"Don't blame you, mate." Said Ron. "But I don't think it's cold in here, at least not any colder than it's been in any other part of the Chamber. Do you think it's cold Hermione?"

"No, well, not as cold as Harry seems to think it is, but let's try to find somewhere that's warmer for Harry. I wonder why this sudden cold is only affecting him and not us, Ron?" 

Hermione and Ron pulled Harry to his feet and walked down the left corridor as Ron suggested. They crossed several intersections and Harry started to feel warmer. "This is better," he said. Then abruptly, he stopped. "No," he said pointing to a narrow corridor. "That way."

"That doesn't look familiar," said Hermione.

"But I feel heat," said Harry.

"Is that a good thing?" muttered Ron.

As they walked, Harry passed doorways saying, "No that one's cold. That one's cold. This is it. It's warmer." It seemed like it took them an impossibly long time, and they had yet to see anything familiar. 

"It's like that muggle game," said Hermione when you want to find something and someone tells you 'warm' when you are close and 'cold' when you are not."

"A muggle game?" said Ron. "Salazar wouldn't have known about a muggle game."

"Tom might have," said Hermione. "But why would he do that?"

"I don't know," said Harry, "but look."

Even though they made many wrong turns, and nothing looked familiar, at last, they got back to the Salazar statue, but they hadn't found either the basilisks or basilisk eggs.

"At last," said Hermione.

"I think we should go to dinner," said Ron. "I'm starved. "

"I wish we would have found the eggs," moaned Harry as they trudged across the wide expanse of the Chamber. "But I'm glad we found our way back."

"I wish we would have paid more attention to the Slytherins," said Ron. "Maybe we could have picked up on their game plan for the quiddich game. It was the perfect opportunity."

"They weren't talking about Quiddich anyway," said Hermione. "They were playing that game—and Harry will catch the snitch anyway. He's faster than Malfoy."

Harry grinned at her, as he paused by the multicolored basilisk, his hand brushing against it. "I wonder where all the emerald eyes are?" he thought.

"Hidden," came the answer. "Find mine."

"Did you hear that?" asked Harry, but he was quite certain the serpent spoke directly to his mind and not aloud.

"No," said Hermione. "We should go. We're awfully late. Someone's going to come looking for us and we'll get detention.

"It's not like they will find us down here," said Ron sarcastically.

Harry was shaking his head, covering his ears.

"What is it?" asked Ron.

It seemed to Harry as if every serpent in the chamber was now clamoring for his attention. Each was shouting at him to find their eyes. "Shut up!" Harry hissed in parseltongue. And then he continued a little calmer. "Speak only when I speak to you."

"What just happened, Harry? You looked like you were going to be sick," said Ron.

"I wondered about the eyes," said Harry, "and suddenly, all of these serpents wanted to talk in my mind.

"Wicked," breathed Ron. "What did they want?"

"For us—me—to find their eyes."

Harry kept his hand on the beautiful serpent, his finger tracing over each different scale, each a different color. "Where are your eyes?" Harry asked in parseltongue. 

"I am not permitted to tell you," replied the serpent. 

"A scavenger hunt," quipped Harry.

"Not a scavenger," said the snake. "A ssheis."

"Very well, a predator. What will I get if I find your eyes?"

"All that is," replied the serpent enigmatically. It was then, that Harry looked more closely at the face of the snake. When it spoke, and only when it spoke, a shadow of a tongue protruded from the rock—a second tongue.

"Ron," Harry said softly. "I think we found our bilinguis."

"Do they all have it?" asked Ron and Hermione. "The threesome began going from serpent to serpent with Harry asking them questions in parseltongue just to see if any of them had two tongues. They did not. Finally, they just couldn't continue anymore, but there were still serpents to visit. Hermione was standing near one at Salazar's feet looking up.

"I'm sure we missed dinner," moaned Ron. "My stomach thinks my throat got cut."

"Yuck, where do you come up with these sayings?" asked Hermione. 

"Fred and George," said Ron as he mounted his broom.

Harry was quiet and thoughtful.

"Harry," said Hermione softly. "We went up into the head and ceiling and out into the dungeons. If we had gone down—down into the legs of the statue—"

"Yes," said Harry. "I think you're right. Next time—"

"When they finally flew out of the sink opening into Myrtle's bathroom, Ginny was waiting for them, broom in hand. She looked as furious as Mrs. Weasley ever was. "Where have you been!" she demanded. "Supper's been over for hours. Do you know what time it is?"

"No, Mum," said Ron snidely. "Suppose you tell us."

"The next time you want to know something about the Chamber of Secrets, just ask me, OK," spat Ginny. "I've been in that wretched place more times than you could count."

"Ginny—" began Harry, putting his hand on her shoulder. And then realizing that she held her broom.

"You were coming after us?" queried Harry. 

Ginny nodded. "I was trying to stir up my courage. I thought you were lost. I used to get lost—when—when-- the corridors changed—until Tom put on the hot and cold spells—I didn't know if they would still work--"

"Tom did that," said Ron. "Why didn't me and Hermione feel it?" 

"I thought you were all dead!" said Ginny breaking into sobs, letting her broomstick clatter to the floor. 

Harry pulled her closer and let her cry on his shoulder. "Especially after Parvati's prediction," muttered Ginny.

"What prediction?" said Harry.

==

Later, when they were gathered in the Common room, Parvati reviewed the prophecy.

"How did the vision begin," asked Lavender.

"I was cold," Parvati began. "I was looking at the cold fireplace, and suddenly I was outside. There was snow on the ground. It's night, and I'm alone. Cold. Wandless. But I escaped—They will not underestimate me again—I'm angry. Very angry."

"Are you a muggle again?" asked Lavender

"No. My wand was taken from me," Said Parvati. "If I had it—I wouldn't be out in the cold."

"Who has done this?" asked Lavender

"My enemies."

"Who?"

"I would assume that my enemies are the ones trying to kill me," said Parvati loftily.

Lavender sucked in her breath. "What else do you remember about the dream? Do you know who you are?"

"Yes. I am the one you call the Prophecy child. 

Ginny shuddered, listening to Parvati's words. Parvati had taken on the air of the prophecy child, and Ginny was sure this was not someone you wanted as your enemy. 

"I have a sense that I am in a very dangerous position—without my wand—exhausted--bereft of protection," Parvati continued with calm assurance. "I need to find Harry Potter, but that may not be enough, now. I'm afraid that he may not help me. Cannot help me. Or will not help me. But I need to find him, nonetheless, because I made a promise."

"Are you and Harry Potter on the same side of this war?" Lavender asked.

"Well," spat the prophecy child, as Parvati ran her hands nervously through her hair. "I suppose that depends upon if he tries to kill me too."

What else?" Lavender prompted. "What else do you remember?"

"Nothing." Said Parvati, coming back to herself. "I fell asleep."

"And you dreamed," said Lavender.

"Parvati nodded. "But I don't think they are related. I don't even think I'm the prophecy child any longer. In fact, I know I am not."

"Tell me," said Lavender.

"I was running—I had run through the corridors of Hogwarts—old dusty corridors. There was a trapdoor and I went down it, using stealth to hide me from the danger, but I couldn't stay there. I had the feeling that it was only a few steps behind me and if I stopped for just a moment, if I let my guard down, I would die. I kept my head low, running from statue to statue and then the staircases changed and the Thing that was chasing me was behind me laughing. The staircases changed again and suddenly I was running right to It and It was saying-- Every corridor is mine. Every staircase is mine. Every fire is mine. Hogwarts is a maze you cannot escape! So I jumped over the banister and fell an impossibly long time, but I landed on my feet, and began to run again. I didn't need to look back to see if the Thing had followed. It would always follow. The land was crunching like bones beneath my feet as I ran. I saw a black dog digging so I threw myself down on the ground beside him and began burrowing into the bones like some wild animal, desperate to do something that would not destroy everything. And then the bones were suddenly changing into the bones of people I knew—my parents, my friends, my teachers-- but one of the bones was a portkey and I was transported back to the Thing that was chasing me. It grabbed me, sinking its claws into my right arm—at least I thought it was claws until I looked at the Thing. It was a snake and it had its fangs sunken deep into my arm, but it was talking to me, and I understood it. It was saying: Become part of my Power and no more will need to die, and then it released me.

"It released you?"

"Yes."

"I don't understand," said Lavender. "Do you know who you are in this dream?"

"I am Harry Potter."

Hermione gasped and white-faced clutched Ron's arm. Both were staring at him.

Harry sat still and quiet, an arm's length from Ginny, but he didn't touch her—didn't look at her. He was remembering the last moments with Voldemort at Little Hengleton graveyard from last year. Voldemort hadn't released him. His mother had saved him—again.

Lavender glanced at Harry, and then turned back to Parvati. "Do you understand this dream?" asked Lavender.

"No," said Parvati, "But the creature spoke in that snake language, and then he laughed. Such horrible laughter.

"You understood parseltongue?" asked Lavender.

"No," said Parvati. "Harry Potter understood the parseltongue."

Harry had had this dream himself. He stood, looking at Parvati with horror in his eyes. "I never heard the parseltongue," he said, but she didn't acknowledge him. 

He turned to his friends who were still staring at him with fear in their eyes. They were staring at him, just as they had second year when everyone thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. "And he didn't release me," shouted Harry Potter. "My mother saved me! She saved me!" 

Parvati turned toward him, but her eyes seemed to be on some far-away scene. "The Dark is upon the Light," she said. "The choice is fouled."

==

THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS. They are very special and many of them are excellent authors. I know, because I always read my reviewers fics. If you want me to read your fic. Please review. If you are looking for a good read, please check out my reviewers fics. Lady Lestrange.

AND NOW, IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO DO YOUR PART TO KEEP THIS STORY MOVING. PLEASE REVIEW. It's cheaper than buying a book, isn't it? Be a responsible reader. REVIEW. **10 Reviews to the next chapter.**

****

Coming up next: Polyjuice is finished. Edward finishes the Wall. Harry talks to Kauket, the snake. More Ginny/Tom, and Ginny borrows Neville's Quick Quotes Quill to take notes in ADADA. REVIEW NOW.

==

Slytherin's Silver Snake

Glad you enjoyed this chapter. Please continue to read and review. Those of you looking for a good read, check out Slytherin's Silver Snake's stories. Great writer!

Raven173

So you think in most sets of twins, one is good and one is evil? Hmmmm. Yes, I'm good at evasion. I've been taught by the Dark Lord himself. If you don't believe he's good at lying, wait until you hear what he tells Ginny. Sorry. Just finished reworking the ADADA field trip chapter, and I'm in a really EVIL MOOD. And yes, I wrote the protection spell just for you. Previously, I just said what it did, but actually, I like the actual words in it now. It's coming up soon. Thanks for your review. I will look forward to more obsessive reviews from you.—LL

****

Reiven:

Glad you liked chapter 41. Just the right blend of Edward, Ethan and Draco. You will soon know more than you want to about Edward and Ethan. It's so expensive running a war, you know. You have to get some money from somewhere. Yes. I think Draco is perfect too. Hope you continue to feel that way. Trying to keep him in character. About the 5X Ancestor thing, my sister married Lucius Malfoy. I know, that puts me in the wrong generation. Maybe the Dark Lord can do something about that with his eternal youth potion or something. Have to talk to cousin Severus on that one, I guess.

I've been trying to think of a way for Pritch to make an appearance, but I'm not sure where he will fit. I'll keep my eyes open though.

ennui2

Oh you have no idea what torture is. As we speak, I'm sitting here looking at the next ADADA class It's 30+ pages long. I'm trying to think where to cut it in half—Maybe right when Ginny gets to the portkey--MUAHAHAHAHAH

Volde's reaction won't be coming for a while.

How on earth would Edward know that Harry is a parselmouth? Not exactly dinner conversation in Gryfffindor is it? And there hasn't been a parselmouth for years—not since the Great Salad Bar Slytherin and then of course the current Dark Lord. Who would think that a Gryffindor would be a parselmouth, unless Ed was there in second year, which he wasn't, soo?

Kemenran

Love your creativity. More please.

****

Trillium 

Which conversation with your Ravenclaw friends? Should we go over the waterfall? Glad you like the games. I think it's funny that you like Ron/Hermione in my story. All that has happened is that they are conspicuously absent on several occasions, and Hermione won't let Ron tell. So everything that has happened in the H/R relationship is in your mind, not my story. Hehehe.

Silverfox1

Glad you liked Bea's little cuddle. She's such a sweet thing isn't she? Would Sevi forbid it? HeHeHe. Wait till you see what else is going on in Slytherin common room. You wouldn't even ask that question.

****

Blue-blonde sorceress: In the words of Draco when Samara apologizes to him: "humph." Anyway the apology needs to be to Rieven, not me.

****

The elemental Sorseress: Yes, I invented the game, QUIT. The Elementals are Earth, Wind, Fire and Water in any of their forms. Glad you are still reading.

****

Melbell: Thanks for the kudos. If you like short chapters, maybe I should cut the one where Ginny goes to the Dark Lord in 3 instead of 2. OH dear, then when would I cut it? Before or after Lucius is crucioed? Maybe when Tom—no. That wouldn't work. I guess I'll just have to keep it at 2 and cut it right when she gets to the portkey, That's OK with you, right?

Elfmoon87

Glad you got the review in. Fanfic is sometimes so tiresome, but I try to be patient. OH yes, the twins are Soooo different. Yep. Doing that on purpose. 

****

Melbell. You are right. Mrs. Longbottom is Alice, not Anne. But I already had it written as Anne when OotP came out and I kinda liked their names to be Anne &Frank. HEHEHE.

DanielG715

Thanks for your comments. Please continue to review. You keep me on my toes. Looking forward to seeing one of your stories soon.

****

jager 

Glad you finally reviewed. Welcome.

Ilwinterhofal

Thanks for your review. Glad you like Harry's dream. Some aren't thinking of Harry as one of the Seers in this Seers' Truth. Also I appreciate your saying my characters are rounded with definite personalities. I try. I like the Quit game too. I wanna play. Sniff. OH, yeah. Ginny's aura is really fun. As far as going to sites to see the aura colors, it's hard to say what some of them mean. Some of the sites contradict one another. If you just search Aura colors in Google or something, you'll find lots of stuff.

So, have you reviewed yet? Well, get to it! **Imperio!**

==


	42. Ch 41: The Chamber, The Wall, The Wand a...

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

The Chamber, the Wall the Wand and the Window

Chapter 41

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

****

The Chamber, the Wall, the Wand and the Window

Ginny had trouble sleeping that night. Her thoughts kept going back to the Chamber of Secrets. Samara and Beatrice were sound asleep. It wasn't surprising that nether Parvati nor Lavender were in their beds, but Hermione's was also still neatly made. Ginny smiled at the thought of her brother and Hermione as a couple. Ron had liked her forever. She remembered him telling her about Hermione in the summer before she came to Hogwarts. She was amazed that he was friends with the famous Harry Potter, and all he could talk about was this know-it-all girl, that he really thought was a pain—You like her, don't you? She had asked, and after some threats and arm twisting, she finally got the truth. Yeah, but why would she even look at me, Ginny? She's pretty. She's smart and she has Harry Potter as a friend—

At last, Ginny got up and went down to the common room, thinking that even though it was probably nearing midnight, she might take the chance of going to the kitchen for a cup of hot chocolate. When she reached the bottom of the common room stairs she paused. Someone was awake and talking in the room.

"Maybe it was just a nightmare," said Lavender.

"A Seeing," Parvati corrected. "About the Prophecy Child. I need to go to Madam Trelawney."

"No," Lavendar insisted. "That woman is corrupting you. She twists everything you say."

"But I have to document it—" Parvati insisted.

Lavender held up her hand to stop Parvati, and looked at the steps where Ginny stood.

"I'm sorry," Ginny said. "I couldn't sleep."

"I wish Dean was here," Lavender sighed. "He can usually get her to see reason."

"I have to document the dream," said Parvati. "I have to go to Trelawney."

"Why can't we just document it?" asked Ginny. "Do you trust me to write it correctly? No wait. I have Neville's Quick Quote's Quill." She dashed up the stairs to get it. When she returned, neither Parvati nor Lavender had moved. Both were awaiting her return. "**Exscribo Verbatum**" she commanded the quill, putting it to parchment.

Parvati took a deep breath, and began.

"I don't have my wand. I can't do any magic. I don't think anyone can. Maybe all the magic is destroyed. At first I'm really frightened, but then it seems like it's the most normal thing in the world to be without a wand. But I must be sick. I'm in a hospital wing, I don't know what is wrong with me, but I'm hurting. People are telling me to be calm, but I'm hurting and they are hurting me more. They're sticking—things—like tiny knives—in my arm."

"Needles?" Ginny supplied. "Injections? Are these tiny knives to give you a medicine—a potion?"

"I don't know—" Parvati said thoughtfully, "What do you mean?" 

Ginny suddenly had a flash of getting vaccinated in the orphanage, and then the memory was gone. "Parvati," she asked, "are you a muggle in this dream?"

"Oh Gawd—Is that what it's like?" Parvati looked horrified.

"Then all the pain went away and I was sleepy. I think they did give me a sleeping potion."

The porthole opened and Ron and Hermione came in holding hands and laughing. As soon as they realized that Parvati was talking about a prediction, they quieted down and listened.

"I hear a baby crying—far away--" said Parvati.

"I start to cry too."

"They are telling me that my husband will be here soon."

"But he won't. I don't have a husband. I don't want them to know." 

"Oh! I'm not married. The embarrassment."

"I loved him."

Samara came down the stairs rubbing her eyes. "What's everyone doing up—No one invited me to the party—"

"Sh-h-h" several people hushed her, but Parvati continued undaunted.

"I want to hold my baby," she said.

"They show him to me."

"He's in a blue blanket."

"They tell me I'm too sleepy to hold him."

"I close my eyes, and when I open them I'm older. A man is standing by my bed."

"What does the man look like?" asked Hermione.

  
"He is tall. He has dark hair. He's holding a baby. He speaks to me."

"He says: 'Mum—He calls me Mum, are you feeling well? I want to let you hold your grandchild.'"

"He gives me the blanket and I open it to look at the baby."

Parvati sucked in her breath and shuddered. "There are snakes," she whispered. "There are snakes all wrapped around the child."

Parvati opened her eyes and looked at Ginny. "That's all," she said.

"Parvati," asked Hermione, "Can you remember the color of the second blanket. Was it blue too?"

Parvati shook her head. "I don't know."

"And the baby," persisted Hermione. "Did the baby have dark hair too?"

"No," Parvati said. "I couldn't tell. Just little wisps of baby hair."

Parvati closed her eyes trying to remember exactly. "I can't see its eyes either. I think they were closed. The baby was asleep. It was sleeping with those snakes."

"So all we know is that the child is muggle-born," said Lavender. "That's something we didn't get from the previous predictions."

"No," said Hermione, "We know the date."

"Huh," said Ron. "How do we know that?"

The woman was drugged. That means the first child was born in the nineteen forties—no later than nineteen fifty. They stopped using drugs during labor when they realized it affected the baby. That was about that time.

"The muggles didn't know that whatever potion affected the mother, affected the child?" asked Lavender, shocked.

"No," said Hermione. "But it's the grandchild that is significant. Depending upon the age of the father, the grandchild could be at Hogwarts now." 

"I don't like those snakes crawling on her." Said Ron.

"Why?" asked Samara. "It obviously means she's a healer—or perhaps in need of healing."

"How on earth did you come up with that idea?" asked Lavender.

"Snakes wrapped around a staff always mean a healer is present. And the staff can represent a person, just like a wand in a dream can represent a person. Of course to the Ancient Druids, staffs and wands were the same thing. Sometimes wizards were even named by their wand power or wood—Holly, Hugh for Yew—Samara hesitated. "Didn't you know that?"

"Yes," said Hermione, "but then this person isn't just—Oh my gosh—"

"She glanced at the portrait hole.

"You can't go to the library at this hour," said Ron.

"I think I know why the Prophecy child is so important," said Hermione. "I was reading this book last week –It documented people in history who have been a conduit for another's power—like a wand."

"Pity we aren't in Ravenclaw," said Samara. "We could just accio the book."

"I guess it will have to wait until morning," Hermione said heading up the stairs to the girl's dorm while talking animatedly with Samara about the Prophecy child's possibilities. Lavender and Parvati followed while Ron looked disappointedly up the stairs after them.

"—no good night kiss?" he muttered.

"Want to go get a cup of hot chocolate?" asked Ginny.

"Sure," he said pulling Harry's Invisibility cloak from his pocket. "And we don't even have to worry about Filch catching us."

==

Harry was still awake when Ron come into the room, dropped his clothes on the floor and flopped onto his bed. Harry had been laying in bed thinking about Parvati's prediction. She had said, "The Dark is upon the Light. The choice is fouled." Did she mean him? Was it because Voldemort had left his dark scar on his head and another on his arm last year? Did she mean the prophecy child? Was there some part of Voldemort or darkness in the prophecy child that presupposed that the child would go dark? Harry rolled over in bed, restlessly. 

Kauket was babbling about the baby bunnies on the wall.

"Will you shut up?" Hissed Harry in parseltongue.

"The hisssus," Kauket said. "I want to remember where they are."

"They aren't prey, you stupid snake," hissed Harry. "It's fake. It's a magical painting."

"I need to remember—for when I am hungry."

"When you are hungry, Edward will feed you," hissed Harry.

"You think that ssheis will feed me?"

"Yes. He's not a predator. He will feed you."

"If he does not, kind one, will you feed me?"

"Only if you shut up," hissed Harry.

"I shall be silent," hissed the snake.

Harry rolled back over, and looked at Edward's bed, which was on the other side of the room. For a moment, he thought he saw the liquid light of open eyes. Was Edward awake? If he was, he just heard Harry hissing to his snake. Shit. Harry stared at the bed, but in the dark, he couldn't tell if Edward's eyes were open or not. It could have been something on the wall, looking at him. That wall was just plain creepy. Just then an ear-splitting howl broke the silence of the bedroom.

"Did you hear that?" Ron asked from the other side of the room.

"Yeah," said Harry.

"What was it?"

"Werewolf," said Harry, only half kidding.

"It's not a full moon," said Seamus thoughtfully.

"Seamus, I didn't know you were awake too," said Harry.

"Who can sleep," Seamus muttered.

"I helped draw it, and I can't sleep either," said Dean. "I knew it wasn't a good idea to just animate the whole wall."

"That was stupid," said Ron. "All the mistakes and half creatures came to life."

"Well, I didn't do it," said Dean. "That was Edward's mistake."

"Do you really think it was a mistake?" asked Harry.

After a few moments, Seamus got out of bed. 

"Where are you going?" asked Harry. 

"Common room," said Seamus, gathering up a blanket and pillow. "I'm going to sleep on the sofa."

Dean stood too. 

"Are you going to the common room?" asked Seamus. 

"No," said Dean simply.

"Neville's asleep," said Ron in amazement, noticing that Neville hadn't joined the conversation.

"Ward," said Harry. "He put it up last night too, though, and this stupid wall wasn't even done."

Just then a soft snore broke through the babble of the wall. "If Neville has a ward, we shouldn't hear him snoring." Said Ron incredulously.

"That's Edward," said Harry.

"Without a ward?" asked Ron amazedly.

"Apparently he decided we were safe," said Harry.

"I should curse him right now, just for making this wall," said Ron. "So—" Ron yawned. "Can you manage to put up a ward? I don't think I can do it."

Harry pulled his wand from under his pillow, and held it aloft. He looked at the wall for a moment. I'm not sure what we're warding against," said Harry. "And my head hurts. Let's just sleep in the Common room."

"I get the other sofa!" said Ron.

==

Morning came much too early, and the boys muddled through class somehow. It wasn't as if any of them were brilliant, so no one noticed much when they slept entirely through Divination. Luckily, they were only weeding in herbology and charms was a practical lesson, which meant there was so much movement, no one noticed whether they were participating or not. They did have to wake up for Defense class though. 

"I still can't believe that Dumbledore trusts that man," complained Ron as the trio exited defense class. "He's positively evil. I think he's trying to kill us. Less for the Dark Lord to do—"

"Ron, keep your voice down," warned Hermione. "He'll hear you. He's already taken enough points off of Gryffindor today." She frowned at Samara.

"Hey! I didn't lose them all. Your boyfriend there, lost his share," she snapped, gesturing to Ron.

Hermione glared at Samara.

"Snape's not all that bad," said Ginny "If you just—"

"Not that bad," chorused the Gryffindors.

"Well, I just mean, I think, he has our well-being in mind."

"He has a damned strange way of showing it," muttered Harry, as he rubbed his aching head. 

"At least all we have left is potions," said Samara brightly. "That should be fun."

"Right," said Harry, thinking, double potions with the Slytherins and drinking essence of Ethan. "It should be just peachy."

Mrs. Figg was trying to get the Slytherins to take their seats as the Gryffindors filed into class. They were all gathered around Malfoy's table murmuring to one another. 

"Class," said Mrs. Figg sharply. "Seats. Now."

The little cluster of Slytherins broke up, Pansy and Lauren heading to their seats with Samara and Ginny first. Followed by Alvin Nott joining Ron, Gloria joining Hermione and Blaise joining Parvati. The other boys were a little slower to join their partners, but at last, everyone was together.

"Now," said Mrs. Figg. "To be sure there is no cheating, we are going to get our cauldrons and wait until I am at your table before removing a single hair from your partner's head. I want to be sure that the hair is still attached to your partner's head before you put it in your potion. It is too easy for one of you to trade hairs with another. Understood?"

"The class nodded their assent. 

"You've done really well so far," she congratulated them. " I've only had to hand out detentions. I really thought at least one of you might be expelled by this time for some trickery. I know the temptation is great—" She smiled at them and let them get their cauldrons before she started walking around the room to supervise the hair pulling. I suppose I should warn you, Polyjuice potion is not the best tasting stuff—I expect at least some of you to get sick." Mrs. Figg picked up an ever-clean trashcan and carried it with her. "Don't worry," she said. "The transformation is almost instantaneous, so even if you throw up most of the potion, it will still work, and you won't have to drink any more. She started with Pansy and Samara who seemed to have no hesitation at all, until they actually swallowed the lumpy mixture. Both looked like they weren't going to keep it down, but both managed to do it. 

After swallowing several times, Pansy rubbed her eyes, and rubbed them again. Then she announced rather loudly to the entire class—"Sweet Merlin, Samara, you _do_ see auras! This is better than telepathy."

Samara choked on the rest of her polyjuice potion and spit some of it in the waste can before Mrs. Figg moved on, leaving Samara holding on to Pansy and complaining that she felt like she was blind.   


Mrs. Figg moved down the row to Draco and Edward who were joking heartily about the potion's possibilities, both complaining that they had to trade their good looks for a whole hour.

"So what are we going to do with the extra bottle of PJP," asked Edward.

"I thought we were supposed to save them until a moment of great need when the Dark Lord attacks," said Draco, in a low voice that changed mid-sentence to Edward's voice.

"Draco, that innocent look just doesn't work on my face," warned Edward with a chuckle.

"Well, Potter, ready?" asked Ethan as Mrs. Figg got to their table. 

Harry nodded. He already knew what the potion tasted like -- He reached up and grasped a single dark hair from Ethan's head, pulled it out and put it in his glass. Ethan did the same and together they drank the potion. Shivering Harry endured the uncomfortable feeling of growing someone else's' skin around you. He took off his glasses and rubbed his hands over his face feeling unconsciously for a scar that was no longer on his forehead. Beside him, Ethan gave a small cry and covering his face, sank into the chair. "Shit," he muttered. "I didn't know polyjuice gave you a headache— I'm gonna be sick." He snatched the ever-clean waste can from Mrs. Fig and vomited most of the potion back up. He was still holding his head, and Mrs. Figg frowned at him. "I've never seen polyjuice give anyone a headache," she began.

"It's mine," said Harry, a smile growing on his face. "And I have a whole hour without that damned headache," he muttered. He suppressed the urge to jump for joy.

As he looked around the room he realized that Ginny had already changed with Lauren Avery. She was examining her freckle free hands with glee. Hermione didn't look as happy with the eleven-year-old body of Gloria Snood, and Ron tapped glasses with Alvin Nott. "Well, cheers," he said and downed the glassful of potion.

Harry noticed several Slytherins stealthily pulling extra vials from their bags to fill with polyjuice potion. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea, and Harry wished he'd have thought of it and brought his extra vials. The question was, what did the Slytherins plan to do with the polyjuice. It wasn't like they all had to hide from the Dark Lord. Most of them did his bidding. Harry sighed, and relaxed in his chair. He was just going to enjoy his headache free hour. Nothing was going to upset him. Mrs. Figg was still moving around the room. Only a few more students had to add their hairs and then everyone would be transformed. 

Harry was startled by a sudden movement. It was Gregory Goyle, moving remarkably quickly to pull his wand on Lou. Lou looked at him in surprise. "What? I just wanted to fold up my sleeves before I poured the potion in the glasses," he said softly. "I didn't want to get this rot on my robes. Unless, you want to do it?" Lou handed him the ladle.

"No," said Goyle, shaking his head, and putting his wand away. "You're probably neater than I am."

Lou nodded shortly and poured the glasses of potion as Mrs. Figg stopped at their table. Lou, holding Goyle's hair gingerly between a thumb and forefinger asked the question that was probably on half of the Gryffindor's minds—"Would effect the potion if I dipped this in alcohol before I put it in my glass?"

"Actually, yes," said Mrs. Figg, but you can pour distilled water over it if you like."

Goyle gave Lou a look of pure loathing as he poured water over his single hair and then placed it in his glass. He hesitated, looking at the globules in his glass, with disgust.

"We're waiting," said Mrs. Figg softly, and Lou took a deep breath. He drank the potion and almost immediately was violently sick.

Goyle swallowed his potion without a single blink. Harry remembered Ron telling him that it was a strange sight to see Goyle thinking. Indeed it was. 

Vincent Crabbe was in a whispered conversation with Joe. Harry wondered what on earth they had to talk about.

After they had cleaned up their areas and gathered their notes, Mrs. Figg reminded them that the whole school knew that today was 'Slytherin-Gryffindor polyjuice day' and that they weren't allowed back into their common rooms until the hour was up, although they could travel the grounds or go to the library. Once she was sure everything was in order, she dismissed the class.

As they started to leave, Harry was surprised to see, Blaise Zambini, stripping off Parvati's glamour charm, and dropping Parvati's bangles into her bag. She dragged her fingers through Parvati's silky hair, twisted it into a sloppy ponytail and stuck a quill through it. 

"What are you doing, Blaise?" asked a girl that Harry momentarily mistook for Ginny. Then he realized that it was Lauren Avery. 

"Going to Ravenclaw library," said Blaise.

"But you can't," said Lauren, "We aren't allowed back into our Common Rooms."

"Pardon me?" said Blaise looking down her nose at Lauren in a perfect imitation of Padma. "It may be Gryffindor-Slytherin polyjuice day, but I'm a Ravenclaw." She walked regally out of the classroom before anyone said another word.

Harry glanced over at Ethan who looked as bad as Harry usually felt by the end of the day. "Madam Pomfrey usually has a headache potion for me by the end of the day," he told Ethan. "You could probably spend the rest of the hour in the hospital wing lying down."

"I'll be fine," Ethan murmured. "Where are you going?" 

"Out by the lake, I think," said Harry. "We aren't going to have many more sunny days. I thought I'd take advantage of it."

"I'll come too," said Ethan dragging himself to his feet.

"Why?" asked Harry. 

"I think the air might help."

"It won't," said Harry with a shrug.

Harry met up with Hermione who seemed to have Gloria Snood velcroed to her leg.

"Why are they so paranoid?" Harry whispered. "They know we can't pull any pranks and blame it on them. The teachers know it's polyjuice day."

Ron was not encumbered by his Slytherin partner. "Where's Alvin?" Harry asked as Ron, looking like Alvin sauntered over to them. "Left with Ginny—I mean Lauren. Gosh this is confusing."

As the threesome headed down to the lake, they realized they would have no chance to talk about anything with the two Slytherins right beside them, they drifted into silence, anxious for the whole polyjuice thing to wear off. 

Harry looked across the grass thinking that apparently Samara and Edward had the same problem with Draco and Pansy. He frowned, maybe not. It looked like the two boys were helping Samara, who was in Pansy's guise, to walk. She was hanging on to both of them, while Pansy, looking like Samara was exclaiming over all the colors she saw around the trees, and different people. She was asking Samara what they meant as she walked. Harry could still hear the on-going conversation about auras. Harry glanced in their direction, and frowned as he caught sight of Lauren and Alvin. He looked quickly away. Even though he knew that Lauren and Alvin were a couple, it was just too weird to see what looked like Ron and Ginny with their arms around each other.

Lou, Joe and Neville also headed down to the lake. For some reason, Crabbe and Goyle and the first year Slytherin that was Neville's partner was with them too. 

A girl with long blonde hair called after them. "Hey, Neville, wait a minute." Neville in the guise of the first year Slytherin stopped, waiting for the girl to catch up with him, but the rest of the little group continued towards the lake. Harry heard her ask to borrow his Quick Quotes Quill for Advanced defense, and it was only then that Harry remembered that Ginny had traded places with Lauren Avery. She smiled and nodded to Neville, and then she went off with Malfoy—No. That was Edward—thought Harry. He thought Malfoy's face looked very strange with a genuine smile on it. 

A moment later, Neville's, little group of Gryffindor's and Slytherins was joined by a few Hufflepuff girls—and Beatrice. Goyle, in Lou's visage was scowling and playing with his wand, but the other boys seemed relaxed. Nonetheless, Hufflepuff girls with Crabbe and Goyle—thought Harry with a shiver. Then he remembered Crabbe with that Hufflepuff girl at Hogsmeade. Was it possible that Crabbe was smart enough to have planned to meet the Hufflepuff girls?

All too soon, Harry felt his headache returning and his eyesight blurring. "I think I need my glasses now," he said to Ethan who was stretched out under a nearby tree. "And I'm going to go to Madam Pomfrey for some headache potion."

"Potter?" said Ethan curiously. "That headache? Is it from—uh"

"Voldemort, yeah," said Harry.

==

****

At dinner, Ginny sat with Edward who was across from Samara and Beatrice.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you this morning, Samara," said Ginny. "I think I was half asleep."

"Well, it's no wonder," said Samara. "As far as I can tell, you don't sleep much at night."

"Everyone's worried about Voldemort," said Beatrice. "I think we're all a little on edge since Beauxbatons." She looked at Samara. "Did Sally Anne tell you about the threatening owl she got this afternoon?"

"No," said Samara. "I haven't seen her today."

"Well, it didn't come with the regular morning owls, because it came from a suspicious place, and certain owls—like the ones from Albania-- have to come directly to Dumbledore, now." Beatrice glanced around at her audience, and took a sip of pumpkin juice before continuing. "Anyway, Millicent and I were with Professor McGonagall when Dumbledore called her into his office to get Sally Anne. When we came into Dumbledore's office—"

"McGonagall brought you with her?" questioned Edward.

"Well, yes," said Beatrice. "Millicent's a cat. McGonagall couldn't leave me alone with her, and I still can't transform back to human when I'm nervous—"

"What happened to Sally Anne?" asked Samara.

"Well, she was crying, and Dumbledore told McGonagall to take her out. And then the owl—well, it was this big screech owl—and it was—dying—convulsions—"

"Poor owl," said Samara. 

"Well, I can't say I was too sad about it, since I was in my rabbit animagus, but Dumbledore was trying to find out where it came from. And then we left."

"So you don't know where it came from or what the message was?" asked Samara.

Beatrice shook her head. "I talked to Sally Anne afterwards. Apparently, the message was just a warning to stay away from Vincent Crabbe. I think she was over-reacting, but of course, she was upset about seeing the owl die like that."

"Why would it die?" wondered Samara.

"Poison," said Edward. "It activates when someone tries to magically trace the message."

"That's what Millicent said," replied Beatrice. "Of course," Beatrice continued in a barely audible whisper, "she also said that it was a Malfoy owl."

"How would she know?" snapped Samara.

No one at the table answered her.

"Draco's owl is an Eagle owl," said Samara. "I saw it. He doesn't have a screech owl."

"Well, if he did," muttered Ginny. "He doesn't have one now, does he?"

Edward snorted, and Samara frowned at Ginny

"Samara," said Beatrice gently. "No one's blaming Draco. It's hard to tell when Millicent is telling the truth. She likes to—stir up trouble."

They ate in silence for a while. "Ready for the test in Advanced Defense on Friday?" Asked Edward.

"I don't know," said Ginny. "I really don't have that many notes. I was trying to study and –I--I, could I look at your notes, Edward? I just feel like I must have missed something."

"Well, I don't take very good notes," said Edward. "I'm more of a 'hands on' kind of man." He shrugged. "But you're welcome to take a look. Why don't you come over to my dorm room after dinner? I want to show everyone my masterpiece anyway."

"What's that?" asked Samara. 

"You'll see," said Edward, refusing to be baited into revealing his secret.

"Oh I know," said Ginny excitedly. "You finished your painting didn't you?"

Edward nodded proudly. "Last night," he said. "I showed Professor McGonagall this morning."

==

After supper and Quiddich practice, Harry, Ron, and Hermione cracked open their books in the common room. The room was quiet; most of the Gryffindors choosing to study outside while the weather was good. Only a few sixth years were in the opposite corner, working on a project together. Ginny joined the group a few minutes later.

"So where's Edward and Samara?" Hermione asked Ginny.

"Library," said Ginny. "Samara had to look up something for Ancient Runes, and you know Edward always complains it's too noisy to study in here."

"There's not a sound," said Ron, gesturing to the almost empty common room.

Ginny shrugged.

"So did you two have a fight?" asked Ron, curiously.

"No," said Ginny. "I told you before, Ron. Edward and I are not a couple. We're just friends. He makes me laugh."

"See, Mate," Ron told Harry in a loud whisper. "I told you she was still waiting around for you."

Harry blushed crimson, and buried his face in his charms book.

Ginny, whirled on her brother. "I am not waiting around for anyone, Ron," she spat. "I'm just—fine—" but her eyes took on a strange glazed appearance and she didn't look fine at all. She sank down in her favorite chair by the cold fireplace.

"Ginny?" said Ron, but Hermione hustled him over to his books. "Honestly, Ron," she whispered. "Open your mouth, insert foot. Do you have to be so tactless?"

"But you said—" began Ron, and Hermione hushed him. "Just shut up," she said.

"Shut up," Ginny echoed.

For a few moments silence reigned in the common room as the group worked on their individual projects. At last, Harry broke the silence. "When should we go back to the Chamber?" he asked softly. "We shouldn't wait too long—"

"It has to be on a weekend," said Hermione. "I wouldn't want to be down there after dark."

"It isn't any different after dark," said Ginny cryptically. "It's not like the sun shines in the windows."

"This weekend then," said Harry.

"I'm coming with you," said Ginny.

"Ginny, you don't have to," said Ron. "We can do this."

"No, you can't," said Ginny pacing over to them. "You don't know where the hatching ground is, and you'll never find it without me."

They looked at her in amazement. "That's right isn't it?" she asked. "You looked for it, but you couldn't find it."

"Yes," said Hermione thoughtfully. "We went up in the statue. We thought if we went down next time—"

"No. It wouldn't matter," said Ginny, laughing mirthlessly. "Haven't you figured out yet that the whole place is spelled to listen to the parselmouth's wishes? The whole place is based on Intent. You have to constantly be using magic or speaking parseltongue, or the rooms move so that you can't get out. That means only—only Harry –or me—If I still remember enough parseltongue for it to work—" Her voice ground to a halt and she bit her lip thoughtfully. Her eyes were filled with fear.

"Ginny, I don't think you should go," said Harry softly.

"I have to," spat Ginny. "It won't let you in."

"But I'm a parselmouth," said Harry.

"I know," said Ginny, "But. I told Tom that in the diary, and that's why it won't let you in."

"What?" asked Ron angrily. "Ginny, you're not making any sense—"

"I know," she said miserably, rubbing her head. "I wish I could remember for sure, but all the memories about the Chamber are fuzzy or missing altogether. I think it was the medi-witches at St. Mongo's trying to help me, but now, there are just pieces of memories. I know I spent hours and hours down there in first year, and yet, there's no memory of it. Sometimes I feel like I really am going crazy," she whispered. 

"Ginny?" Ron reached out and grasped her hand. She stared unseeingly at their clasped hands and continued to speak, "One of the memories," she said, "is when I made a ward around a sandy place. The ward was specifically to keep Harry Potter out, and even though I don't remember Tom being a part of it, if this ward was around the eggs, I know, Tom would have helped me to set it." She looked up, her brown eyes meeting Harry's green ones. "You won't get through it without me."

"We'll stay together," said Harry, reaching out and taking Ginny's other hand. "I swear to you, you will never have to be alone in that Chamber again."

"I'm scared," Ginny whispered, and Harry's hand tightened around hers but no one said anything. After a moment, Harry disentangled his hand from Ginny's and looked back at his books.

"Well, said Harry. "I think I'm going to do Divination next."

"What was that Trelawney said to Ginny about you finding a window to the past?" asked Ron.

"Who knows. It was Trelawney. You're not starting to believe her predictions are you?" asked Ginny.

"A window to the past," intoned Ron. "Will open to you, Virginia. You are afraid, but your Gryffindor heart will prevail."

Ginny shrugged. "It's nothing. Let's just get on with our homework."

__

"I'm nothing now, am I?"

"If you're not going to help with the homework, shut up," thought Ginny.

I can't believe Trelawney assigned us an interpretation of Parvati's dream." Said Ron. "We were there when she first told us about it. This should be easy."

"I don't know, Ron." Said Harry. "It didn't make much sense to me. I mean, I can't think of any muggleborn Slytherins—"

"There was a half-blood, though," said Ginny softly. "I suppose there could be another one in the future."

"Voldemort?" said Harry.

"Who says it has to be in the future?" asked Hermione. "Did you know, there's a branch of arthimancy that says, learn the future from looking at the past."

"So it could be a dream of the past?" said Harry thoughtfully. 

"Honestly, Hermione," complained Ron, "It's bad enough you're ahead of us in all of the classes that you take with us, but you don't even take divination!"

"We could ask Parvati," said Harry. "After all it is Parvati's dream."

"She doesn't know the meaning," said Ginny.

"Yes, well—" Ron's voice fell into an imitation of Trelawney's mystic whisper: "It is best that Parvati contemplate which is the correct interpretation, for she alone knows the intimate details of the dream."

"Yeah," said Harry. "That's just so Parvati can check our homework, and Trelawney won't have to do anything."

"Well she does work hard at burning all that incense," said Ron.

"Forget the incense," said Ginny. "I just wish we didn't have to keep asking her to put out the fire!"

"What! Ginny?" Ron intoned with mock surprise. "Don't you trust her inner eye? She can see Death Eaters coming before they can floo."

"Ha!" said Ginny.

"Parvati!" Harry called as she and Dean entered the Common room. "We're working on your vision. Want to come and help us?"

"Dream," corrected Parvati. "The part about the boy with the wand was a dream."

"What's the difference?" muttered Ron.

"The dreams are fragmented and mixed up, but so far, they have all been in the past." Said Dean. "The visions are in the future."

"The visions are always clearer," said Parvati. "They are in order even if they are symbolic."

The group looked at Dean and Parvati with new respect. "You've been working on this for quite a while, haven't you," said Harry.

"It's all we talk about," said Dean, holding Parvati close.

"And my sister has helped a lot," added Parvati. 

Harry had the feeling that if Dean let go of her, she would fall over from exhaustion. "Well, let's get on with it," said Harry, picking up his quill. "I still have charms to do."

"Me too," said Ron, unrolling his parchment. "And defense, too. What about you Paravati?"

Parvati didn't answer. She sat silently fiddling with the bangles on her arm. "I have to warn the prophecy child," she whispered. "I'm the messenger. If I fail--" She took a deep breath. "I cannot fail."

"I've been doing Parvati's homework," said Dean. "Me and Lavender and Padma. She—she can't concentrate on anything but the seeings." He shrugged. "We didn't finish the defense yet."

Harry surveyed the group for a moment thinking about Neville's father saying the name Patil in his list of the cult members. He considered asking Parvati about it, but just couldn't bring himself to add anything else to her burden. If some Patil in Parvati's ancestry was a seer and that seer acted like Parvati was now—Harry sighed. If it were Slytherins helping that seer with homework instead of Gryffindors, what a difference that would make. Harry pushed up his sleeves. "If we all work together, we should be able to get it done," he said. "But this dream—"

"Come on, Harry," said Ron. "It's just divination. As long as we say everyone is going to die, Trelawney will love it."

"No," shouted Parvati. "Everyone will not die!"

"And Trelawney isn't grading this paper, Ron." Harry looked at Parvati, thinking that she was going to be a lot harder to please than Trelawney.

==

Ginny looked around at the group and thought, doing this homework in a group was never going to work. Even if they came up with a good answer to what the boy with the wand that burnt him meant, it was going to look like they copied off of each other. Ginny noticed that Hermione had retreated to the corner of the room the sixth years had vacated, and was doing her Arithimancy. Ginny decided to follow her example and let the little group hash out Parvati's dream on their own. She had a few ideas, herself, but she wasn't sure she wanted to share them.

She moved to her favorite chair by the cold fireplace. Sinking down into the soft chair, she took out her charms homework. She didn't really want to stay in the Common Room right now. She needed quiet, but if she left, Ron would worry about her solitude. She was reading her assignment, but her mind wasn't on it. She was thinking about the time in Slytherin playing Quit last weekend. Something had happened there. 

At odd moments, she could definitely hear Tom speaking to her again—not a memory, like in the diary, but as if he understood what was happening in her life now. If she tried, she could usually shut him out, which made her think that perhaps he was still just her imagination, as she had previously assumed. On the other hand, there were times when she sort of tried to talk to him, and he didn't answer. If he were her imagination, wouldn't she be able to imagine him anytime she wanted to?

She knew something happened to her when she was playing quit. She realized it when she went up to do the ward on Ethan's bed. She set it perfectly in three seconds flat, and Edward had stared at her. 

"I'm kind of good at wards," she had said evasively. "I--didn't like my roommate first year." 

She knew she had somehow accessed a memory that wasn't her own, because in the morning, when Ethan asked her to show him how she did that particular ward, she couldn't remember how to do it, and both Ethan and Edward thought she was lying, when she showed them the one she usually used. It was good too, but not quite as impenetrable as the one she did on Ethan's bed. The one on Ethan's bed, was Tom's ward, not hers, and that frightened her, because she did the spell without realizing that it was Tom's.

Ginny also thought it was strange that she liked Advanced Defense better than Defense with her regular class. Was that some of Tom's doing? There she went again, talking to herself as if he was real. He was just a memory. He had always been just a memory. She did a warming spell on the chair and tucked her stocking feet under her to keep them warm. Maybe she liked Advanced Defense better because Snape was more relaxed with the Slytherins instead of having half a class of Gryffindors, she thought. 

She actually liked pulling the magic from the ground and feeling it flow over her arms now. She could do it now with her shoes on or off, thanks to Samara and Pansy's help. Lauren Avery was good at it too—a lot better than Pansy, in fact, but Ginny couldn't talk to Lauren like she could to Pansy. Lauren reminded her in a strange way of Beatrice, powerful, smart, and yet she chose to stay in the background. Ginny supposed she was a little shy. Anyone in Gryffindor who heard her say that would laugh except for Samara. 

Samara seemed to understand. There was more to Samara than many people thought. When Samara had told Ginny that Pansy didn't have a Dark Mark, Ginny was at first surprised, and then angered. She herself was pretty sure who had Dark Marks and who didn't, she wasn't positive of course, but association with the Slytherins did have some benefits. 

"How would you know Pansy doesn't have a Dark Mark?" Ginny had asked.

"Gosh, Ginny, I was in her body for an hour with the polyjuice potion. I can't see why every Gryffindor wouldn't look. But so far, I think I'm the only one who did. I was trying to figure out how it shows in their aura—it should show, you know--"

Tom was so busy congratulating Samara in Ginny's head that she didn't even respond. "Shut up, Tom," she said at last. "I knew that Pansy didn't have a Dark Mark. I could tell from her actions."

__

"How naïve can you be?" Tom asked exasperated, and then he pouted for the rest of the day.

"Fine. It's not that I need you, Tom. I can even do the wandless magic now without you," she thought.

__

"Just pulling and playing. You haven't done any spells," Tom reminded her. "There is where your skill will be tested."

"I will," she had told him. Ginny itched to do a spell herself—a wandless spell, but she waited because Snape had told her to. He specifically said not to do a spell until he said she was ready. With a grudging sort of respect, she agreed. Perhaps Friday Snape would give her the OK, she thought, as she switched to her Advanced Defense homework. She struggled along herself for a while, trying to get it done. Although she could answer the questions hypothetically, she knew she would have trouble actually doing the magic without a wand. 

Ginny sighed. She was getting nothing done well in the noisy atmosphere of the common room. She thought she should go to her room where she could concentrate.

Just then, Edward and Samara came in from the library. They apparently had found Beatrice somewhere along the way. 

"We're going up to see my wall," Edward announced. "Anyone else want to come?"

"I've already seen enough to last a lifetime," said Harry.

"And heard enough too," added Ron.

"I'll come with you, Edward, as soon as I finish this divination," said Dean. "I've been thinking about making a few changes."

"I like it just the way it is," said Edward stubbornly. 

"I want to see it," said Ginny gathering up her books, "and if it isn't too much trouble, Edward, could you help me with my Advanced Defense?"

"Sure," said Edward, leaving the common room with the girls. "See you later, Dean," he called.

"Damned bloody wall," spat Ron.

"What's wrong with his painting the wall?" asked Hermione.

In a loud and immediate rush, Harry, Ron, and Dean proceeded to tell her. 

==

==

THANKS TO MY PRECIOUS REVIEWERS. I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! --Lady Lestrange

If you haven't reviewed yet, now is the time. Go one, click that little button on the left and tell me what you think. Next chapter, Ginny uses Neville's Quick Quotes Quill in ADADA. REVIEW! 10—maybe 15- Reviews to a new chapter. More dark stuff on the way. Be prepared. –Lady Lestrange

****

Mella deRanged ;-)

****

Melbell: Glad you caught up. Love to hear from you.

****

Kemenran: The usual-Keep reviewing.

****

Reiven: Your thoughts are right on track as usual. Glad someone makes the connections. Right time frame and all. I like the Chamber too. And you know your comment—"Oh gods, was that the end? No! I need to know more" You might want to control-C it, I have a feeling you are going to be using it a lot. If I don't get Pritch in here, I'll get him in the sequel, promise—just for you. No. I can't marry Draco. Sniff. Well, maybe I can. You know how twisted that Sytherin inbreeding is. No one is reading DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE anymore. Spread the word for me. It's such a fun AND FUNNY fic. Someone should read it.

****

Ennui2; Go ahead. Gush all over me. I love it. Maybe Ethan would have shared—Nah! Basilisk's body is gone too. All cleaned up. No sign of a battle. Guess I could have made that clearer. Sorry. I've learned to fight off Imperio ages ago. You realize , of course, that I've learned all this from the Dark Lord himself.

Raven 173: Yep. The choice is fouled. And Harry hating mazes—well, yeah, there is that Triwizard thing that didn't exactly end well. Look at all of Parvati's predictions and you will realize it can't be Malfoy—OPPS! Ohmygosh! I didn't put that prediction in yet?—ok THANKS. Gotta go! I've got it now—Author runs around hysterically trying to adjust chapters—No. NO. NO! I don't need St. Mongos!

****

The Elemental Sorceress. More Animagi. Yes, but maybe not until the sequel. It takes a while to conquer this complex a spell, you know.

****

Trillium: A median, not a waterfall! Ha Ha! Yes, that was the Slyth common room. I read that poem by Shelley, I think but I don't' remember it. If you have time, email me the reference or poem name if you know it.

****

Ilwinterfofal Thanks. You are right. That's the room. If you think this is "kinda spooky" hold on to your hat. It's getting spookier.

****

Silverfox1: I love it. Author jumps up and down excitedly. She thinks it's a great chapter even without the prerequesite Slytherin. Cool.

****

Melbell: Yes, well, as you can guess, you will get your wish. They have to go back to the Chamber, and Ginny has to go with them.

If you are looking for a cool fic to read, (and you've read all of mine) check out my reviewers. Most of them are in my FAVORITES. Most are very good authors, and that is why their reviews mean so much to me—OH, excuse me, I must have been having a Hufflepuff moment there. HIT THE REVIEW BUTTON ALREADY! IMPERIO! (gosh! That was scary. Back to normal now. Lol)

****

Coming next: Ginny takes Neville's Quick Quotes Quill to ADADA.


	43. CH 42: No More Games

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

No More Games

Chapter 41

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else. Be warned, the upcoming chapters are the reason this is rated PG-13. The title says it all—

****

No More Games

****

By Lady Lestrange

****

Ginny awoke on Friday, hoping once again that the voice in her head was gone, but it wasn't. Something strange had happened when she was playing 'Quit' at Slytherin last weekend, and now, she heard Tom more than ever. She felt different, too, as well as hearing Tom at more regular intervals in her head. 

Perhaps she was finally going crazy like the medi-witches said she would. But do crazy people know that they are going crazy?

Ginny opened her parchment and took out the Quick Quotes Quill she had borrowed from Neville. Maybe today she would get some decent notes on her work. Ginny wrote the heading for her Defense notes by assigning the task to the Quick Quotes Quill. Ginny instructed it to write the title of the class, like she always did, Snape's name and the date. Then, Ginny set the Quick Quote's Quill to write every word that Snape uttered. As Neville had instructed, she double-checked to be sure that the Quill was set on Verbatim instead of Enhance. She wanted these notes to be good and reliable.

The class wasn't sitting and taking notes though, the 'test' of their blocks was 'hands on' as Edward called it. Ginny didn't know why she had expected anything different from Snape.

"I thought we would—um—I thought—" muttered Ginny nervously, her wand hand sweating as she faced Snape. She looked around at the rest of the class which was silent and studying.

__

"Honestly, Ginny Love. Calm down. I can take him even with half of my memory blocked. Just relax and let me handle this."

"You're just my imagination—" thought Ginny.

__

"Oh are we back to that now, are we?" Tom sighed.

"Please."

Snape's voice was a low growl. "Did you think, Miss Weasley, that whatever monster you happen to be fighting when you need this Defense class is just going to hand you a parchment and say write down your answers? I've never met one that said if you get enough answers right, I'll let you live," sneered Snape.

__

Tom chuckled, but she managed to keep her thoughts on Snape.

"Well, no, but—I expected that you would match students--" Ginny looked around at Blaise and Pansy, both of whom had survived Snape's test without too much trouble. Alvin Nott had taken Crabbe to the hospital wing and Millicent Bulstrode was out cold on the floor.

"Miss Weasley, I won't throw any spells you shouldn't know how to block," Snape said with a voice that dripped utter boredom. "I'm not so sure my Slytherins would be that careful."

__

"I might be able to throw a few that you can't block though," Tom whispered. 

She studiously ignored the annoying voice in her head.

"Thank you, Sir," said Ginny, softly, spreading her legs a little apart and holding her wand ready to block. "I'm ready," she said.

"That's all well, and good," said Snape, "But I doubt the dark creature you are fighting will bother to ask you if you are ready." Snape said nothing else. He simply paced away from Ginny talking about the wandless magic that they had all been practicing.

__

"Let me do this, Ginny. Please, let me do this," said Tom.

"Shut up. You're distracting me."

__

Tom seemed to sigh. "Alright, then," he said. "Watch his eyes. You will know a split second before he attacks"  


"Snape's eyes never tell us anything," thought Ginny. "He's made of stone."

__

"Even stone speaks," said Tom. "Watch his face." 

"He turned away," thought Ginny.

__

"Then you move, you little fool! Did he say you had to stay in one spot?"

"No." Ginny began to move just as Snape turned. 

****

"Tarantellegra!" called Snape, judging where she had been. 

That small amount of movement saved her from the spell, and she had time to throw up an Impediment charm..

Snape threw another spell which she simply blocked.

Another.

Another.

Another.

The spells became progressively harder, and therefore her blocks had to be better, but she was getting tired.

"**Sectum!"** shouted Snape, and Ginny actually felt the slash of a knife through her Impediment charm. It 

wasn't strong enough. She backed away, frightened, still trying to hold the Impediment charm, but it was crumbling.

****

"Incendio!" Her robe sleeve beneath her wand hand caught fire.

In the space of a breath, Snape spoke again: **"Glacio flagro!" **

Ginny watched in awe as the flames on her robe froze in place and cracked off. She was panting and sweating but Snape had reacted so quickly that the flame didn't burn her. Her robe was ruined though, the entire sleeve burnt off.

"Return to your seat, Miss Weasley. Can anyone tell me what she did wrong?" Snape asked.

__

"She didn't quench the fire when the block failed," said Tom. "Honestly, Ginny—"

"She used the Impediment charm too quickly," said Pansy. "She should have just blocked the first spell—saved her strength."

Ginny realized that the Quick Quote's Quill wasn't getting everything, because it was just recording Snape and this class always seemed to be so interactive-- She re-set it to record all of the words of all of the people as if it was recording a play.

"And **Impedimenta** wasn't strong enough to hold **Protego**," said Lauren . "She should have used a shield charm instead."

"Shield charm?" said Ginny, looking up from the Quick Quotes Quill. "We didn't learn that."

__

It's **Contegere," **_said Tom_

Ginny froze, trying to listen to both Snape and the strange voice in her head. That thought came from somewhere other than her own imagination. She didn't know that spell. 

"Dumbledore used it on Grindelwald," said Snape. "Didn't you look at the pictures on the first day of Defense? In fact, now that I think about it, I believe you missed that question on that test too. Don't miss it again, Miss Weasley."

"Yes, sir." She frowned. Maybe her subconscious remembered more about Dumbledore's fight than she thought. Yes, that was it.

__

No, your subconscious didn't remember anything, Ginny Love. I just told you it's **Contegere. Testudo** if your shielding something nasty, it doesn't shield an unforgivable, but it's about the strongest shield you can summon. I doubt you would be able to do that one unless you practiced a bit though.

"Tom?" Ginny thought. "Did you just help me?"

__

It does seem that way, doesn't it Ginny, Love?

"Nott!" said Snape as he came back from escorting Crabbe to the hospital wing. "You're next."

Alvin Nott licked his lips and glanced at Lauren who was still waiting her turn. She gave him a quick wink, and he turned back to Snape. Suddenly, Ginny was inordinantly pleased to be finished with her 'test' and was able to critique the others. Snape moved relatively quickly through the rest of the class. Ginny was dazzled by the speed at which Lauren blocked and Draco was just as fast, but his blocks tended to be stronger. 

"Don't show off," warned Snape. "Everyone gets tired. Always use the least amount of energy possible, even if you think you don't need to."

"Yes sir."

Once Snape was finished with the tests, he separated them into several groups. "Now, the real tests begin," said Snape. He spoke quietly to some of the Slytherins coming outside with him. After a while he left Ginny and a few of the Slytherins inside. "I want you to continue to practice wandless magic inside," he said. "And you can continue to practice blocks. Miss Weasley, you need to be faster." He moved a few feet away from Ginny and said something softly to Pansy and Lauren and was headed to Millicent presumably to enervate her, when she suddenly surged to her feet, holding her left arm. "Yes, Master!" she shouted. "I promise you the veela bitches will die!"

"Shit," spat Snape and spinning, he turned his wand on Ginny. "**Obliviate**," he said.

"Practice well. I'm counting on you," said Snape to Pansy and then he and the others left to practice outside. 

A few minutes after he left, Ginny remembered that Snape had stunned Millicent during her test. She was still lying on the floor, wasn't she? But when Ginny turned to look, Millicent was gone.

"Where's Millie?" said Ginny.

"Outside with the others," said Lauren. "Let's just practice one block at a time, OK. That way we can concentrate on speed."

Tom, Ginny thought, Are you really there?

__

Yes.

Did you see Millie enervated?

__

"No, there's a blank spot," said Tom. "As if I haven't had enough of these damned memory charms—" 

"OK, who's sending and who's blocking," asked Pansy, rolling her wand in her hand.

"I'll send," said Lauren.

"Let Ginny send," said Pansy "I need to warm up to you, Lauren."

"Where's Millie?" Ginny asked again.

__

"Ginny, Tom interrrupted. "I've had fifty years to get familiar with memory charms. I'm pretty sure you were obliviated. The question is, how much and why?."

"I didn't see her get up," said Ginny. "I didn't see Snape enervate her. What's going on?"

"Oh well," said Pansy. "You just weren't paying attention. Not that anyone pays much attention to Millie—" Pansy laughed, but there was a fakeness about the laughter.

Lauren had pulled her wand. "Are you ready to begin?" she asked.

"But I—"

__

Leave it, said Tom. You can find out why when you read what the Quick Quotes Quill has written. If you argue with them, they will just obliviate you again, and either could take you down. You are much too slow, Ginny Love. We'll have to practice."

"How kind of you," thought Ginny.

__

"Kindness has nothing to do with it. I just don't want you getting this body killed—or obliviated by an inept child."

"Ginny?" said Lauren. "Are you ready?"

"Ok," said Ginny. "What spell do you want me to use? First level through fourth?"

"No," said Lauren. "One level at a time. Just first, as fast as you can throw them." 

"Ok," said Ginny, her mind barely concentrating on the first level spells she was casting. 

"This is useless," said Lauren. "Join her Pansy, and then we'll switch." 

Pansy joined Ginny in throwing first level spells at Lauren so she could practice her speed. Pansy threw a third level spell and Lauren had to change her blocking charm.

"Cheater," spat Lauren, but she didn't miss the block.

After a while, Lauren called stop. "Your turn Ginny." Ginny couldn't keep up with Lauren, so Pansy just sat and watched for a while. Ginny didn't feel too badly, because Pansy couldn't keep up with Lauren either. Ginny decided to head over to the table to see what the Quick Quotes Quill had written. She stopped the quill and picked up the parchment, but Snape took just that moment to come back with the other Slytherins.

"Well, Harry Potter's duel with the Dark Lord couldn't have been any better," said Draco as he swaggered into the room.

"You really were magnificent," Millie agreed. "Even the Dark Lord must have been impressed."

Ginny turned, and felt the rush of a spell. Analyzing instantly, _first level_ she thought, and blocked, turning to see Pansy with her wand outstretched, but she didn't see Lauren. 

Ginny's face was a mask of surprise as she crumpled, hit by Lauren's stunning spell. "What are we going to do with her now?" asked Pansy, but Lauren wasn't listening.

"How could you be so careless?" spat Lauren, now eye to eye with Draco. Their identical white-blond hair flying loose and free. Gray eyes meeting blue ones, both spitting fire. "And you!" she turned on Millicent. "How do you survive with such an empty head?"

"Don't ever tell me what to do," snapped Draco, pulling his wand. "Weasel shouldn't be here in the first place."

"Mr. Malfoy," said Snape. "That is not for you to determine."

Lauren smirked at Draco, who reluctantly put his wand away.

"What if she's the prophecy child?" said Ethan.

"She's not," said Draco. "Looking at Ethan in disgust."

"Did anyone **obliviate** her?" asked Snape. When all said no, Snape performed the spell. Snape looked around him. "Edward," he said. "Take her to the hospital wing."

"Yes, sir. One brave Gryffindor coming to the rescue."

"Tell Madam Pomfrey that Miss Avery got a little carried away with her stunning spell."

"Miss Avery," Snape continued. "You could have lightened up on that stunning charm. Your target was an inexperienced girl, not an elephant or a powerful wizard. You knew she didn't know how to cast the shield charm so you didn't have to penetrate a strong boundary."

Draco sniggered, and Lauren glared at him.

"And the rest of you," Snape paused, checking the time. "Damn it, you're late for tranfiguration again. Get out of here!"

==

Ginny awoke in the hospital wing, Edward was by her side. She blinked at him and began to sit up, but Madam Pomfrey warned against moving too fast.

"Multiple stunning charms. Damned Slytherins," spat Edward. "Opps, Sorry Madam Pomfrey," he apologized.

"But why?" asked Ginny. "Lauren was so nice--"

"Well, she said, she forgot that you didn't know the shield charm."

"Then it was an accident," said Ginny.

Edward shrugged.

"Lie still," said Madam Pomfrey. "I'd expect you will feel a little dizzy for a while. Now that you're awake, you can drink a potion to alleviate the effects. I'll get it for you. Thank you for bringing her to me, Edward. You should go back to class, now" Madam Pomfrey said as she went to get the potion.

"Thanks Edward," said Ginny.

He grasped both of her hands, his eyes positively murderous. You can't believe what I felt when I saw you lying on the floor and Pansy and Lauren standing over you—"

"I'm OK. Really. I'll see you back in Gryffindor in awhile."

"Right," Edward said, reluctantly leaving her.

Ginny sat up in bed, and the room swam.

"Lie still. Lie still," warned Madam Pomfrey. "Here's your potion. Ten minutes of lying still, and you should be fine. You shouldn't even miss all of your next class. You'll be able to get your notes."

"Notes!" said Ginny, trying to sit up again, but Madam Pomfrey was adamant.

"Lie still, or you're just going to get a headache and be here longer," she said. "Your bag is right here. Edward brought it with you. If you left anything in Professor Snape's class, I'm sure you can get it later."

"OK," said Ginny leaning back on the pillow. "If she had her bag, she should have the Quick Quotes Quill notes. She had put it all away—No—She frowned. She couldn't have put it away. If she was stunned, they were still practicing and the quill should have been still writing. Why couldn't she remember what she did?

She was getting a headache. She leaned back on the pillow and tried to be still and wait, but every part of her was itching to get her hands on her bag and see if the Quick Quotes Quill and the notes were indeed in her bag or if she had left them in Snape's dungeon—

==

Madam Pomfrey was gently shaking her shoulder. "Wake up, dear. It's almost lunch time. I thought you'd want to change your robe before afternoon classes. It's all wrinkled, and it looks like you burned off the sleeve--"

Ginny blinked at Madam Pomfrey, and rubbed her face. It took her a moment to remember why she was in the infirmary. She had been sleeping so soundly.

__

"Headache," shouted Tom in her head. "Tell her you have a headache."

Ginny gasped in surprise.

"What is it, dear?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

__

"Headache," repeated Tom. "You do want to look at your Quick Quotes Quill notes now, don't you?"

"Headache," said Ginny.

"I was afraid of that," said Madam Pomfrey. "All that moving around you were doing, and the way you were sleeping so soundly. OK. The best thing for you to do now is go back to your room and sleep off the effects of the stunning charm. You should be fine in a couple of hours. I'll have the house elves pop some lunch up to you."

"Thanks," said Ginny, reaching for her bag and heading for her room. When she got there, Tom began ordering her around.

__

"Set up a privacy shield before you open the notes," he said.

"No," said Ginny. "I'm waiting for lunch. You still can't make me do anything." 

__

"But you told Madam Pomfrey you had a headache—"

"Because I wanted to," said Ginny. "Not because you told me to." She washed her face, set a warming charm and pulled the notes from her bag, when a house elf laden with a tray, popped in. 

"Winky is remembering Miss Ginny likes fruit," said Winky. "And hot chocolate—like my master—"

"Thanks, Winky," said Ginny. Taking a sip of the hot chocolate.

"Winky is honored, Miss Ginny knows Winky's name. Master Edward, says that Miss Ginny is very, very special and must take good care."

"Does he?" said Ginny smiling.

"Master Edward tells Winky, and Winky is a good house elf. Winky remembers her place not like some other house elves. Her place is to serve her master. Master Edward explains."

"Oh, I think Edward just wanted you to be his own personal house elf here at Hogwarts," said Ginny laughing.

"Oh no," said Winky. "Winky is not Master Edward's house elf. Winky belongs to the master's master now. Winky understands why she must serve at Hogwarts."

"I'm glad you're happy at Hogwarts now," said Ginny with a yawn.

"Winky is talking too much. Miss Ginny needs to rest." With a pop, Winky was gone.

Ginny opened her bag and pulled out her notes. She opened it to the page where the Quick Quotes Quill had written. She saw the words, she had dictated: Professor Snape, AVADA, Friday, October 6, 1995. She gasped. AVADA! It should say ADADA! Then she realized that the ink had just skipped a little at the top of the first D. It was just an accident.

"Tom?" she whispered, but he didn't answer, and she began to doubt her sanity again. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. Had she really talked to him earlier today, or was it all her imagination? Perhaps it was the effect of the stunning spell that Lauren and Pansy did on her? 

Her eyes began scanning the page of notes in front of her. 

Snape's words were first: "Did you think, Miss Weasley, that whatever monster you happen to be fighting when you need this Defense class is just going to hand you a parchment and say write down your answers? I've never met one that said if you get enough answers right, I'll let you live." 

She skipped over her test and read further down the page, where she had adjusted the Quill to write the words of all of the speakers instead of just Snape's words. She read through the others' tests until it was time for the class to split, some going outside to practice and others staying inside—

Amazingly, the Quick Quotes Quill picked up the whispered voice of Snape as easily as it wrote the rest of his words. Ginny could now see what Snape was saying softly to the Slytherins.

"Now, the real tests begin," said Snape. "Remember **_Contegere_**—won't block most upper level spells. I hope you practiced **_Testudo_** -- And for those of you can't do a patronus yet—find someone to work on your happy memories with you. Patron—father—protector. Think of who or what makes you feel safe and protected and you will-- " 

"I've got it now, Professor!" 

Someone interrupted Professor Snape, but the Quill didn't write who spoke. Apparently, she hadn't set that up right. Who had the guts to interrupt Snape? Ginny wondered briefly. And then continued reading, "Show me outside," Snape had said. 

Snape continued. Now Ginny remembered, he was speaking to her and Lauren and Pansy. "I want you to continue to practice wandless magic inside," he said. "And you can continue to practice blocks. Miss Weasley, you need to be faster." 

Again, he was talking softly to Pansy and Lauren.

"Pansy. Lauren. I trust you can baby-sit. If you have any trouble, somnus or stupefy, don't obliviate her. You're both too heavy handed to control it. We want to be sure she has a few brains left. 

"Yes, Master! I promise you the veela bitches will die!"

"Shit **Obliviate**." 

Ginny looked at the two words, side by side on the page. Words that Snape had said. It was Snape who had Obliviated her. –Because she had heard someone talking about--Beauxbatons? Someone who was a Death Eater? Because they were talking to Voldemort? She shivered. Voldemort wasn't there.

Ginny looked back at Snape's previous words, telling Pansy and Lauren to use somnus or stupefy. On her?

Who were they baby-sitting? Her?

Ginny looked at the next words on the page. After Snape's saying "Practice well. I'm counting on you,"

it was all Lauren and Pansy and herself. The others had left.

"Where's Millie?" 

"Outside with the others," 

"Let's just practice one block at a time, OK. That way we can concentrate on speed."

"OK, who's sending and who's blocking," 

"I'll send," 

"Let Ginny send. I need to warm up to you, Lauren."

"Where's Millie?" 

"I didn't see her get up I didn't see Snape enervate her. What's going on?"

And Ginny suddenly remembered Tom telling her that she was obliviated. Did she believe him? Did he even exist? Tom?

He was gone again—as if he had ever really been there--

She scanned through the rest of the page, but although she and Lauren had practiced. There was no sign that either she nor Pansy had stunned her. She remembered taking the spell off of the Quick Quotes Quill after that, and the rest of the class returning –No. She didn't remember them returning. That must have been when she was stunned—so it could have been anybody—but Edward had said it was Pansy and Lauren.

"Why?" Ginny struggled to understand. "Why would they have done that? They had been so nice to her—helping her—But someone had stunned her. She knew what the after effects of the spell felt like. She had definitely been stunned—"

"Tom?" she whispered again, but he still didn't answer.

She leaned her head back against the pillows, and pulled her blanket crookedly around her rather than doing a warming spell. Her notes were strewn about her on the bed and on the lunch tray. She was still tired and the stunning charm made her feel achy. She closed her eyes, just for a minute, but when she opened them again, Hermione and Samara were in the room, having a lively discussion about the best way to do a summoning charm in conjunction with a sorting charm.

For once, they seemed to be in agreement. Ginny sat up. "Did I miss all of my classes today?" Ginny asked sleepily.

"You did," said Hermione. "I have your notes."

"Notes!" Said Ginny, looking around for the Quick Quotes Quill notes. They were gone. The tray was gone and the room tidy. 

"Did either of you tidy the room," Ginny asked frantically. "My Advanced Defense notes were right here." 

Hermione and Samara both shook their heads. "No," said Hermione. "We just got back from class a few minutes ago—I didn't see any parchments."

"Maybe they fell on the floor," suggested Samara, crawling around and helping Ginny look under the bed.

"Well, you can get them from Edward, can't you?" suggested Hermione.

__

"Damn it! Ginny! I told you to put up a privacy ward. Why didn't you listen to me?" He was extremely angry, and Ginny was frightened.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep," Ginny whimpered.

"It's OK, Ginny," said Samara. "None of the teachers were upset that you missed class. Edward told them what happened."

But Ginny didn't even hear Samara. The voice in her head was too loud and too demanding and too angry.

"Stupid, trusting Gryffindor! You didn't mean to fall asleep! Of course you would fall asleep. You were stunned, weren't you? How dumb can you be?" 

She felt a wave of dizziness that she wasn't sure was from the stunning charm, or from something Tom was doing. Panic coursed through her and she felt hot tears well up in her eyes. 

__

"If it was up to me, you wouldn't sleep for days! Do you remember?" he said viscously.

She did remember, when he had taken her over in first year, she was much weaker when she didn't sleep, so he made sure she had nightmares. Some of them were in long deserted corridors of Hogwarts, some were about the Chamber and some were about the muggle orphanage where he grew up. All of them were horrible.

Another wave of dizziness assaulted her, and Ginny was quite sure it was something Tom was doing.

"Stop it," Ginny muttered, covering her face with her hands.

__

"Apparently you still have control over this body, so you'd better listen," he spat. "Someone stole those notes. They came right into your room while you were sleeping and stole them, because they didn't like what they said—**While you were sleeping**!" Tom shouted at her. "They could have done anything to us while you were sleeping! You had NO PROTECTION! Next time I tell you to set a privacy ward, you damned well better do it. So what was in the notes? Did it say—"

Abruptly, Tom's voice stopped.

"Ginny," said Samara, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Are you alright? Your aura looks awful. Like you've been playing a particularly trying game of quit," she joked lightly. 

Ginny burst into tears. 

==

About twenty minutes later, when Ginny had cried herself out, without telling Samara or Hermione anything about why she was crying, Samara backed off of her healing magic, pulled her wand and pronounced "Somnus!"

"What are you doing?" asked Hermione. 

"Several hours in a sleeping ward alleviates the effects of some dark magic, remember?" said Samara.

"I remember," said Hermione. "But I think you should have asked Ginny if she wanted you to do that."

Samara shrugged sheepishly. "I didn't think of that," she said "but I'm going to find out what the hell happened in her Advanced Defense today," Samara turned, heading towards the door. "I'll see you at supper, Hermione. Ginny should be awake by then, too. Hopefully, she'll feel better." Samara frowned at the somewhat pale, but almost normal blue of Ginny's aura, and then hurried out of the dorm and down to the Slytherin Dungeons. 

After several wrong turns, she found her way to the blank wall that was the doorway to Slytherin Common Room. She ran her hands along the wall, calling for someone to let her in, but no one answered. As she continued to run her hands over the entire wall, in case she had mistaken the exact place, she muttered the password from last week in the hopes that it would still work. She wasn't sure it would with the additional wards that were on Slytherin's door, after all Draco had said it would only open for a Slytherin, but it was worth a try, suddenly the piece of the wall disappeared and she was looking into Slytherin Common Room. Maybe it did work, thought Samara and then she saw the black cat leap onto the sofa. 

"Thanks, Millicent," she said, but Millicent, in her cat form, didn't answer. She darted from the room holding what looked suspiciously like a mouse in her mouth. "Yuk," said Samara with a shiver.

"Millicent Bullstrode!" roared an angry Professor Snape, from the corridor. "Drop it! Who is this?"

"Alvin," whispered Millicent. "I didn't hurt him. Look he doesn't have a scratch. His head is a little—um--wet—that's all."

Change him back this instant!"

****

"Crucio!" shouted Alvin, and Millicent's screams filled the Slytherin Common Room. Samara inched towards the door, just as Snape called a halt to the spell. "Try to treat each other with a little respect," he snapped, and then he strode into the Common room, robes billowing. He stopped as he saw Samara standing just inside the door. "Were you with Millicent?" he asked sharply.

"No," Samara answered quickly.

"Good," he said striding past her, and out of the Common Room door as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred. 

A moment later, Alvin Nott started across the Common Room on his way to the boy's dorm, he paused, as he saw Samara, and realized that she probably heard the whole exchange in the corridor. He ran his hand through his sticky, thoroughly wet hair. "I have to take a shower," he said wiping his hand on his already sticky robe. "Cat spit." He took a deep breath. "Normally, I wouldn't—don't—"

"Can't say I blame you," whispered Samara.

Alvin nodded shortly, and then stopped again on the top step. "I think Draco's in his room. I'll tell him you're here."

"Thanks," said Samara, sinking into the ornate green sofa in front of the fire.

When Draco came over to the sofa, Samara lifted her arms up to him. "Just hold me," she said. "And tell me this place isn't as nuts as I think it is."

Draco wrapped his arms around her and laughed. "Alvin told me you witnessed his weekly spat with Millicent."

"She's done that before?" said Samara. 

"Yeah, usually it's Lauren that gets her back though. Millicent never actually bites him, but I can sympathize. It's not pleasant."

"What?" 

"Being turned into an animal. You feel utterly helpless."

"You've been—"

"Don't ask," said Draco.

"OK, on to pleasanter topics," joked Samara, turning her face up to his for a kiss. She let her magic play over him for just a moment, and he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. "So why didn't you beat me at Quit?" Draco asked. 

"I told you," said Samara languidly. "You were hurting. I was hurting. What was the point of that? Anyway, aren't you glad I quit?"

Draco shrugged, running his fingers through her long hair under her wand, and kissing her again. He pulled the wand from her hair and buried his face in the tresses, once again letting his magic flow over her. He kissed her again, and again, and again, each kiss becoming more heated. 

"Draco," whispered Samara backing away and holding out her hand, "I want my wand back."

"Why? I took good care of it when you left it here last time." Said Draco still holding the wand. "I won't let you forget it this time." He began running the tip of her wand over the palm of her hand, allowing his magic to run through it. The combined magic seemed to slither over her skin erotically. "Life, and Fate, and Love," said Draco, naming the lines in her palm as he caressed them with her wand and his magic. 

Samara watched his aura change from its natural swirling red to orange-red. She waited to see if it would go to the rose side of the spectrum, but it didn't. Samara sucked in her breath shivering, and closed her fist around the wand tip. She was quite aware that her own aura had a rosy glow, but his did not. "Stop," she said.

"Why?"

"It's not working," she said, fighting her own turbulent emotions and ignoring the flush, warm on her face. "And I want my wand back."

"Oh, I think it's working fine," said Draco, kissing her again and allowing his magic to flow through the wand in greater intensity, laser sharp and focused. 

She let go of the wand tip, abruptly as she felt an uncomfortable heat, not unlike what she felt from foreign magic when playing 'quit'.

Immediately, Draco, dropped the wand too and covered her with an abundance of his magic. The glow of warmth and well-being flowed through her again. Draco lifted his lips from hers and dug behind the pillows to find her wand. With a flourish, he turned it in his hand and offered it to her, as if he didn't know he had hurt her. 

"Thanks," she said, as she once again put her wand in her hair. Samara expected an apology for his forcing her to let go of the wand, but neither of them spoke of it. Instead, Draco kissed her again, on the lips and then turned the palm of her hand upwards in his own hand, and kissed the red burn marks, his magic soft and comforting. At last, she relaxed enough to reciprocate, and the atmosphere quickly became more intense. 

"Draco," Samara said, pulling away, "We're in the common room." 

"We could go down to my room, but we'd have to throw Ethan out. Then I'd have to set up new wards, he's broken down the last few I put up." Draco sighed. "I have to find some new ones—something different."

"You could always ask Ginny Weasley. I hear, she's the best in Gryffindor at wards.  


Draco snorted. "Oh, I doubt Ginny Weasley can even do a ward." He said. "She obviously didn't know the shield spell today."

"So what happened to her at Advanced Defense today?" asked Samara.

"Nothing much," said Draco. "She didn't shield and Lauren hit her with a particularly strong stunning spell. She should have known how to do a shield charm. You can do it."

"Well, I was doing some extra reading at the library before our dueling class. That's why I know the shield charm. Ginny said the class didn't learn it yet."

Draco shrugged. "All the Slytherins knew it."

"But something is strange about that class," insisted Samara. "Her aura changes—"

"Nothing is strange about it," Draco interrupted, pulling his wand from his pocket and toying with it. "Nothing at all," he repeated, putting his arms around her.

"But—" began Samara, she frowned trying to collect her thoughts. What had she been about to say?

And Draco kissed her softly. "It's not important," he said, his words against her lips. She felt wonderfully light and leaned in to kiss him again, letting her magic flow together with his.

"So tell me," Draco said after a while. "Who taught you to pull from the Elementals, really?"

"It was a book," said Samara. "Really. Who taught you?"

"My Mum," said Draco, but I don't want to talk about her. "I'd rather talk about you. You never told me when you first did magic."

"I _did_ tell you; I don't remember. I've always seen auras. I guess that's a kind of magic. I don't remember breaking any mirrors or anything." She laughed. "Of course, I could have broken out half the windows and mirrors in the house and no one would have noticed, not with my 3 delinquent brothers running around—" 

Draco's aura suddenly flickered wildly, and then darkened. "Then they're—Well they would be—if your parents—What house were your parents in?" His aura was a dark swirling mass of mostly red—dark red.

"Oh they didn't go to Hogwarts." Samara answered quickly, frowning at the condition of his aura.

She reached out her hand, and let her aura blend with his. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on calming thoughts.

"I do understand," Draco countered. "About your brothers."

"I doubt it. Being an only child—"

He pocketed his wand. "Oh, I'm not an--" His lips closed over the slip.

Samara stopped in her tracks and looked at him with fear—she wasn't sure if it was fear of him or for him.

His aura had just done something auras didn't do. It BLINKED. It just suddenly went pitch black and then flickered back on again—brighter—like he was consciously feeding it energy.

Samara was reminded of an electric light bulb experiencing a power failure and then a surge. There was absolutely no mistaking that something had happened. Just like she wouldn't mistake a light bulb going out and then coming back on again with enough power to shatter the bulb. It was not something someone could miss.

"Draco?"

He looked at her blandly. His face betrayed nothing, but his aura was a swirling mess. She had never seen him like this.

"Draco, what happened?"

"I just put my wand away. Maybe I should keep it out. Are you thinking of hexing me?" He took it out and rolled it lightly in his hand.

"No—I mean, what happened to" –She wished she could tell for sure—She decided to take a stab in the dark. "What happened to your—sibling?"

His aura flickered wildly, but his face did not change. "I'm an only child," he said. "You know that. After all, once my parents had me, they didn't have to keep trying for perfection. They're Slytherins. They got it right the first time." He sneered.

"Trust me," Samara whispered. "Tell me."

"There's nothing to tell." Draco's words were accompanied by a push—a magical push—saying: you believe me. I was something so light, so exceedingly gentle that she almost missed what it was—Almost just let the floating sensation take her away. Almost, but not quite. . It was an imperious curse—demanding she believe him.

And she did believe him for just a moment and then anger boiled through her. How dare he—

She whirled around pulling the magic automatically from the Air Elemental around them. "If you are going to do Imperio, then do it," she growled. **"Imperio," **she snapped, holding her hands just inches from his throat. "Put your wand away, Draco," she spat.

He complied. His lips were pursed. His eyes blank.

How dare he use **Imperio** on her! However slight. How many times had he passed that off as simple charisma? 

"Tell me your favorite teacher is McGonagall," she said sarcasm dripping from her voice.

Something flickered in his eyes, but his aura didn't change.

"My favorite teacher is Professor McGonagall," he said seriously.

"And how many times have you used **imperio **on me?"

"Five."

"Five?" She was absolutely livid. "Five times! When?"

"When we first met. I needed to get you off of my broom and you didn't seem in a hurry to leave me." His eyes glinted with the memory and Samara wondered how he managed to look sexy in the midst of imperio.

"Go on," said Samara, cooly.

"When I wanted you to leave the hospital wing." Said Draco.

"After I'd cursed you?"

"Yes."

"When I came to apologize?"

"Yes. I didn't want you to see me there."

"That's two," said Samara. "Continue."

"When we sent the owls to the Gryffs. I couldn't skip you, so I needed you to sit at Slytherin."

"To protect me?"

"Yes."

"When else," Samara demanded.

"When you asked about Advanced Defense."

"Just now," confirmed Samara.

"Yes."

What about Advanced Defense? thought Samara. Well, that would wait. "And there was one more time." She said.

"Now, when you asked about my—my—"

Suddenly, Draco was fighting the spell. He didn't want to tell her this.

"Tell me—" urged Samara.

His aura flickered madly again, going from a velvety black to a swirling murky red. His face was ghost white, fighting the spell, she realized, not just a little bit, but with everything he had. "My sister, he began—" Sweat had broken out on his brow and his upper lip.

"Stop." She said, frightened at what she was doing to him. Closing her hands over the curse, she muttered, "**Finite incantem." **She held the excess magic in her hands for a moment, feeling the awesome amount of power she had been using to force him to give up this secret.

Draco shuddered, and with a sob, threw herself into his arms. "I'm sorry." She murmured. "I'm so sorry." She kissed his cheeks and nuzzled his neck, letting the remaining magic in her system flow over him like a light breeze "I'm sorry. Please say you'll forgive me."

She tasted her own salty tears on his skin as she kissed him, again and again. He had not moved, had not put his arms around her. 

"Why should I forgive you?" he said coldly. "They do call it an Unforgivable curse."

"Draco?"

He reached up and took her hands from around his neck. "Just go," he said tiredly.

"Draco. Please."

Draco sucked air in between his teeth like a hiss and spoke from between the gritted teeth. "Just get your sorry little ass out of here before I decide to turn you into a toad." He snapped.

Samara fled.

Samara had traveled for ten minutes in the Slytherin passageways before she realized that she had made a wrong turn. She was lost. She sat down on the floor and began to cry. Indeed, she was lost. This was the second unforgivable curse that she had done, and both wandlessly. Sure, she could blame the first one on Ethan, but this one, was no one's fault but her own. Remnants of the magic remained in her system, making her feel light headed. Carefully, she released. 

Always release the Elemental magic entirely. She remembered the quote from her book, and she released again, thinking how forlorn she felt, releasing this magic on the cold stone floor, when she could have been in Draco's arms, sharing it with him. Even as she said it, she remembered the feel of his magic, kissing her, and then that same magic, fighting her imperio, and losing. She had bent him to her will. Not once, but twice. The thought gave her a heady feeling of exultation. She had felt him falter in the game of quit. She could have made him quit, or driven him to unconsciousness—if she really wanted to—She was certain of it—Well, almost certain--She loved the feel of the magic—the power---Abruptly, without even thinking, she pulled from the Air Elemental, and she felt the dizzying euphoria of it. It was flying. It was exactly like flying. She released slowly, imagining herself flying in that air. It helped to alleviate the emptiness caused by Draco's rejection of her apology. 

But perhaps, she thought, she hadn't really been that much in control of Draco. He had imperioed her not once but five times. He did it! Why was he so mad at her? He had to be able to fight off her imperio. He was a strong wizard. Perhaps he just didn't want to hurt her. Yes, That was it. And she hadn't really hurt him with the imperio. She had stopped the spell—so why was he so mad at her? She had stopped before he told her—what?

She stood perplexed, letting the magic float languidly from her fingertips, back to the Air Elemental. Once it was gone, she felt sad and empty again. She raised her hands and spread her fingers, thinking this would be so much better outside in the cold breeze. It would be so much better with someone to share it with. She pulled long and hard from the Air Elemental, letting it fill her, forcing it to fill her, her arms shaking with the exertion and her fingers tingling. She didn't want to release. She didn't want to feel the emptiness again. She pulled a little more, tears coming to her eyes, and her breath in short gasps. There was no room in her being for the ordinary air in her lungs. She blew it out, still holding the magic in the rest of her body, and slowly she sucked air into her lungs from the Air Elemental, filling herself entirely with magic. When she could cling to the magic no longer, she blew it out abruptly releasing from lungs and skin simultaneously, filling the deserted dungeon corridor with a wild wind. 

Then she started to walk. She had no idea if she was going the right way or not. She felt the little breeze in her hair. She hadn't released completely. She didn't care. She couldn't feel that emptiness. Not now. Not tonight. Next time, she would release completely. 

Samara found herself in a familiar corridor. She was only steps from the Hufflepuff Common Room. She began to run, reaching the solid suit of armor that guarded the door in time to steady it from the wind she brought with her. She paused. "Friday," she whispered and the door opened to her. Inside of the Hufflepuff Common Room, a majority of the students were eating pumpkin pie and drinking hot apple cider. Samara looked around for a familiar face. 

Susan Bones, came up to her. "Samara? What are you doing here? We're only supposed to have visitors from the other houses on the weekends."

"I wanted to see Sally Anne," blurted Samara, tears streaming. "Draco and I had—a fight."

Susan just looked at her. "Your hair is blowing," she said softly.

Hannah Abbot came up behind her. Sally Anne is in the Infirmary," said Hannah.

"Is she hurt?" Samara asked, concerned.

"No. It's her father."

"Father? But he's a muggle," said Samara, sniffling and wiping her eyes.

"This morning he drove his truck off of a bridge. Because of the owl Sally Anne got, the aurors were watching him. Dumbledore asked that he be brought here."

"Off a bridge?" Samara repeated stunned. "Is he—alright?"

"He's still unconscious. If he went to a muggle hospital, he would be dead, but Madam Pomfrey hopes she can help him," said Hannah.

"And if he awakens, Dumbledore wants to try to determine whose imperio forced him to drive the truck off of the bridge," added Susan.

"Imperio?" whispered Samara.

"It's a curse," Hannah Abbot explained. "An unforgivable curse—" 

"Yeah. I know," said Samara, abruptly releasing the rest of the Elemental magic and letting the emptiness take root inside of her. 

==

Next Chapter: More Ginny /Tom and some Ginny/Harry. Ohmygosh! Did I create a love triangle? No. Sorry. Not really Romance. The next Quiddich game and a brand new Weasley twin treat and lots of dark stuff starting.

Coming soon: An ADADA Field Trip, Draco's Sister, and more trips to the Chamber.

****

THANKS TO MY FAITHFUL REVIEWERS:

Ilwinterhofal Draco in the Chamber? Not exactly—but there are all those Slytherin passageways.

Kate Lynn Gosh, it's good to see you're back. Glad you think I've kept the minor characters in canon. I try, but I had a lot of this done before OOTP, which really made me have to re-think some things, so some of them might have slipped a little if you read OOTP, and of course Sirius is—well, the old Sirius.

If you like dark stuff—I know you do—Get ready, cause here it comes! I was so mired down in the middle of the next 5 chapters I had to write 'Twas the Order of the Phoenix (Parody poem) just to cheer myself up.

****

Trillium

Hey thinks for the name of the poem. Yes, I did read it in school and it does fit somehow. I think Ravenclaws who believe nothing should ever be sensored can get themselves in too deep sometimes.

****

Raven173 Padma evil? Nah. She's just a little haughty. And generation wise, it might not be Padma's father, It could be her Uncle or her grandfather or her Great Uncle. Sure we will find out eventually—maybe in the sequel.

Eizoku Grrrr Brothers. Polyjuice was fun, but as you can see, the time for fun and games is over.

ennui2 Yes, well he had reason to pout, I suppose. Yes they are making some assumptions. They are trying to figure out Parvati's dream, but that doesn't mean they are right. Remember, Ginny decided that they weren't going about it right and left to sit with Hermione.

With the Volde induced headache, I wanted the reader to realize that Harry has had this headache pretty much through the whole book but hasn't complained about it—remember I hadn't read OOTP, so this isn't really canon, but it will have to do Glad you liked the Polyjuice switch. I wanted to set up a few things for later, but it was pretty rough making it clear who was who. I hope it worked.

Kemenran

Thank you

Silverfox1

OK here's the Quick Quotes Quill in ADADA. Wait till you see the next ADADA class though. More Beabunny coming.

Eizoku

Thanks for your comments about the Chamber. More Chamber coming. Lots more chamber.

Melbell

More Chamber is coming. Lots more. Also, Samara is going to be in-depth into aura as in—what is Ginny doing with hers?

SORRY FOR THE SHORT COMMENTS TO YOU REVIEWERS, BUT I HOPE I ANSWERED ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS. IT'S LATE AND I WANTED TO GET THIS UP TO YOU TONIGHT BECAUSE I WON'T BE ABLE TO TOMORROW.

****

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. 10 REVIEWS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER.

==


	44. CH 43: Pervigilo Armaro!

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

__

Pervigilo Armaro!

Chapter 42

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with--Be warned, the upcoming chapters are the reason this fic is rated PG-13. 

**__**

Pervigilo Armaro!

Chapter 42

**__**

Fred and George were passing out free candy in the Gryffindor Common Room. "It's a great deal," said Fred. "Buy one, get two free."

"Next week they are going back to their original price. You'll want to get them now before the other houses get theirs." Said George.

"And it will give you something to do during the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw game," said Fred.

"They look suspiciously like Canary Creams," said Harry as he examined them.

"Go ahead, you can have one free," said George. "After all, you've been a great help to us, so help yourself, Harry."

Ron reached for one, and George slapped his hand.

"You on the other hand, little brother, have to pay for yours." Said Fred.

"That's not fair. I'm family."

"And I've been your friend longer than Harry," said Angelina. "I should get one free too."

"What do you mean?" said Fred. "We have to sell these to our friends."

"Yeah, our enemies aren't buying any," said George.

"Actually, Harry paid in advance," said Fred, winking at Harry.

"You did?" said Ron. "When."

Harry shrugged and popped the candy into his mouth. He immediately turned into a fluffy black puppy. He yapped twice at Ron and then rolled on the floor leaving fur on the carpet. About that time, a group of Seventh year girls came into the common room and began petting him and cooing—"Whose puppy?" 

"No one's exactly," said Hermione, while the Weasley twins howled with laughter. 

Within a few minutes, the 'puppy' began shedding profusely, turning back into Harry Potter.

"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed one of the girls, covering her face in embarrassment, as the transformation took place.

"Puppy Puffs," said Harry laughing as he picked himself up off of the floor.

"Oh, you were so cute, Harry," cooed Hermione.

The twins had an immediate clientele. Boys and girls alike queuing up to buy the Puppy Puffs.

Beatrice shivered. "I don't like dogs," she said.

"They're just puppies," said Hermione, "not big dogs."

"You just keep reminding me not to turn into a bunny, or I might spend all of this week running from those flea carriers."

"Hey Edward," called Ginny.

Edward looked up from the schoolwork that he had spread out in front of him on the table.

"Give it a break, Edward. Come and watch the game with us," said Samara.

"I have to go to the library," said Edward. "I have a lot of work to do, and it's going to rain anyway."

"Come on," Ginny coaxed, closing his books. "Even Hermione's coming—"

"No. I really can't." he said crossly, taking his book back from her.

"Fine," snapped Ginny. "Go to the library." She turned to walk out of the Gryffindor Common Room, Samara, Beatrice and the trio in her wake.

"Well, it's not like he'll be missing much," said Ron. "Hufflepuff usually gets slaughtered. If they were playing Slytherin we might get to see someone pushed off of their brooms, but Ravenclaw—"

"Ron!" said Hermione horrified. 

"I don't know," said Samara. "I've been working with Sally Anne and the Air Elemental. She's a good flier. She may surprise Cho and catch the snitch first."

"Samara!" said Ginny. "That Air Elemental stuff you've been talking about is Gryffindor's secret. You aren't supposed to tell it to the Hufflepuffs."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Ginny," said Harry. "Hufflepuff isn't going to beat us. If Sally Anne beats Cho to the snitch, it will just be because of the element of surprise."

"Anyone have a preference of where we sit?" asked Samara heading toward a primarily Hufflepuff section."

The boys shrugged and Hermione said, "I don't care."

The group found seats together and settled down to watch the match. 

Someone several seats away from them turned into a puppy and scampered over them to one of the Hufflepuffs behind them. "Oh! How cute!" the girl gushed until the puppy turned into a boy and the bevy of giggling girls behind them drowned out the announcement that the game was beginning.

True to Ron's prediction. Ravenclaw immediately was in the lead by ten points when Ming Chang scored. About half an hour later, Ravenclaw scored again, making the score twenty to nothing. 

Several more puppies crawled over them, under them and around them, making Beatrice extremely nervous. The Hufflepuff's behind them seemed to be much more interested in the puppies than the game. Cooing and giggling over the puppies until an entire group of boys had joined them and they were all talking and joking excitedly.

"I think I'm going to go back to the room," said Beatrice nervously eyeing the crowd of children and puppies..

"Oh, stay," Samara begged. "They aren't going to hurt you. Just don't turn into a bunny."

__

Amidst the giggling and laughing, Ginny heard the voice, calling in her mind. **"Come to me."**

She froze, terrified—it was just a Memory—wasn't it?

Images of the Chamber assaulted her.

"Tom?" thought Ginny, but Tom didn't answer. She hated when he decided to be secretive.

Ginny tried to put her attention back on the game. This voice was her imagination, replaying the past. Even though she seemed to be able to talk to Tom, yesterday; today, he had disappeared again. It had to be her imagination, didn't it?

__

"I didn't put up these walls, Ginny Love. That was those learned medi-witches at St. Mongo's. If you could remember what really happened in the Chamber--"

"Tom?"

__

"Who else?"

"Sarcasm isn't helping, Tom. Are you talking to me, or is this a memory?"

Ron looked at her puzzled. "Ginny?"

"It's nothing," said Ginny.

__

"I'm nothing, now, am I?" spat Tom.

"Quit it, Tom. You're confusing me."

__

"Doesn't take much, does it, Ginny?"

**__**

"Come to me, Virginia."

Ginny shivered.

Twice, Madam Hooch had to restart the Quaffle when it was dropped by the Hufflepuff chasers and no Ravenclaw players were close enough to pick it off. The only excitement happened when one of the Hufflepuff beaters whacked the bludger into the stands and it hit one of the Slytherin spectators. Laughing and cheering Ron said, "I don't think their beaters ever hit a Slytherin before—"

"Too bad it wasn't during a game," Harry laughed. "I mean—a player—during a game—You know what I mean--" He slapped Ron on the back in comradery.

The booing and jeering coming from the handful of Slytherin's in the stands, seemed to throw the Hufflepuff's off of their game even more. Their keeper missed two easy saves making the score forty to nothing. 

"If this game doesn't pick up," said Harry with a yawn, "I'm going to fall asleep."

"That's not because of the boring game," said Ron, "That's because we can't sleep in our room at night." Lacing his arms around Hermione, who already looked like she was asleep, Ron leaned against the side of the seat and closed his eyes. He immediately opened them again. "Did I feel a rain drop?" he asked.

"I think so," said Hermione proving that she wasn't asleep after all. 

"Definitely," agreed Beatrice.

"Beatrice," admonished Samara. "We have friends who are Hufflepuffs. We should stay and show our support, but Beatrice was gathering her cloak around her, shivering, as the drizzling rain increased. Ron and Hermione were already half way out of the stands, their arms wrapped around each other.

"I don't like being wet and cold and surrounded by dogs," Beatrice said pulling her hood up. "I'm going in."

The little Slytherin section had already cleared out and even many of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were leaving. Glancing around, Ginny saw only a few other Gryffindors—her twin brothers—peddling their Puppy Puffs—Neville, Lou and Joe and a handful of others. More and more seats were emptying out, the combination of the chilly drizzling rain and the boring game causing them to leave. 

"I'm staying," said Samara stubbornly. **"Impervious!"** she pronounced the spell to keep water off of her cloak. "When you have friends who are playing you should have a little loyalty to them, don't you think, Ginny? 

"I guess," said Ginny.

**__**

"Come to me, Virginia."

Ginny stood and looked after Ron, Hermione and Beatrice, just as Ming lobbed another quaffle through the hoop.

"You said you were staying," complained Samara. "Sit down, Ginny. The people behind you can't see."

"I don't think they're watching anyway," commented Harry, glancing back at the little group of Hufflepuffs, now happily paired off and not a dog among them. "You know, Samara, you're right about Sally Anne. She's flying a lot better than she used to—"

"I told you," said Samara, and she launched into another explanation about the Air Elemental. Ginny tuned her out, listening to the voice within her. It was touching some deep cord within her, drawing her to the Chamber. She needed to be there. He was calling her. She stood again, and this time Samara couldn't get her to sit back down. 

"I have to go," she insisted.

"We might as well go too," said Harry standing. "There's no way, Hufflepuff is going to pull this out, Samara. Ravenclaw just scored again."

"What's the score?" asked Samara. 

"Sixty to nothing," said Harry.

With a sigh, Samara stood and she and Harry hurried to catch up with Ginny.

Once they got into the castle, Samara stopped, confused. "Where's Ginny going?" she wondered aloud.

She and Harry looked at each other, puzzled. Ginny was not heading toward Gryffindor Tower or the dorm. She walked across the antechamber and up the stairs to the second floor. She was muttering to herself..

"Let's go," said Harry, pulling his wand and sprinting after her.

"Tom! Tom!" Ginny whispered. "Please talk to me. Tom, tell me what happened that day when you were sorted. I need to know if this was you, or was Salazar really there? Tom! Answer me!"

But Tom didn't answer. The other voice spoke, calling her--demanding that she come. That wasn't Tom, was it? 

**__**

"Come to me, Virginia."

"There really was a Dark Wizard, wasn't there, Tom?" 

__

"Oh, Ginny Love."

"What happened, Tom? What happened when they put the Sorting Hat on your head? Tell me. Please, tell me."

__

"Where are you?"

"I don't know—How did I get here? Tom! I'm outside of Myrtle's bathroom! I don't know how I got here!"

__

"Go back to your room. Put up the privacy shield and then I'll tell you-as much as the St. Mongo's medi-wizards let us remember."

"Her aura," said Samara. "It's wrong—swirling—"

"Ginny!" Harry put his wand in his pocket, grasped her by her shoulders and shook her. "Ginny! What are you doing?"

A sob caught in her throat and Harry pulled her close, wrapping his arms and his aura around her.

"That's it Harry," said Samara as she watched him shift his aura into healing green. She hesitated a moment, hand outstretched to help, but Ginny's aura began to settle into her normal blue, and Harry's—Harry's began to fade from green to rose—making Samara feel uncertain of what to do.

__

"Ah, Ginny Love, just where you've always wanted to be. In Harry Potter's arms." 

"Go away, Tom."

"Just when I thought you wanted to talk to me and now you want me to go away. Fickle women. Just between you and me, Ginny Love, it shouldn't take much. He's already pretty hot and bothered."

Ginny felt a hot blush cover her, and she tried to shift away from Harry.

Tom was terribly amused by the predicament. Ginny tried to ignore him.

Samara backed away, but the corridor was a dead end—a dark and macabre dead end—where letters of a message still shone faintly after repeated scrubbings that had worn the stone away. The message, in three lines, one under the other, read: 

__

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. 

Enemies of the Heir Beware. 

Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.

==

When they got back to the Gryffindor Common Room, it looked like a party was going on. Fred and George had passed out Puppy Puffs to many of the people and pandemonium ruled. 

"Isn't it great," said Fred, exclaiming over the number of couples that had found their way together at the Quiddich game.

"I think Puppy Puffs will be our best seller ever," said George. 

"The game's over then?" asked Samara. "Ravenclaw won?"

"No." said George. "Hufflepuff. Their little seeker caught the snitch. The score was 150 to 70."

"I have to go over to Hufflepuff," said Samara. "Hey Beatrice, are you coming with me?"

"Sure, as long as you're not going to Slytherin," said Beatrice.

==

Puppy puffs were still the prime topic of conversation as the week wore on. By Thursday, more couples could be attributed to Puppy Puffs than to Lockhart's Valentines. Of course more homework and detentions seemed to be attributed to them too.

Filch wanted Dumbledore to abolish them, because several puppies had thought it was funny to make a mess for him to clean up, and then top off the event by chasing Mrs. Norris.

McGonagall was continually complaining about dog hairs on the furniture in Gryffindor Tower, and Snape, who was cleaning his shoes when they came into defense class on Thursday, was in a towering rage.

"If I see one puppy," he said between gritted teeth. "I promise you, I will strangle it. I don't care if it's a student or not. Do I make myself clear?"

"The Gryffindors nodded, whispering, "Yes," in very subdued tones.

Professors Sprout, Flitwick and Dumbledore seemed to like the whole idea of Puppy Puffs and said they promoted inter-house relationships. Well they did do that.

==

"Hey Edward," called Ginny. "Why don't you take some Puppy Puffs over to Slytherin."

"I'm working," he said, irritably crumpling the parchment he was working on, and flinging it into the air. **"Incendio!"** he said.

"Yeah," said Ron. "Last chance to see any of that group as cute and cuddly."

Harry and Hermione burst out laughing,

Ginny bought one, popped it into her mouth and romped over to where Edward was working, just as he tossed another parchment into the air and incendioed it.

"Damn it, Ginny, Be careful," said Edward, as he snatched her out of the way of the spell, and onto his lap. The little rusty ball of fur began copiously licking his face. "Oh—" he exclaimed pushing the excited puppy away.

"Don't worry about it, Edward," teased Ron, laughing hysterically. "I'll bet she's gotten a little spit on you before—"

Hermione blushed, and covered Ron's mouth with her hand. "Don't you say another word," she warned.

"Not a word. Homework."

"Do you want to start with Charms or Defense?" Ron asked, a huge grin on his face. 

"What are you working on, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Defense," he said.

Ginny had turned back into a girl and was sitting on Edward's lap, obviously keeping him from doing whatever work he had in mind. "What are you doing, anyway, Edward?" asked Ginny.

"Writing—" he said softly. "Something--Forget it**. Incendio!**" He hugged Ginny to him for a moment and then asked if she had any more homework to do."

"No," she said. "All done except for practicing Advanced Defense, and perhaps reviewing my charms for our test tomorrow. I need you to help me with ADADA though. If we have to play Search and Curse without wands, I'm sunk."

"All right," said Edward. "I still have transfiguration, but it isn't due until next week. I guess we can work on Advanced Defense. Do you want to go over to Slytherin and work with Pansy and Lauren too?"

"Maybe," said Ginny.

==

Once they were in Slytherin common room, Ginny told Pansy Lauren and Edward that the only spell she had done was **wingardium leviosa** with Snape. "Snape told me not to do any spells without supervision."

"So, we're supervising," said Lauren.

"Do something you're good at. Something that you can do without thinking too hard about it," suggested Pansy. "That way you can keep your attention on the Elemental."

"OK," said Ginny thoughtfully. 

"How about a ward?" suggested Edward. "You did pretty well with that the other night in Ethan's room."

"I could do that," said Ginny, clearing her companions off of the sofa. "Now, since I'm not using a wand, what about the swishes and flicks," asked Ginny. 

"Intent," Lauren reminded her. "Do the **wingardium leviosa** first," she suggested, tossing a piece of parchment to Ginny.

Ginny raised her hand smoothly as she said "**wingardium leviosa**," and then just held her hand still, where she wanted the parchment to be.

She let the parchment sink to the floor. 

"I'm ready," she said, sitting crossed legged in the middle of the sofa, she began to imagine the lines she would draw with her wand: the diamond of protection. She drew the baseline of the diamond with her fingertips, holding the Intent of asking for protection from dangers outside of the ward. Lauren was saying something to her, but she didn't want to listen; she was trying to concentrate on the spell. 

She knew what she was doing. She began with the Northern corner **Arcti Amara**. Almost immediately, she felt the buzzing like bees in her ears. She proceeded to the East and thought of the morning. **Eurues Armara**. The buzzing increased. Then to the South, and mid-day, **Meridies Armara**, She hesitated a moment, shivering as if all of the hairs on her body where standing on end. She felt uncertain. The magic was scaring her a little, pulsing and strong, but she wanted to finish this spell. The Slytherins would laugh at her if she stopped because she was scared. She could imagine them saying—some brave Gryffindor you are, Weasel! So she continued: to protect in the west and the evening, **Vespertinus Armara**, Again, she hesitated, feeling the awesome power of the Elemental at her command. _Finish it! Urged Tom_, and she drew the last lines with her fingers and held the Intent: through the dark night to provide protection to me, and spoke the last words: **Pervigilo Armaro**"

The spell, burst from her, filling her body with the riotous sounds of bees and the sparkles of magic broke open spilling upon her and the ward. She shuddered with the impact, and instantly had a headache. Release! Release! She told herself. She was probably suffering the magical backlash of not releasing the excess magic fast enough. She shoved the magic from herself hard and fast. The headache didn't go away. If it was just the magic, it should have, shouldn't it? But what else could that explosion of buzzing bees inside of her be? Surely it was just the magic that she did not release.

__

"Well, Bravo, Ginny Love. You finally did it without me."

"Tom?"

__

"Now, who else would be talking in your head, Ginny Love? 

"I did this ward without your help, Tom? Wandlessly?"

"_Oh don't crow, Ginny Love. I used to do it in the orphanage. It's about time you got it. Now, the question is will you remember it. Really, you should do something about those memory lapses. Bothers me, Ginny Love. Doesn't it bother you? Not that you'd bother to answer, would you, you miserable little Gyffindor Bitch. I'm past my three sentence quota—"_

"Three sentences—"

__

"You heard that?" said Tom surprised.

"And don't call me a bitch."

__

"OK, puppy. Don't lick Edward's face anymore. That was positively disgusting, and in the common room—in front of your precious Harry Potter. Have you no shame, woman? I told you before to quit acting like a hussy. Why didn't you listen to me then? It's not like I've never told you—"

"Told me what?"

__

"You are entirely too forward. A lady doesn't act like that—"

Ginny burst into laughter.

__

"And what is so funny?"

"What?" asked Tom.

"Ginny, stop it.

"Ginny, Love?"

"Ginny?"

"AH, this Sucks, she can't hear me again."

"I hear you," said Ginny. She also heard a knock on the outside of the ward. She ignored it.

__

"You do?" Tom's attitude was one of elation. "I was wondering when you were going to get those memory blocks down. I thought I was going to have to contend with them forever. Now, let's see—first—

Ginny felt a sudden tingling all over her body.

Ah-h-**OW!** Tom! What did you just do?

__

Nothing.

Don't tell me 'nothing.' I know you did something.

__

"Just checking out the division of power, now that the memory blocks are gone." 

Several more knocks from the outside broke over the ward, louder than before.

__

"What spell broke the memory charms?" asked Tom.

"I was doing a ward. The one I used to do around my bed all the time You remember."

"_With agony," said Tom. "Gawd, you took forever to learn that spell_."

"I was eleven," said Ginny.

__

"So how old are you now?"

"Fourteen."

"Three years a_nd you've finally broken the memory charms, I guess I should be grateful, If Lucius had given the diary to someone as dumb as Crabbe or Goyle, I would have never gotten out."_

"Out?" 

"Well I guess I can't really call it out, but a little more freedom than I've had for a while. So why all of the sudden, does this ward break the medi-witches' spell?

Ginny hesitated—He said, I would have never gotten out? What did he mean—out?

__

When she didn't answer, he asked again. "What was different?"

Still she hesitated.

__

"Ginny Love, do I sense, fear? You can't possibly still be afraid of me after all this time—And here, I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave--"

I pulled from the Elementals," Said Ginny.

__

"Ah, well, that explains it."

"Are you Tom—or are you Salazar?" asked Ginny softly

__

"What!?" Magic crackled within the ward.

==

"Give her a minute," said Lauren, after the second time she and Edward had knocked. "She'll break the ward herself. She's just playing with us."

"She's a Gryffindor," said Edward dryly. "She wouldn't do that. She's hurt."

"This was really stupid," said Pansy. "Snape's going to kill us—to say nothing of McGonagall and Dumbledore."

"Shut up, Pansy," snapped Edward. 

"Well who realized she was going to do the ward around herself," spat Lauren. "What a moron! How could we supervise?"

"I thought she'd do it around the sofa," said Pansy.

"She's conscious," said Edward staring at Ginny as she shivered and grimaced in pain."

"Can you reach her?" asked Lauren, putting a hand on Edward's arm. Edward shook his head. "I think you're right though, Lauren, she can't reopen it. She had to have heard our knock. Let's try it together."

The combined magic of Edward and Lauren rattled the ward but did not open it. 

She would have heard that," said Lauren

What would she be doing in there?" wondered Pansy.

Did she give any sign that she heard us?" asked Lauren.

"No." said Edward with a sigh. "Pansy, you try with us."

"No! I mean, I'd rather not. I--"

"It's her telepathic gift," said Lauren. "Pansy's very particular who she shares magic with—"

"Well, our magics aren't complementary enough to break it, Lauren" said Edward. "I'm going to go get Ethan."

"No!" said Pansy and Lauren together.

"We need help," said Edward "I told you she could do a phenomenal ward."

"Draco," said Lauren.

"I think he's in the kitchen," said Pansy hesitantly.

A moment later a house elf appeared. "Master Draco said to come here and speak to Miss Pansy," said the house elf. "Do you need help?"

"Hi, Tully, I need Draco's help," said Pansy explaining to the house elf that Ginny was stuck in a ward of her own making and they couldn't get her out.

The house elf nodded and disapparated.

"You amaze me," said Edward. "You're getting really good at the telepathy."

"It wasn't the exactly telepathy," said Pansy. "I can't do it with everyone. It's shared magic—since Draco and I--Lauren can do it with Alvin to a degree—"

"Not like you Pansy," interrupted Lauren.

"You and Ethan can do it." Pansy told Edward. "I've seen you—"

"We're twins. Name me a set of twins that can't communicate with each other—"

I'd imagine you and Ginny—"

"No," said Edward tightly.

Pansy shrugged. "That would be helpful right now. What if Snape decides to visit the common room?"

"Then we're in trouble," said Edward. "It's not like it's the first time."

The door of the Slytherin Common Room dissolved allowing an entrance, and they all froze. Draco strode in. "What's the matter Pansy," he drawled, "your playmates get out of control?"

"We were practicing elemental magic," said Lauren. "This is the first major elemental spell that Ginny has done—"

"She seems to have warded herself in," said Edward.

Draco stood examining the ward. "Well, she must have done a good job, if you can't get it down," laughed Draco. "Why don't you just wait until she comes out. She's probably having a good laugh."

"No," said Edward. "She wouldn't do that, and I'm pretty sure, she had at least a moment of pain."

"Oh, well, by all means, if the Gryffindor had a moment of pain, we'd better get her out," drawled Draco.

"Snape told her not to do any spells," said Pansy. "We—um--convinced her."

"We told her we could supervise," said Lauren.

"Oh. That's different," said Draco, pulling his wand. "Let's do this with wands," said Draco. "We'll have a little more control and Pansy can join us." His eyes were on Edward as he spoke. 

"You're mixing me up with my brother," said Edward. "I have no trouble with control."

"Four people will make it easier to break anyway," said Draco touching the outside of the ward and frowning. "It is a four point ward, isn't it?"

"Eight," corrected Blaise.

"Tell me that four of the points aren't the Elementals," said Draco pulling his hand away and lowering his wand. 

"No," said Edward. "I heard her do this spell. It's direction and times of day."

"Good," said Draco with a sigh of relief. " We can each take a direction. Any preferences?"

"South?" asked Pansy.

Draco nodded.

"Doesn't matter," said Lauren, pushing back her long hair.

"Then let's you and I take opposite sides of the diamond," Draco said to Lauren, since our magics are the most complementary. "The night stars and the North for you and evening and the West for me. That leaves you the East, Edward, OK?" 

"Sure." Edward took out his wand. "Are we using break or shatter?"

"Shatter," suggested Lauren, "since none of us could do it alone."

"On three, then," said Draco. "We'll say the spell simultaneously. One, two, three—"

****

"Arcti Amara Adflictum est," said Lauren.

****

"Eurues Armara. **Adflictum est," **said Edward.

****

"Meridies Armara Adflictum est," said Pansy.

****

"Vespertinus Armara Adflictum est," said Draco.

==

Suddenly, the ward shattered around Ginny. The magic poured back into her, momentarily stunning her with its impact. She blinked awake, her head pounding. A girl was leaning over her. A sheet of white blonde hair like silk brushed her face.

"Carman?" whispered Ginny.

The girl reacted like she was struck, pulling abruptly away.

"Draco, is she ok," asked Pansy.

"More than ok," said Edward smirking

"My head hurts," muttered Ginny.

__

"Well, no shit, Ginny Love, you've just released all of my memories into your mind, if I'm not mistaken—"

"That might be from the magical backlash, when we broke the ward," said the girl with the long blonde hair—not Carmen—Lauren, Ginny realized.

"Sorry Ginny," said Edward. "We weren't sure if you were ok.

"When you didn't break it from the inside, we thought maybe you couldn't," said Pansy. "And then neither Edward nor Lauren could break the ward alone, so we decided we should do it together.

"What they mean to say, Weasel," drawled Draco, "is that they were worried Snape was going to find you trapped, and decide that some Slytherins needed punished. Since no one could break it alone, they had to call me for help. By the way, nice ward, I'd appreciate the binding word."

"**Pervigilo," **replied Ginny immediately.

__

"Ginny!" shouted Tom. "Never, never, never tell the words to your wards. Eventually you'll run out of good combinations, and then the only thing that keeps them from breaking is Intention. Let them work for them on their own. They'll appreciate them more, anyway."

"What am I? the teacher? I don't care," said Ginny aloud, striding toward the door with a whole new gait.

Ginny?" said Edward confused. 

"Come on—" Ginny searched through the myriad of memories for a name—"Edward. I'm starved." She turned and headed out of the common room, Edward following.

Behind them, Lauren, Draco and Pansy, just stared. 

"Did she call you Carman?" Draco whispered.

"Yeah. How could she—"began Lauren.

"Remember that Diary we used to play with when we were kids?" interrupted Draco.

==

Ginny headed momentarily towards the Slytherin table. It was only when Edward took her elbow and steered her around it that she remembered she was sorted into Gryffindor. 

__

"You'll get my memories and yours sorted out, Ginny Love. It took me a while too, but then I've had four years to get used to it."

Ginny sat at the end of the table, with only Edward beside her. She stared at her plate.

__

"Well, if you aren't interested in eating, Ginny Love," said Tom. "I'll make some choices. It's been too long since I made any choices. Strange, isn't it, that something as simple as picking your own food becomes important after four years—well fifty-four years—actually, of being denied simple pleasures such as picking your own food—now if only this new development would allow me to taste it--"

"Ginny!" Samara exclaimed sitting across from her. "You look like the living death. What happened to you?"

"She set a ward using Elemental magic and couldn't get out. We had to break it," said Edward.

"I didn't need help," said Ginny. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," spat Samara. "Your aura is about six shades of blue with about four shades of yellow stirred in—not in layers--and a red haze is over it all—I know you didn't have any childhood trauma before, so what the hell is that red haze for—Oh and I forgot, there's the shimmering from elemental magic, but I've never seen anything like this—it looks like you have a double dose of sparkles."

"I like sparkles," said Ginny. "Pass the potatoes." Ginny filled her plate, and to everyone around her, it looked like she was focused on her food. Samara was still talking animatedly about her aura, and Tom was marveling at all the changes at Hogwarts. He wanted to know who all the teachers were, and when they got these new tables which allowed the boys and girls to eat together. I don't have the vaguest notion, Ginny thought. Furthermore, I don't care. 

She had at last, managed to get Tom to settle down. "Who is Carman?" she asked. Immediately, she felt a little flutter of energy, but it was gone almost as soon as she felt it, and Tom was telling her what she wanted to know.

__

Carman---. Memories flashed. He was eleven. Playing chess. Letting her copy his homework. He was twelve, and Carman—

Ginny sucked in her breath, and her numb fingers dropped her fork. Samara reached for her, but Ginny shrugged her off, seeking the memories. 

When he was fourteen, Carman refusing to dance with him, because of his mixed parentage. 

As long as Tom was showing her these memories Ginny didn't want to interrupt him.

He was talking to Carman about the Chamber and abruptly the memory changed. They were running—caught in the rain—at the Quiddich pitch. Then kissing, his tongue in her mouth, magic surrounded them..

Ginny was revolted, thinking she would never be able to look Lauren Avery in the face again without seeing this—feeling this—

Tom laughed. Yes, well at least I wasn't a puppy dog, he said, and if it makes you feel any better, she slapped me. 

But she was definitely—participating—said Ginny—suddenly feeling angry for Tom_. _

It was many years ago," he said. "I'm sure the man I became did more than slap her."

Ginny shivered. "She does look like Lauren," she said. "I can see why—I called her Carman."

__

She's Lauren's grandmother, said Tom. "And—"

"Grandmother," repeated Ginny, once again realizing the generations difference between her and Tom. 

==

"Ginny," Samara shouted in her ear. "We should go up to the dorm."

"You don't have to shout," said Ginny haughtily. "I heard you."

Ginny looked around. The Great Hall was almost deserted. Only Edward and Samara were still with her at the Gryffindor table. Although Samara and Edward were both still talking to her when they reached the Gryffindor Common Room, Ginny just couldn't seem to take in any more today. "I'm really tired," she said as she walked straight through the Common Room without pausing. "I think I'll get comfortable and study a little in my room."

But when Ginny reached her room, she didn't study. She pulled her wand, and then put it away. With meticulous care, she set the ward around her bed—the same one she had done in Slytherin Common Room. 

"See," she told Tom. "I remembered."

__

"I'm proud of you, Ginny Love, but you should be able to do it with a single word, and it should have twelve points instead of eight. You didn't use the Four Elementals as compass points.."

"What?"

"It's not important right now. There are many things you need to learn," said Tom.

__

"No, Tom," said Ginny. "There are things that you need to learn. It's about the Sorting Hat—"

__

"And Salazar's gift," spat Tom sarcastically.

"You knew?" said Ginny.

__

"Well, of course, I knew, Ginny Love," said Tom. "Not right away, but by the time I was sixteen—And then I had fifty years in the Diary with that miscreated demon _to contemplate what to do about it. The problem was, Salazar didn't want to bring me with him. He wanted to leave me in the diary with you when he took over your body, but that was not a simple spell. _

Harry Potter came into the Chamber before the spell was completed. He destroyed the diary, but just because he destroyed _the book doesn't mean he destroyed us—me or Salazar. Harry Potter destroyed the object where we were contained, but without a spell to actually keep us in the book while he destroyed it, a wizard has some options, although ours were severely limited by the fact that we were in the Chamber whose wards allow 'nary a soul to pass to or from, without the word of parseltongue'. _

I thought: I could stay in the book and die. I could possibly possess the basilisk which was also dying. I could attempt to enter the statue of Salazar and wait for the next heir of Slytherin to open the Chamber with parselmouth, but see, Salazar and I both knew I was the last heir of Slytherin. No one else was coming. Or I could trust the little girl who had promised to save me from the evil dark wizard. I could claim that promise. So that's what I did. What choice did I have, Ginny Love?

"Oh—" whispered Ginny. The single word filled with fear and foreboding.

__

"Of course, when you said you would free me from the Diary this is not exactly what I had in mind."

Ginny laughed aloud in spite of her fear.

__

"I tried to tell you—to explain—afterwards--but I think it was too soon."

"I had nightmares," said Ginny thoughtfully. "And Mum and Dad took me to St. Mongos."

__

"Yes. I knew what was happening there, but I didn't know how to stop it. I was being imprisoned all over again. I think that was my darkest hour." 

"So where did the memory of Salazar go?"

__

"I don't know," said Tom. "You--we wouldn't let him in."

"What do you mean?"

__

"From the very beginning, Salazar was furious that Lucius gave the diary to a little girl. He wanted possession of an adult wizard with adult powers. He refused to even write to you when you wrote, which was fine with me. I wrote, and it was me you accepted. Me, you gave your consent to—not Salazar. You always knew who was writing. Salazar couldn't figure out how you knew."

"The writing was different," said Ginny. 

__

"I know," said Tom. Ginny could almost feel him smile. "That was one of my secret spells, in the making of the diary. Brilliant, wasn't it?" 

"So you don't know what happened to the Memory of Salazar Slytherin?"

"I can't be sure, but I believe he was destroyed. He was the one chained to the Diary, not me."

How could that be?" asked Ginny, examining Tom's memories and finally understanding that Tom had written the Diary not to preserve Salazar Slytherin's memory, but to bind him to the Diary. He wanted to force Salazar alone into the Diary and be free of him.

__

"I wanted him gone from me," fumed Tom with a hatred that Ginny could barely stand to witness. 

Frightened, and shaking with emotions that had never been hers, Ginny understood that while she was struggling to keep control of her body that day in the Chamber, another monumental struggle was going on. The memories of Tom and Salazar were also in mortal conflict. Each wanted to leave the other behind in the diary, and possess the child, Virginia Weasley. It was suddenly clear. Salazar needed her to die. He needed her blood to complete the spell, but Tom did not. He had used another--method.

__

"Ginny, Love," Began Tom, as he realized which of his memories she was accessing—

"Don't you ever call me that," Ginny spat. "Never again. I am not your Love!"

__

"You made your choice, Ginny Love. Quite frankly, I think you chose well. Do you think Salazar would have been gentler with you?"

"Neither of you thought of ME! My feelings!"

__

"True."

"I thought," Ginny hesitated. Disbelief in her thoughts. "I thought it was—the evil dark wizard—but it wasn't."

Tom said nothing.

"It was you. You raped me."

__

"It was consensual."

"I was eleven!"

__

"Twelve, and you can hardly call it rape, Ginny Love, when I didn't even have a body."

"What would you call it?"

__

"Shared magic."

Ginny said nothing. 

"Playing to win."

Her heart was beating fast—remembering—his memories and her own--

For a long while, they were both silent, discovering secrets neither had ever shared with another.

__

"Ginny Love, Haven't you learned from your little sessions at Quit that there is always a dominant witch or wizard? A winner and a loser. The only way to be safe is to refuse to play. You are the one that chose to play. You opened the diary, Ginny Love. I only wrote with what you gave me--your ink. You can't blame me for wanting to win. I had no choice—no other options. I may not be Salazar Slytherin, but I'm still a Slytherin. I wasn't going to lie down and lose, Ginny Love. And if I lost, I promised myself, he was going down with me, and if necessary, you too.."

"I was just a pawn, wasn't I? Someone to be used—" 

"Ginny ,don't think of it like that. I gave you more of myself than I gave anyone—ever. It was clear from the first moment when you opened the diary one of us—Salazar or me-- would get the living, breathing body and one of us would get stuck in the diary. I wanted the living breathing body--your living, breathing body, so I wooed you, Ginny Love. And you said yes. I made sure of it. You said yes, to me over and over again. Every time I asked, in fact. 

__

All the while, Salazar taunted me. He was the stronger wizard. I was only a boy, but I knew how Salazar would work--exactly how he possessed me—He didn't know how to be subtle-- 

Ginny cried out with the memory of sudden pain—Tom's memory--the excruciating pain of being ripped from your body by magic. 

Brute force. How Tom had been possessed by Salazar in the beginning.

"You fainted?" Ginny whispered, understanding Tom's memory. "You fainted when they put the Sorting Hat on your head?"

__

"Actually it was just after the Hat announced, 'Slytherin!' Lovely way to start life in that house, don't you think? Of course, when I woke, Salazar was in possession—"

A flash of how Salazar/Tom dealt with those who teased him for fainting was quickly squelched.

__

"Salazar took possession, but he couldn't keep possession," Tom explained. "And I hated him. When he started spending all of his time with the eggs--when all of his waking moments were devoted to finding the potion ingredients, there were times when he would forget about me altogether. Oh yes, we occupied the same body, but as long as I was studying, he left me alone. So, I devoted myself to my studies. I had to learn something that would defeat him--light or dark--I didn't care. Even he knew that I had to go to class, because if I didn't, I'd be expelled. He couldn't afford for me to be expelled. We had to be careful, even on his little trips to Knockturn Alley.

__

Mostly, he let me study, and I started the diary. When he discovered what I was doing, I thought he would finally find a way to kill me. I wished he could have killed me. His intent was to make me suffer until I voluntarily gave my magic to him. I learned in that session that magic, voluntarily given; consensual was always stronger than what is taken. It was painful, but it was an acceptable price for such a gem of knowledge. He altered the diary so that it contained both of our memories--but I had not done the spell that tied me to the diary, because I had never planned to be linked to it. 

I was only linked to the diary through Salazar and on that fateful day, with you and Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets, I gambled and won. Tom's thoughts filled with sarcasm. Salazar had his hands full, trying to maintain the temporary clone I had animated to direct the basilisk, which I had already so stupidly allowed to lose its eyes-- He was angry that I didn't immediately allow the basilisk to kill the boy. He was angry that I allowed the boy to get his hands on the Hat, which both he and I knew would have a gift from at least one of the Founders for this boy. 

He was angry, but he was also powerless to punish me just then, because he had to kill a boy called Harry Potter, first, and at the same time, drain a girl of her life force so that he could have the power to possess her body and say the spell that would consign me forever to the diary. He was busy, but I wasn't. I was watching the boy who had defeated Salazar twice before in his short lifetime. I saw the spark in his eye, right before he did it."

"Did what?"

__

"Plunged the basilisk fang into the diary. In that split second, I cried out to you to save me, and you did. Once again, Ginny Love. You said, yes."

"I did, didn't I?" whispered Ginny remembering.

"Salazar, was surprised—unprepared--half in the clone directing the basilisk, half in the diary, waiting for you to die, he had to travel back through the diary, through the magic draining basilisk venom to come to you, and when he did, we shut him out.—you and I together, Ginny Love. Even in his weakened state, I doubt that either of us could have done it alone**. Pervigilo Armaro!"**

"That spell—" said Ginny.

__

"Yes, that spell, you could have done it in your sleep, with only the two words. In fact, Ginny Love, that was exactly my intention: to teach it to you so thoroughly, that you could do it in your sleep, because, in fact, that was exactly what you had to do—a twelve point ward—in your sleep."

"Twelve point?" 

__

"Nothing less would keep him out. _And the memory of Salazar was destroyed."_

"Are you sure, Tom?"

__

"Even if Salazar had the power to go elsewhere, there was no where to go. There was a destroyed diary, a dying Basilisk, a boy who defeated the basilisk already and would not allow himself to be possessed. Even if he was weakened sufficiently so that Salazar could have possessed him, the sword would have protected him; for it was not only Godric Gryffindor's sword. It was also his wand. And finally, there was a girl, Ginny Love. She was the most vulnerable, but she had already chosen me, and warded him out."

"If Salazar had completed his spell," asked Ginny. "What would have happened to me?

__

Mentally Tom shrugged. "Return to the Elemental Source--remain in the diary--it made no difference."

"To you or to Salazar?" 

__

"To either of us at that point." 

"That's not fair!" shouted Ginny. "It's MY body."

__

The sudden feeling of laughter that rose from deep inside of her threatened to over-whelm her, but it wasn't a pleasant laughter. It was filled with hatred.

"You dare talk to me about FAIR! You who have a family and a home. You had twelve years of LIFE! When I had nothing. I grew up with—Muggles. He spat the word like a curse. --Not even my own kind."

Once again, Ginny was assaulted by memories. The children in the orphanage calling him Devil child and Demon spawn. She saw faces and expressions—and knew they were real children. And then, those same children, hurt. Victoria falling down the stairs, Matthew spilling boiling water all over himself, Alfred with his hair on fire—

Ginny was horrified. "You set him on fire, Tom?"

"Alfred was a liar. He deserved to burn."

The list went on and on. No one who hurt Tom went unpunished. Within Tom was an unquenchable desire to even the score between them—to make them pay dearly for every hurt they inflicted. "Give them back tenfold," said Tom. "Make them pay-Become so powerful they won't be able to hurt me." 

"No," whispered Ginny. "They were children."

__

"They were animals!"

Ginny was silent unable to understand the hatred she was feeling through him. Abruptly, the memories changed. 

"And when I finally thought that I would fit in—the year I came to the Great Hogwarts, the most wonderful wizarding school in the world, that asinine Dumbledore put that Hat on my head and took what little bit of freedom I had. 

You forget, Ginny. I am the MEMORY of Tom Riddle, but who I am—who I REALLY am—still lives imprisoned in that madman's head. He stole everything from me."

The bitterness in his thoughts was palpable.

"I know, I didn't have much to start out with. My mother was dead. My father didn't want me—the bastard—and I didn't want him either. I lived in an orphanage. I had to fight for every spark of happiness in my life and there was damned little of it. My life sucked, but it was still mine! MY LIFE! Up until I was eleven, it was mine. MY choices. Even at the orphanage, I made my choices. They stopped bothering me after they realized that bad things happened to people who hurt me. They were afraid of me—even the adults—were afraid. That's why they sent me to Hogwarts—they were afraid—Ginny remembered them saying: 'If they accept him at this Hogwart's boarding school, I think we should send him and good riddance.'

After I put that accursed Hat on my head, I lost everything: my childhood, my school time, my friends, my reputation, my social life, my body, my looks, my brains, my wand, even my rat—"

Stop! Ginny shouted, trying to cover her ears, but to no avail. 

__

Tom seemed to take a breath and settle himself. "I think you need to sleep on this, Ginny Love. Perhaps I've again given you too much to cope with—"

Ginny lay in silence for a while. "Tom," she said at last. "There was something else in the Chamber that Salazar may have been able to possess. There was a phoenix."

__

Tom began to laugh. This time, the laughter was genuine. "I think he would have rather died," said Tom. "That phoenix was the bane of his existence."

"Why's that?"

__

"That was the phoenix that gave the feather for **my** wand," said Tom. "It always sided with me against Salazar.

"But how could a wand do that?" asked Ginny.

__

"They say the wand chooses the wizard," said Tom. "My wand never chose Salazar."

"I don't understand," said Ginny.

__

"Tomorrow. We'll talk tomorrow."

"You won't go away again tomorrow, will you?"

__

"No, I don't think so. I believe your little bit of Elemental magic completely smashed down the St. Mongo's memory charms."

Ginny sighed. "I feel like I've been hit with a confundus charm. OH, no, Charms! I was going to look over the notes again for our test tomorrow."

__

"Don't worry about it, Ginny Love. Go to sleep."

"Sleep?" It seemed strange having Tom tell her to go to sleep. When she had the diary, that was his primary way of keeping her captive. As long as she didn't sleep, she was too tired and confused to fight him.

__

"Yes, sleep," repeated Tom.

As Tom listened to her deep, even breathing, he began to plan. He smiled as he heard her mutter his name and sigh, hugging her pillow.

"Promise," Ginny muttered against her pillow, snuggling deeper into the covers. "You were--innocent."

__

"Hardly," said Tom.

==

NOTES TO MY FAITHFUL REVIEWERS:

First of all, thank you very much for sticking with me. Love you guys. THANKS. Lady Lestrange

Kemenran

'More please' is on its way. Love that you are so polite. Yes, there will be more Harry shortly, but the next couple of chapters are more Ginny.

Silverfox1

Yes, well, ADADA or AVADA. You will find out about Draco's sister shortly—in two chapters. Right after Ginny's next ADADA class.

Reiven

Five more chapters and all will be solved? Well, maybe not—Have to get you to read the sequel, you know. But I promise you will soon know exactly who the prophecy child is and why. I know you loved Edward and I do too, but really, with a name like LESTRANGE, did you really think he'd be a sweet, good guy? 

Eizoku

OK, I think now, you should realize that Tom didn't actually "leave" her, he just couldn't communicate with the St Mongo's Memory charms up. Ginny still believes that Severus is a 'good guy' but yes, she is suspicious. I think she pieces together that he is a spy shortly, but she isn't sure which side he is on. Next chapter, ADADA, so more Severus.

Raven173

Major issues? Well, I guess that's what I think IS a book. Conflict, ie. "issues". There's Ginny/Tom. I agree, that's a major issue. I don't know about power-obsessed Samara—gosh—one review says Samara is power obsessed and the next says she should dump Draco and stick up for herself. Did you guys read the same chapter? Beatrice is coming soon, and she has a major part in the sequel. The sequel is started, and Draco's sister is chapter after the next one, so stay tuned. Two chapters till you find out what happened to Draco's sister.

ennui2

Thanks. Glad you liked. Yes, well, I still have readers who think Draco is going to turn into a Hufflepuff and declare his undying love. You are right about Samara, by the way. Well, Tom's talking in Ginny's head is not going to convince her that she's sane, is it? Crucio on Lucius is coming up next chapter, so I guess it will be clear in--10 reviews from now. Edward has his own agenda. He doesn't want Snape involved in it. You're right about Edward too. Please don't call him Eddie. I tried that. He didn't like it.

****

Tamora Pierce Finished at 4:42 Is that AM? COOL!

****

Trillium: Multi-faceted. Great. You're right about both Winky and Samara.

Slytherin's Silver Snake

Yes, You may wish you didn't wish for the darker parts. HEHEHEHE. Millicent was waking up from her stunning charm. A lit up Dark Mark tends to be a good alarm clock.

****

hayes1966 : WELCOME TO MY STORY. Don't think JKR could have done better! Ohmygosh. Skips around the room in excitement. Plots within plots is what stories are supposed to be. Glad I got it right. I love it when I make my readers happy. OK. Gotta go release this magic. I'm over flowing—hair's wet and blowing—You know how it is. More details on Tom, coming up. Glad you liked Neville's parents. I liked them too.

You know what you have to do. Click that review button. **10 REVIEWS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER**—unless you aren't quite ready for that little **ADADA field trip**?????

Warning: PG 13 . Not for the faint of heart. 10 REVIEWS IF YOU DARE. Heheheheheh—Cough—Choke—Sparks--

Lady Lestrange

__


	45. CH 44: Mors Mordre

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

__

Mors Mordre

Chapter 44

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. 

Be warned, the upcoming chapters are the reason this fic is rated PG-13. 

****

Mors Mordre

Chapter 44

****

(disclaimer: The poem in this chapter, BLACK CHANT was written by,** Skull Bearer**, another fanfic writer. Her profile is below.

After the ff.net thing/ **profile.php?userid=323240)**

(Sorry if that's confusing, but if you ever tried to put up a link, you know that ff.net won't let you)

****

And now, on to the story….if you dare…

After Ginny's long talk with Tom last night, she awoke strangely rested. It was as if she finally understood what had happened to her in the Chamber. The missing pieces were falling into place. It was a little later than she usually slept, and she knew she should get up and get ready for class, but she hesitated, rubbing her eyes and looking around. Parvati and Lavender were already gone—or perhaps they had never come in at all last night. Ginny didn't know. She lay in bed for a moment, listening to Hermione and Samara speaking in low tones as they got ready for class. Her ward still shielded her from their eyes and hearing. 

__

"Very Slytherin of you, eves-dropping, Ginny Love."

Normally, I wouldn't eves-drop, Tom, but they're talking about me, Ginny answered. "Be quiet.."

==

"I don't know, Samara," said Hermione, brushing her now shoulder length hair.. "I've read about auras but I've never seen them myself. I'm not sure I know what is normal and what isn't—"

"I've never seen an aura look like that. Even after she woke from the sleeping ward, last Friday, her aura looked strange. It has too many colors."

"Is that a problem?" asked Hermione. "I mean, I thought you said wizards always had more colors than muggles."

"They do," said Samara. "But usually the colors are complementary. Ginny's colors clash—And now they aren't even in layers, they're mixed together like a marble cake."

__

Tom was over-come with laughter. "A marble cake—"

Hush, Ginny admonished. "I want to hear what Samara says about my aura."

"It makes me shudder to look at it, Samara continued. "And I wish she wouldn't lock herself away , by herself, in that ward of hers."

__

Ginny Love, you'll have to tell them that you're not alone in here.

"Be quiet, Tom.

"Edward said it took four of them to break the ward in Slytherin."

__

"What were you doing in Slytherin?" Tom asked angrily.

"I told you. That's where I put up the wandless ward—last night."

__

"You did not tell me you were in Slytherin. I forbid you—us. We can't go there. It's dangerous."

"Shut up, Tom. I want to hear what Samara is saying."

__

"Is she the one that's still talking. She's quite the little blabber mouth, isn't she?"

"It takes one to know one," said Ginny exasperated, and for a moment, Tom was silent.

"And don't you think that's strange, Hermione? I mean, what does she have to be afraid of—Why would she feel like she needed a ward?"

"I don't know," said Hermione, "But it's really up to Ginny. You can't go about putting her to sleep and hoping that the aura will fix itself. I think we just have to go to Madam Pomfrey. She has to know about these things. Madam Pomfrey is really good at fixing—obscure problems."

"Like polyjuice mistakes?" laughed Samara. 

__

"Poly juice!" shouted Tom. "That's illegal. And for good reason. What are you kids doing playing with that? Ginny!"

"It was for class," said Ginny. "and it's not illegal anymore."

"A class? You're joking."

"There has to be some way to do a **mutus** charm on you," Ginny muttered. "I can't take this constant commentary." 

__

"I doubt mutus would work," said Tom. "Mutus alters sound waves and since I'm in your head—"

"Don't remind me!" Ginny screamed at him.

__

"Well, good thing that privacy ward was up, wasn't it," said Tom softly. "Little touchy first thing in the morning aren't you?"

Ginny studiously ignored him. 

"Who told you about the polyjuice potion?" Hermione asked Samara, letting Crookshanks into the room from his morning romp. He jumped up on the dressing table and rubbed himself against Hermione.

"Ginny told me." Samara laughed. "She realized it when she first found out that Millie is an animagus. She said 'I knew Hermione couldn't be that dumb—mistaking a cat hair for a human hair.' Anyone who owns a cat should be able to tell the difference, right?"

"And if Millie had been registered, I would have known," snapped Hermione. Are you going up to feed your owl, Samara?"

__

"Millicent is in Slytherin, isn't she?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?" asked Ginny.

__

"Slytherins never register their animagi. It's a matter of principle."

"Well, speaking of illegal--" said Ginny.

__

She felt Tom mentally shrug and pull away from her.

Good. Maybe you'll be quiet, Ginny thought.

"No, I don't have to go to the owlry," said Samara. "I sent my Grandma Lori a letter. Aggie isn't back yet. Let's go to Madam Pomfrey before breakfast."

==

"Are you going to Madame Pomfrey about me?" asked Ginny sitting up in bed and pushing the ward off. "You know. You really shouldn't talk about someone in their own room unless you want them to hear you."

"We thought you were asleep," said Samara.

"Obviously," said Ginny dryly. "I don't need Madam Pomfrey and I didn't need the Slytherins busting down my ward. It just exhausted me and gave me a headache. Samara you should know. How were the auras after the Quit game?"

"Washed out," replied Samara. 'But none of them gained extra colors."

Ginny pasted a smile on her lips. "I guess, I'm special," she said sarcastically. "I don't have time for Madam Pomfrey. We have a Charms test today, and Friday is always a little rough with ADADA and DADA. Don't worry about me. OK, Samara. I get enough of that from my brothers."

"We _are _worried about you," said Hermione. "We'll wait for you. Come have breakfast with us."

"No," said Ginny. "I'm not going to have time for breakfast before class. I want to take a shower. Please leave Madam Pomfrey out of this. There is nothing wrong with me, that I can't handle. I'm fine. Honest."

Samara nodded. Her eyes taking in the changes in Ginny's aura since last night. "We're going down to breakfast, then. See you in Herbology."

"Next time," said Hermione, "Set your ward to fall down in the morning, if you feel you need it at all with your friends—"Hermione called as Ginny rushed into the shower. "And we'll wake you if you sleep in. Maybe you can find out what on earth they were doing in Slytherin," Hermione suggested to Samara.

"No," said Samara softly. "I'm not feeling exactly welcome there now."

"I wondered why you haven't been over there with Edward and Ginny, lately." Hermione frowned. "So you've severed your ties with--Slytherin?"

"You might say that," said Samara, wondering if Hermione meant to ask if she had severed her ties with Draco.

Hermione smiled at Samara, her aura an open and welcoming azure. Then, she reached out and hugged her. "Well," she said. "I can't say I'm sorry to hear that." Her aura, if anything became even brighter with excitement, and then flushed with rose. "Let's go see if the boys are still at breakfast." 

"Hermione," said Samara. "Please don't try to—um—fix me up with Harry, just because it would make things more comfortable for you and Ron."

"Ok," said Hermione, her aura losing some of its brightness.

"I like Harry, but—"

"I said OK."

Samara nodded and they went down to breakfast.

==

Ginny rushed through her shower, did a quick drying spell on her hair and gathered up her books. She didn't have time to put on any of the make up to cover her freckles, so she just dropped the potion in her bag. She looked around momentarily for her quill. She had several extras, but she really preferred the goose wing feather to the shoulder feather. When did she have it last? 

__

"Common room," said Tom, a feeling of disgust in his thought. "Right before you turned into the dog."

Right, she thought, hurrying down to look for it.

__

"Well, don't bother to say thank you."

"Thank you, Tom. Now, please shut up."

__

"You know, Ginny Love. I've been quiet for an awfully long time in that diary and then I had to contend with Salazar—"

"And now, you have to contend with me," spat Ginny, "Shut up. You're driving me crazy."

__

"Gee, Ginny, and just when I thought crazy was already a given."

Ginny silently seethed. 

When she arrived in the Common room, it was deserted. Everyone had already gone to class. Quickly she pulled the cushions off of her favorite chair, and found her quill. She dropped it into her bag and started to put the cushions back, when she noticed a burnt and crumpled piece of parchment sticking between the arm and the seat. Immediately, she remembered Edward sitting in this chair, incendioing the parchments when she had turned into the puppy. This was the one he lost, when she jumped up on his lap. She pulled it out of the crack of the chair and looked at it. 

"Gee Ginny, first eves-dropping and now looking at someone's private papers. I certainly have been a bad influence on you haven't I?"

"It's not private. It was on the chair in the common room. Anyway, it's Edward's—"

The words on the paper were scribbled over and crossed out several times, but she didn't have any trouble understanding what she was reading. It was a poem. 

__

Edward Lestrange, writing poety? Said Tom, askance. "This ought to be good for a laugh—"

And then, Ginny and Tom began to read, (A/N: Black Chant is authored by Skull Bearer)

The Black Chant:*

Rip Bones

Tear Flesh

Boil Blood

Eat Death 

Wear a robe made of Darkness

Wear a mask made of Bone

Bear a mark of Torture

Hold a heart made of Stone

Kill faster

Heart harder

Thought keener

Soul colder

Conquer the king of Lions.

Follow the Master of Snakes.

Lack life, love and liberty.

Play for the highest stakes.

Auror Murderer

Muggle Killer

Light Slayer

Death Eater 

For a moment, Ginny just stood in the Common room holding the parchment. Tom said nothing, but Ginny sensed the same sort of turmoil that was going on in her own mind. 

Speechless Tom? She inquired.

__

"I think so," he answered.

"Well, that's a good thing."

__

Tom was silent, but Ginny sensed a myriad of thoughts all flashing through his mind too fast for her to comprehend.

"I take that back," she said. "There is nothing good about that poem. What should she say to Edward?" Ginny wondered.

__

"Incendio it," suggested Tom. "Say nothing."

Ginny glanced at her watch and sprinted from the common room, robes flying out behind her.

Ginny arrived in ADADA just seconds before she could be considered late, the parchment still clutched in her hand. She tossed the burnt paper to Edward as she took her seat next to him. "I'm going with you," she said.

__

"You're what!" Tom shouted. "NO. NO. NO. You are not! There is no point in getting us killed."

Ethan sent a puzzled look toward his brother who had an ear to ear smirk. "What?" he mouthed silently.

Edward surreptitiouslypassed him the burnt parchment, magic crackling between them in excitement. 

==

ADADA Professor Snape Friday, October 13, 1995 Ginny wrote on her parchment. Professor Snape was telling them the guidelines of the wandless Search and Curse that they would be doing today.

__

"Ginny, listen to me. You can't do this."

"Miss Weasley," said Snape. "You may use your wand."

"That won't be necessary," said Ginny, pulling out her wand and lying it on her table.

Snape raised an eyebrow at her, but made no comment. He continued talking about what spells he allowed them to use during the Search and Curse game.

__

"Don't you dare leave your wand here," Tom shouted in her head.

"I won't, Ginny answered. "Now, please be quiet."

__

"What purpose is there in your going with Edward?" Tom demanded. "What do you plan to do?"

"I'm not sure--" thought Ginny, her eyes fixed on the back of Gregory Goyle's head. "I'm not sure, but it will come to me.

__

"Gryffindors!" spat Tom. "Act first. Think later—if ever--"

Ginny was suddenly assaulted by a flickering of magic through her. All of the hair on her arms stood up beneath her robe.

"No, Tom," she thought. "You still don't have control over my body."

__

"Fuck!" There was a brief pause and then Tom muttered, "Sorry."

Ginny frowned. "Sorry for trying to take over my body?" she wondered.

__

"No. Um. Language."

Ginny burst out laughing. Sometimes she completely forgot that Tom was from her grandfather's generation. "You're not sorry for trying to take me over, but you're sorry for—"

"Miss Weasley!" Snape addressed her angrily. "10 points from Gryffindor for your outburst, and pay attention."

"Yes, Sir," she said meekly, still stifling a laugh.

"You got me in trouble, Tom."

__

"You have no idea of the trouble you are going to be in girl! You can't go to Salazar, now. You aren't prepared. And that's where you're going. Don't kid yourself that you are going to Tom Riddle. We don't even know if my consciousness is still—present—And Ginny, if he realizes that I'm still with you—as the memory. He'll kill you—slowly--just to get to me. You have no idea how frustrated he was that he couldn't kill me without damaging himself."

"I can imagine," said Ginny, still watching the back of Greg Goyle's head and trying to pay attention to the directions Snape was giving.

__

"NO YOU CAN'T IMAGINE--That's why I doubt that who I once was, even exists anymore, Ginny." 

"Be quiet, Tom. I can't take notes with your talking."

__

"You should have brought your Quick Quotes Quill for notes," said Tom snidely. "We have to talk."

"It wasn't mine. It belongs to Neville."

__

"Have you ever tried to lie under veritaserium?" Tom asked.

"What's veritaserium?" Ginny asked.

__

Tom groaned. 

"Honestly, Tom, you act as if I'm going to take the Dark Mark or something. I just want to talk to him I want—"

__

"He did it?" muttered Tom. "He perfected it? Oh, this is worse than I thought. OK listen to me, Ginny Love. Listen carefully. First of all, veritaserium will make you want to spill every secret you've ever had. It will embarrass you no end, and that's the good news. The bad news is, if you even try to lie, your mouth will feel as if it's on fire. If you have enough veritaserium in your system, some people have said they've seen liars spouting flame like a dragon."

Ginny giggled again, thinking of dragon breath mints.

__

"This—is—not—funny," spat Tom. "The best you will be able to do is half truths—Even that will be painful."

"I don't see why I'll have to lie," said Ginny.

__

"You can't tell him about me!" shouted Tom.

Just then, Greg Goyle jumped. The backs of his shoulders hunched in pain and he grabbed his left arm. 

Ginny stood, with her wand in hand, and when Snape turned on her, she was ready for him, blocking with "**_Testudo!"_**

"I'm going with you," she said softly, and trying to control her nervousness, she held the wand pointed at Snape.

There was a collective gasp from some of the Slytherins. Edward stood and put his arm around her, but Snape hadn't moved. He stood accessing her with his usual bored indifference. "Congratulations, Miss Weasley," said Snape. "I see you've perfected the shield charm."

Still watching Snape, Ginny shrugged Edward off, and Draco sniggered. "Who'd you con into drinking the polyjuice, Lestrange. That's not Ginny Weasley."

"Maybe--maybe not," Edward shrugged. "But I think our Lord will be glad to see her—whatever we call her."

Pansy and Lauren and Blaise were watching in horror, but Ginny noticed they had not taken Alvin Nott's hand. Alvin sat, shaking at his table. His face buried in his hands. He looked like he was crying.

__

"He—will—kill—you." Tom was shouting. "And you may not mind that, Ginny Love--It might even appeal to your twisted Gryffindor sense of justice, but I live here too, now. And if he kills you—I think—I will probably be drawn back to him. You will die. Poof. Done. Finished. But I—I will have to spend the rest of my life—no—the rest of eternity in the mind of a madman who will live FOREVER! You won't pay for this mistake. I will!"

For the first time, Ginny felt a flicker of doubt, but she squelched it. "I have to do this, Tom," she thought. "I keep my promises."

"Very well, Miss Weasley," said Snape, in his droll, deadpan voice. "Since you have me at wandpoint, I suggest you tell me where you think we should take you."

"Your Dark Lord, Voldemort, Tom Riddle—You--Know--Who—" she said clearly. "I believe you have a way to contact him. I wish to speak with him."  


Greg and Vincent laughed aloud, even though Greg was doing his laughing through gritted teeth. Draco sauntered up between them. "You know, I thought you were crazy last week, Weasel. This week. I know it." He turned, looking expectantly at Professor Snape. 

Still Snape did not budge. 

"The portkey is this way," said Edward.

"Mr. Lestrange," warned Snape. "This is still _my_ class."

"True," Edward said softly, but with a grit of iron in his words. "But the Prophecy Child is _mine_."

"Prophecy?" thought Ginny. "Her?"

"Didn't you say, Professor, that to go to the Dark Lord or not had to rest with the individual?" asked Ethan. "Didn't you say, every one must make their own decision? As I see it, Virginia Weasley made her choice, Professor."

"And it is _our_ choice," Edward continued, "As _loyal _Death Eaters, to escort her. Immediately." Edward did not wait for Snape to answer. He turned, keeping a cautious eye on Snape, and started for the door. He was holding Ginny Weasley by the arm, and steering her forward.

With a quick glance back at Pansy, Lauren, and Blaise, Snape said, "Let's go," and with two long strides he was in front of Edward and Ginny. The class followed in muffled silence out of the door and onto the grounds.

==

__

"Ginny! Ginny Love! Listen carefully. This is what you will say, when he asks about me. You will say, Tom begged me to save him, but I told him to 'get out'. That's what you need to tell him. And then you have to tell him you haven't heard from me since. Do you understand? You do not know where I am. Ginny? Ginny Love, do you understand."

"Yes, but—"

__

"There's no other way, Ginny. And don't let him put that accused Mark on you. He'll want your consent. Consensual magic is always stronger. Remember. No matter what it takes--"

"OK, but Tom—"

__

"Ginny. It's the only way. Please. Listen to me. I need to hide in your deepest, most secret memories. Do not tell him of me. Don't even think of me. I don't know if we have a prayer in hell of this working--I'm not even sure—perhaps being in such close proximity—NO I won't even think of that!"

"What?" asked Ginny.

__

"I may be drawn back to him no matter what you do." Tom continued to explain why he thought this may happen and options on how to prevent it. 

"This is the portkey," said Edward, pointing to a large bird's nest sitting in the branches of an oak tree.

Snape's dark eyes were murderous. "Mr. Lestrange, you need to think long and hard about the risks involved in competing for the place at the Dark Lord's right hand. You are a child, but if you place yourself in a man's game, you will not be granted clemency for your childish mistakes."

"I never asked for anything different," said Edward.

"Then perhaps you should know your competition. When you were still in your nappies—no, before you were even born, no less than 20 wizards at any one time were competing for the spot you now covet."

"And were you one of the twenty?"

"No," said Snape. "I never asked for the honor. He--called--me." Snape turned abruptly away. "Once the portkey is accioed, Miss Weasley, we have 10 seconds to touch it." Snape looked around at the group which may now have trouble gathering around a single bird's nest. "If we don't all get a hold of it, don't panic. I'll send someone back with it. Are you ready Miss Weasley?

__

I am a Memory, Ginny. He is the Real Person, but if I am drawn back—everything you know. Everything I've learned since your first year about you and your friends, he will know. Everything that Harry has learned about the Prophecy child, everything you've done in the Chamber—"

Ginny sucked in her breath.

__

I want you to remember our time in the Chamber, when you saved me. He has to think that I was destroyed. You have to make him believe you, even if he uses veritaserium. Tom continued explaining: _"I'm asking you now, to save me—And you say—"_

"I'll do my best—"Thought Ginny.

"Miss Weasley?" asked Snape again.

"Yes," Ginny answered Snape, her head spinning with the effort of listening to both Tom and Snape at the same time. 

__

"NO. NO. NO. You say, **Get out**, and then you never hear from me again. Say it. Say, Get out."

"But, Tom, I don't know—"

__

"Say, GET OUT!"

"Get out, but I don't know if I can do this alone, Tom. Your magic is stronger. Tom?"

"**Accio,"**said Snape, and the nest flew from its branch to Snape's hand. Snape made sure that Ginny, and Alvin got their hands on the portkey. Edward, Ethan and Draco crowded around and someone else, but Ginny wasn't sure whose hand was whose when the familiar tug gripped beneath her navel and she was transported forward.

Snape immediately took the portkey and muttered an incantation. "We're missing Vincent and Millicent," said Snape, handing the portkey back to Draco. "Get them. You'll have twenty seconds." Draco and the bird's nest dissolved from sight.

==

The place where Ginny was portkeyed to was beautiful—a garden with running streams and fountains, yet there was a sense of darkness. Although she was not as attuned to the magic as Samara was, she realized that much dark magic had been performed here. Trees surrounded the clearing—ash and yew and a few oak trees. This place would have been a prolific site to choose a wand. 

"Tom?" whispered Ginny, and Snape frowned at her, his beady black eyes intense. 

"Come," said Snape taking her arm. 

Edward flanked the other side.

Ginny felt a flutter of panic. Had Tom deserted her or was he only hiding? Even though she hadn't been able to talk to him until just recently, some part of her always knew the diary had changed her. Some part of her knew he was there. She became accustomed to that feeling, and suddenly, it was gone. She felt an emptiness--alone. Tom?

The rest of the ADADA class crowded forward around her. Voldemort-- Salazar and what was left of Tom Riddle, stood conversing easily with three other wizards, dressed in Death Eater robes and masks. Tom didn't wear a mask because it was obvious with one glance that he had little humanity left in him. His skin was somewhat scaly, like a snake's. Although he was old enough to be her grandfather, Ginny did not see his age; she saw only power. It emanated out from his eyes—eyes that were red, and filled with malice. It dripped from his long fingertips—with sudden fear, Ginny remembered the feel of those long fingertips on her body in the Chamber of Secrets. With a shiver, she remembered Tom's graphic description of how brutally Salazar took possession of him. Only his hair was the same jet black as she remembered, but it was not the neatly combed hair of Tom Riddle. It was instead, unruly, reminding her strangely of Harry Potter's. 

In a gesture also reminiscent of Harry he brushed his hair off of his forehead, but there was no scar. "Who is this?" He asked as they approached.

"Virginia Weasley." Said Snape, bowing low. All of the others in the class had prostrated themselves on the ground. One by one, they came and kissed the bottom of his robes. Only Ginny remained standing, staring at the man who had once been Tom Riddle. Evil hovered over him and around him. Ginny could never remember being more terrified, even in the Chamber. She knew she had made a mistake. She could not touch this person. This person was no longer Tom Riddle. She could not have any feelings of humanity left for him, could she? Did Tom even still exist inside of him? Nothing but fear filled her.

"Why did you bring her?" The question was addressed to Snape, but Ginny answered. "I needed to see you, Tom. To see for myself what you had become." She lifted her chin a little, struggling against her fear.

"I am Lord Voldemort!" He pushed her abruptly into the dirt, barely using the magic in his hands. **"Exanimare."** She fell hard—her face landing in the dirt, her knees and hands skinned, like a child's. "I will be addressed, as Lord Voldmort, or Master," he hissed.

"You will always be Tom to me," she whispered, not daring to pick her face out of the dirt.

Ginny could feel his eyes on her, hot and questioning. "Why did you bring her?" Lord Voldemort asked again, this time fixing Snape with a glare, and Ginny realized that she couldn't speak. She could barely breathe. It took every ounce of her strength to pull just a tiny bit of air into her lungs. Tiny little pants, she told herself. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. 

Voldemort's huge snake crawled close to her, circling. "Sisshasss-A-Sisshasss, isss thisss one Hisssuss? Isss sshe for me?"

"Sssilence, Nagini. We sshall sssee."

"She knows things, Master, about you that I thought you should hear for yourself," said Snape.

"Not so," interrupted Edward. "She is the Prophecy child. If she herself, hadn't insisted at wandpoint that she be brought, you would have left her at Hogwarts. You certainly didn't listen to me when I suggested that she be brought earlier this year. You didn't even listen to Draco."

"Severus?" Lord Voldemort's eyes narrowed. "Is this true?"

"Yes, Master," his voice cool and unhurried. "I sought to discern her full use, before I infringed upon your time. Children tend to be hasty. They make foolish mistakes, through their ignorance. Thankfully, among Slytherins that's usually corrected as they age."

"I see." Voldemort studied the girl. She seemed to still be breathing. She was a strong one. Some would have suffocated by now, from the curse he threw so carelessly at her, but she was fighting it. Perhaps she would be amusing. He doubted that she would be of much use. Severus usually knew what pleased him, even though Severus himself was not fully trustworthy. Severus, unlike most of his Death Eaters did not grovel around him, with false humility, not did he seem to participate in the continual struggle to be his chosen. Severus Snape was somewhat of an enigma. Severus had always been secretive, one of the few that Voldemort could not easily discern, but Severus knew he sought the Prophecy Child. If he thought this girl was the Prophecy child, he would not deny this Master this prize. Of that, Voldemort was certain.

He remembered a conversation they had had nearly sixteen years ago in The Riddle House. "I have a task for you," he had told Severus.

"Anything, my lord," Severus said looking up from his position, kneeling at his feet.

"I want you to get close to Dumbledore," he said.

Voldemort allowed himself a mental sigh. None of his Death Eaters were truly trustworthy. Sometimes he got very sick of the constant infighting.

__

"You can't get away from it, can you Salazar? Even in your own head—opps, I meant my head—sometimes I forget."

Immediately Voldemort closed his hands over Tom Riddle's wand in his pocket. He ignored the searing pain in the palm of his hand. He ignored the smell of burning flesh. The physical pain was nothing compared to what Tom was feeling. And the voice was silent, for now. 

A wand was a strange thing, its purpose to control and focus magic and to draw a barrier between its wizard and any damaging magic that the wizard was wielding. In Tom's case, of course, his wand did nothing to control the magic he was wielding, because Voldemort was careful that Tom never touched the wand. Instead it simply built a barrier between the two wizards who shared the wand. Voldemort's body was damaged, but Tom's soul was imprisoned, and the voice was silent. Yes, perhaps at this moment Tom was suffering too, because Tom was never silent. It was an acceptable trade: pain for imprisonment.

Voldemort took his hand out of his pocket and pressed his blistered palms together.

"Immediately Snape, took as step forward. "Master," he said softly. "If I may—"

Voldemort nodded.

Snape pulled a jar of salve from his robe pocket. "A new formula," he said. "I managed to get some of the Phoenix tears from Albus." Snape said, "but it's increasingly difficult now that I'm no longer teaching potions."

"The old fool does not suspect?"

"No."

"Does he know who the Prophecy Child is?"

"I don't know," said Snape.

Voldemort nodded and turned away from Snape as the marks on his hand healed.

"So, this is the one you think is the prophecy child?" Voldemort asked scathingly, his eyes on Edward, both ignoring the smell of burning flesh.

"She has some qualities," said Edward respectfully. "I could not dare to presume—" he hesitated. "I leave the actual judgement in your hands, my Lord." He whispered. "I ventured that it would be better to mistake on the side of caution."

Voldemort nodded. "Remain here," he said.

"My Lord?" said Edward nervously, but he didn't move.

With a wave of his hand, Voldemort lifted the curse from Ginny and spoke

"Tell me why you wanted to come to me," he said.

Ginny's recently closed lungs were sluggish. They barely brought air to her system. She gasped several times trying to pull the air in so that she could speak, but it hurt. Her lungs were burning, like someone who had been suffocated, and brought back from the brink of death. She could not speak.

Voldemort turned back to Edward while Ginny was struggling on the ground to draw air into her lungs.

__

"Air Elemental," Came a thought from somewhere far away. "Draw it to you."

Another wave of Voldemort's hand, brought the air suddenly into Ginny's lungs with a sharp fiery pain. She cried out, and started to cough. In a moment, she was able to speak. Her chest ached with the exertion, as if she had pneumonia or bronchitis, but she could speak. "I—know--you," she whispered, she did not dare to call him Tom, and would not call him Voldemort. I know--every one of your--secrets."

"I do not believe you," he said his eyes narrowing. "What could a Weasley and a Gryffindor possibly know about me? Or are you a Gryffindor," he mused, thinking about the prophecy. "Tell me girl, what did the Sorting Hat say to you?"

He snapped his fingers in Snape's direction. "Veritaserium," he said, and Snape moved forward, producing a small vial. 

"I don't lie," said the girl, meeting his eyes, unlike most of his Death Eaters. "I have never lied to you—" she caught herself just before she said Tom's name.

'Very well. We shall see," said the wizard as he sat back on one of the garden benches, and pocketed the veritaserium. "Tell me what the Sorting Hat said to you--and your thoughts on that day," he said.

With perfect clarity she remembered, and she repeated what the Hat said to her.

The Hat said: "AHH, a Weasley. I know just where—oh dear—there is something very Slytherin here. This is a very strange combination. Cunning, secretive and yet a depth of feeling I've only seen in Hufflepuffs. A capacity to love that transcends time and space. Very strange."

"Gryffindor," I whispered. "Please, please. All my brothers are in Gryffindor. I can't go into Slytherin house. Please. Gryffindors have depth of feeling too."

"Not like this," replied the Hat. "Well if not Slytherin, how about Hufflepuff?"

"No, please. I don't want to be alone. I want to be with my brothers."

"Yes. Exactly why you should be in Hufflepuff. They work well as teams, and you certainly aren't very brave if you don't even want to go into a house alone. How can I put you in Gryffindor?"

"Because of my loyalty?" I suggested. 

"Hufflepuff," said the Hat.

"And I want to be brave. 

The Hat was silent.

"Anyway, the Slytherin side of me would make the other Hufflepuffs miserable." 

The Hat was silent.

After a long while it said, "I really think Hufflepuff—"

"I promise you," Ginny said cooly. "I will make the Hufflepuffs very miserable."

"There is that," said the Hat. "Very well, then. I don't like it, but Gryffindor."

You remember that episode exceedingly well. The Hat didn't suggest Ravenclaw?" He asked. 

She shook her head. "No. I'm not that smart. Ron says that I have a good memory, but no strategy."

"Ron?"

"My brother," she explained. "And my other brothers, Percy and the twins were getting seriously worried. They said it took forever for me to be sorted."

He laughed. "And you threatened the Hat! I can't believe it."

"I hate the Hat," said Ginny vehemently. "So, believe it. 

"Why do you hate the Hat?"

"Because of what it did to--you."

"Really? Would you have made the Hufflepuffs miserable?" 

"I don't know. Probably not."

"A bluff worthy of a Slytherin, nonetheless, Virginia. "

"And what do you believe the Sorting Hat did to me?" he asked.

She hesitated, and he pulled the vial of veritaserium from his robe pocket toying with it.

"Possessed you, with the spirit of Salazar Slytherin," said Ginny at last. 

He turned, puzzled now. Accessing her, he decided she was telling the truth. That had always been a talent of his—falsehoods—weaving them and unraveling them. "Where did you get such an idea?" he asked softly.

"From your Diary," she said.

"And you live?" he asked amazed. "You must be quite a powerful witch. How is it you were not--destroyed?"

"The Diary was destroyed instead."

"I see," he said, looking at her critically, remembering the enchantment of the diary. "Do you miss him?" he asked softly, his voice a caress.

"Yes." She tried to keep the tears from coming, but somehow they did anyway.

"Of course, you miss him," he said. 

His thoughts again going to the creation of the Diary. Oh Tom, he thought, you did a marvelous job on the enchantment of the Diary. I couldn't have done better myself. Oh, well, I did do it myself, didn't I?" He chuckled. 

"And that is why you came, isn't it?" He said aloud. "To find out if your Tom still lives inside of me—"

"Yes," said Ginny.

There is only one way to find out," he said. "Come to me."

She froze. "Don't you know?"

"It's hard to tell where one of us begins and the other leaves off," he said. "But I venture to guess, you would know. He held out his hand. The long white fingers, unmistakably human spread against hers. "You would recognize his magic wouldn't you?"

'Yes," she agreed.

"Then I see no other way, do you?" he asked as he interlaced his fingers with hers. "If I were to share my magic with you, you would know whether or not your precious Tom is here or not. You would recognize his magical signature, I would think."

"Yes," said Ginny. "I would."

"And I don't see any other way to find out, do you? After all, you can't go announcing to the world that your lover lives in the Dark Lord's head. Why they would put you in St. Mongo's so fast—"

Ginny stiffened, shaking with memories of St. Mongo's.

"Ah, you know, I speak the truth," he said. 

"You would allow me to see?" asked Ginny softly. "You would—do--that?"

"Of course."

"You would hurt me," said Ginny skeptically. 

"What purpose would that serve?"

"I don't know. I don't think it matters. You—you like—causing pain."

He shrugged. "There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that one can crush their enemies, I won't deny that, but I don't think we are enemies, Virginia. We are natural allies. Especially if you find your Tom here. I want to help you, because I think you will help my cause. You are, after all a pure-blood, and if Edward Lestrange is right, you are more than that. The choice is yours."

"Mine?"

"Absolutely. You can either search my magic to see if it contains any remnant of that which you lost, or you can turn around and go back to your classroom, at which point, Professor Snape will **obliviate** your memories of this time, and you will continue your studies just as you always have. You understand, why you have to be obliviated of course-- 

"I understand." Ginny hesitated, trying to find a loophole. "Are you saying, you would allow me to assess your magic, and see if it contains any remnants of—of—"

"Tom Riddle," Voldemort supplied.

"And you will not harm me? You would just stand there and not take any of my magic or try to possess me, or anything?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'or anything'," said Voldemort, "But essentially you are correct. In fact, I will allow you to have full reign of the whole process. I only ask that you conduct your search through all four aspects of the Elementals. I want it to be-- complete."

Ginny nodded slowly. "Wizard's binding magical promise?"

__

"No-o-o-o!" shouted Tom

"Wizard's binding magical promise," said Voldemort, pulling his wand and with the single **"Sectum!"** spell drawing a slash across both of their arms, his right, her left. Blood welled up and instantly mingled in the air since the spell was already begun with their intent. He closed his fingers, interlaced with hers and smiled. "Whenever you are ready, Virginia," he said, letting his forearm, sticky with blood, press against hers.

__

"Stupid, idiotic Gryffindors!" muttered Tom. And then as if he realized how close he was to Voldemort, he said "Quickly. Start with fire. Close with water." And sunk back to the depths of her memory.

"Fire?" thought Ginny. No. The order she was most comfortable with was Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Cautiously she pulled from the Earth Elemental, allowing it to mix with his magic. Instantly, she sensed Tom in the dark mire of Salazar and the myriad of spells that had created the new entity, Voldemort, and just as quickly, she felt the avalanche of his Power drop on her, burying her in his Dark Power. She faltered, trying to hold onto the spell, but all of her senses failed her. She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe. Her ears filled with the pressure of the magic, popping painfully, and she tasted blood in her mouth. The horrible suffocating pain of His Dark Magic filled her and she couldn't even begin to release fast enough. She knew she was dying, buried alive in this spell. She thrust her hands out in front of her desperately trying to claw her way out. "Tom?" She screamed. "Tom!"

__

"Ginny Love? Damn him! And then a vast breath blew the pain away. Lightening struck, swift and sure, piercing through her like a tempering fire, switching almost instantly to a cool rain, and then was still."

Ginny found herself looking into the red eyes of the Dark Lord, "Blood and magic mingled. You are mine," he whispered, just before she melted into unconsciousness.

A moment later, a searing pain in her arm jerked her awake. **"MorsMordre!"**

The Dark Mark magic burned deep, from the point of entry on her arm, it blossomed out, filling her, setting her bones afire and boiling her blood. She arched away from the inhuman magic and a guttural scream was torn from her, but still it didn't end. Still his magic poured into her like liquid fire, and he allowed her no release. She felt she would explode from the pain of the foreign dark magic until at last in desperation she began to thrust her own magic from her to make room for the terrible darkness and the pain ended instantly as he sucked her magic into himself. Immediately, she was inundated with a sensation of such ecstasy it brought tears of joy to her eyes—the pain completely washed away as if it had never been.

He rubbed his thumb gently over the smoking black Mark, and it faded to raw redness to a tiny inane tattoo, that could be covered by the pad of his thumb. "Remember, it is your choice, whether this Mark brings you pain or pleasure." 

Before she could answer, He had handed her to Edward and turned to the other wizards. "Narcissa!" He said in a low threatening voice. "What did you do with my Diary?"

"Master, it was not I who doubted your return," she said boldly. "My sister and I knew you would rise again. It was Lucius, during the silent times, who doubted you. He secretly gave the Diary to the girl in her first year at Hogwarts."

"Please, Master-" begain Lucius. "I thought-"

"You thought I would not return," Voldemort interrupted coldly. 

"I had hoped-you would-" whispered Lucius.

"Liar! If you had such a hope you would not have given my diary to a child who could not even begin to command my magic for years to come." Voldemort's voice became deadly soft. "You should have learned by now, not to lie to me, Lucius. I am sorely disappointed."

"My Lord-"

"You should have written in the diary yourself, Lucius."

****

"Crucio!" The unforgivable curse was leveled with a bored indifference, and a lazy flick of his hand. He held no wand.

Ginny couldn't take her eyes off of the horror of seeing Lucius Malfoy, who she had practically thought of as indestructible, fall to the ground like a limp rag doll. She hated him and yet-and yet-"

With his hand outstretched toward Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort continued to address Narcissa. "And what happened to the Diary?' 

"I don't know," said Narcissa, with nothing but a passing glance at her husband writhing on the ground, she turned back to the Dark Lord with regal composure. "It was returned to us with a hole burned through the center. It's inside the house." She gestured toward the stately expanse of the Malfoy Mansion. "Do you want me to get it and show you?"

"Yes."

"Accio The Dark Lord's Diary," she said raising her hand. In a moment the diary flew to it.

By now, Lucius was screaming. 

With a look of disgust, Lord Voldemort pronounced **"Mutus!"** Then he told Narcissa. You and Severus may see to the teaching of the young ones. They can practice **crucio** on Lucius. It will be a pleasant diversion from the work with bugs. With a wave of his hand, he pushed Lucius Malfoy away from him. The curse ended as Malfoy fell heavily on the ground several feet away. He was unconscious. 

Voldemort took the diary from Narcissa and examined it. 

"En-ervate," said a nervous voice that Ginny recognized as Gregory Goyle's.

"Enervate!" repeated Narcissa and once again Lucius Malfoy's sobbing was heard. "Th-thank you, Ma-s-ster!" he stuttered.

Voldemort ignored him. He put his finger in the hole made by the Basillist and brought bits of ash to his nose, smelling it. Then the strangest thing happened. Out of his mouth flicked a snake's tongue, which touched the ash on Tom's finger. Ginny nearly cried out. This was not her Tom, but somewhere in that horrific body he had to exist still, didn't he?

Voldemort turned. "Severus."

"Yes, Master."

"Take care of the children. I wish to speak with Virginia."

"As you wish, Master," said Snape with a small bow. 

"Oh, and don't let the Lestrange brothers kill Lucius." He paused. "Draco, should be last, I think. I want to see how he handles-his father."

Voldemort pulled the small bottle of the clear liquid from his pocket as he started to lead her to a bench in the flower garden, Ginny noticed there were absolutely no birds or butterflies or any sign of life in the garden at all, except for the flowers, in their final array of fall colors. Just as they neared the bench, Lucius cried out. Instead of muting him, as he did before, Tom began to weave a charm. It was a charm she knew—a ward. It was the same one, that Tom had taught her to give them privacy in her bedroom when she read and wrote in the diary. She caught her breath, and he smiled at her realizing that she recognized the charm as his own. It was strange, seeing a smile on his thin snake like mouth and those ferocious red eyes in the same face. He handed her the bottle of veritaserum. "Drink it all," he said watching her carefully, his red eyes bright.

__

"No, Ginny Love. Distract him. You have to spill at least some of it."

"I have never lied to you," she said softly as she took the bottle. She wondered how she could manage to spill some of it without his knowing. It was impossible. She put the bottle to her lips. After draining it, she repeated, "I have never lied to you-" 

He nodded. "Then you are the first," he said. "Come closer."

"Come to me." Ginny was assaulted with images of the diary. The number of times that Tom had called: "Come to me." Nausea crept up her throat. She couldn't do this. She wasn't brave. She should have stayed in Gryffindor tower. She froze.

"Come to me, and kiss my robes, Virginia, like all of my loyal followers."

"I will not do that," said Ginny softly. "I have no desire to kiss your robes."

The creature smiled a strangely familiar smile on its snake face. "Ah yes, Then perhaps you would prefer to kiss my mouth." The red eyes assessed her and the tiny snake tongue darted in and out of the lipless mouth. 

Ginny tasted nausea at the back of her throat. She had no desire to do that either. "Why had she come here!" She had to have been crazy-or possessed. Did he still have that much power over her—to bring her even before he branded her with his Dark Mark? She was shaking and sweating, absolutely sick with fear. And what power over her did he have now? She wondered morbidly. Now that she had a Dark Mark. 

"I smell your fear," he said, flicking his tongue again. "It is a sweet perfume." Flicking his tongue again, this time touching her neck with it, he continued. "I wonder if it smelled as sweet to me when I was in the Diary. Can you tell me?" Once again, his tongue flicked against her neck. "Show me?" She dared not move. She stood frozen, like a statue, willing him to move away-shouting in her mind for him to move away-praying for him to move away.

"Later, then," said the creature, as he backed off slightly. "We have plenty of time."

"Tom! Tom! How did he do that? Can he read my mind?"

__

"I don't know, Ginny Love. He could always read mine, but I thought that was just because he lived inside of me."

"After all," continued Voldemort. "You are mine. Tell me how you came to have the Diary." He seated himself on the garden bench.

"It was in my Transfiguration book," said Ginny.

"How appropo," said Voldemort.

"I didn't know who put it there," said Ginny, "but I later come to believe it was Lucius Malfoy."

"So you kept it. You knew it wasn't yours. Why did you keep it?"

"You-the Tom in the diary convinced me.-You seemed so lonely. Fifty years in the diary. At first, I thought, that you were trapped there by some evil wizard-" Her voice ground to a halt.

"And then you discovered that I WAS the evil wizard." The creature-how could she call him Tom-thought this was particularly amusing. "But I was never lonely."

"Oh you were," Ginny disagreed. "In that awful orphanage. I probably would have cursed them too when they took Buzzy from you." The vision from Tom's descriptions came to her mind. She saw a tiny frightened three year old Tom, clutching Buzzy, a blue stuffed rabbit. "It was missing an eye and had most of the fur rubbed off. It had been a hand me down from another child, a muggle, who was adopted from the orphanage when Tom was three. Then, when you were older it was passed down again to William McMillian, another muggle."

"I never owned a stuffed rabbit," he said coldly. "Nice touch don't you think? It seemed to have elicited your sympathy just as planned. Let's skip ahead, shall we?" 

Ginny's mind was racing. There was no stuffed rabbit! Never? She wasn't sure she believed him. Tom had been so convincing-There was a rabbit.

__

"There was a rabbit," said Tom. 

How many people did you and Nagendra kill?" asked Voldemort.

"None," she said.

"What!"

"You wanted me to, but I-defied you-I—"

"None?" asked Voldemort again, almost uncertain whether the veritaserium was still working.

"That's correct."

"So did nothing happen to these cursed mudbloods?"

"They were petrified," replied Ginny. "And Madam Pomfrey revived them all by the end of the year-even Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris."

"Filch, the squib, takes care of Mrs. Norris now! Oh that is too precious," said the creature, breaking into a grating sound that Ginny realized was laughter, but she didn't know what was so funny, so she remained quiet.

"So Potter was petrified too I suppose?"

"No," replied Ginny.

"Perhaps I need to back track a bit. Tell me about the events leading up to the Chamber." said Voldemort. 

"Well, the first thing you told me to do was to kill the roosters."

"Yes, yes," said Voldemort dismissively, standing and pacing away from her, but careful to remain in the ward's boundary. "Wormtail, has told me that you have been the caretaker of the eggs."

"You will continue to do this for me Virginia," said Voldemort raising a hand to her forehead**. "Imperio!** Keep my basilisks safe from harm." A soft floating feeling overtook her, and she felt that nothing would make her happier than protecting the eggs."

"I will," she said.

"Good. Now, what happened on the day Tom took you to the Chamber for the last time?"

Ginny began her story with breakfast and trying to tell her friends what had happened to her. 

"Even here, you were fighting me," Voldemort said. "Just hours before the Chamber."

"Yes." Ginny agreed.

"Amazing you had such strength. Quirrel didn't have such resolve, and he was a grown wizard. Only a Hufflepuff, but still a grown wizard, and you were an eleven-year-old child at this time."

"I was twelve," said Ginny. She proceeded to tell him about their trip to the Chamber and finally losing consciousness. It seemed as if all had gone according to plan, but somehow the plan was ruined. 

"Have you heard stories about what happened after you lost consciousness?" asked Voldemort.

"Yes." 

"Tell me."

Harry came. 

"Blast that damned bloody Potter! So your prince rescued you did he? And he killed the basillist-destroyed the diary-"

"Yes," said Ginny, "But Harry's not my prince. He doesn't-I-He was just a-crush-when I was a little girl."

"Is that so?" he asked in an oily voice that made Ginny uncomfortable. "Are you-no longer-a little girl?"

"I don't know," whispered Ginny panic rising in her.

"Now, my little Gryffindor, I need to know where your loyalties lie-with Harry Potter or with me."

"I'm not," she breathed. "You mustn't call me a Gryffindor, Tom."

He struck suddenly, like a snake, but not with magic. One massive hand closed around her throat. Even as she struggled for breath, she felt the scars and furrows in his hand. "I am Lord Voldemort," he spat. 

She closed her eyes, thinking desperately, I'm a witch. I don't need to breathe air. I can fill my lungs with magic, but nothing, not even the magic seemed to be drawn into her lungs, and she felt nothing but fear. Spots began to appear in her line of vision from her lack of air. It never crossed her mind to reach for her wand.

"Some snakes," he whispered "crush their prey. If you dare breath Tom Riddle's name again in my presence, you will never breathe again. Prophecy child or not." He released her abruptly and turned immediately back to the conversation they had been having, as if he didn't notice or care about her distress. 

She swallowed several times, massaging her throat.

"You said you wouldn't hurt me."

"I lied," he said.

"Just like you lied when you tried to possess me with the Diary?"

"Tried?" asked the creature, turning on her. "Why do you think you are here, child? I still have every bit of power over you that I ever had and more. I am the real person, what you had before was only a memory-a weak and now forgotten part of myself."

"You are not a person," said Ginny sadly. "I wished you were. I wanted you to be-"

"I know what you wanted, Virginia. I know because I—I and your precious Tom--magicked the diary and you wanted exactly what the diary demanded that you choose—exactly what you were enchanted to believe."

"You have no power over me."

" Don't I? Come to me."

"Why?" asked Ginny.

"Because I wish it so. Because you are mine. It was you who came to me-both times-you who opened the diary and you touched the portkey. You came to me and begged me to possess you, and now, you think you are free?" His laugh was harsh.

"Come." Said the creature again. 

She followed the motion of his darting tongue with disgust, but still took a step closer.

"That's it," he encouraged. "Just like the fairy tales when the frog becomes the handsome prince-the snake becomes a more powerful wizard-with a kiss-and a bit more--"

She knew he was testing her—testing the power of the enchantment of the Diary, but the Diary was gone, and had no control over her. Still she took a step closer. She needed to touch him—to know—to feel Tom's magic inside of him--

She put her warm lips against the cold scales of his mouth. There were no lips. There was no pleasure.

"Oh well," said the creature, pushing her abruptly away. "I never believed in fairy tales anyway, but it proves that I still possess you, Virginia."

"No," she said softly. "It proves that I--love—I care about you-or who you once were"

"Goodness, what a powerful enchantment I wove to keep you believing that so long after the diary had been destroyed. Perhaps-"

There was a moment, when neither of them spoke, but Ginny saw something familiar in his face, a glint of green in his eyes, and she spoke, impassioned, on impulse "I want you back-" Ginny stopped herself from saying Tom's name just in time.

He froze and held her away from him, staring into her eyes in wonder. It was only then, that she realized she had said, the sentence, "I want you back—" in parseltongue. It seemed to have transformed. Him. He smiled, a true smile, on his snake mouth, and for just a moment he softened.

Nagini was slithering wildly about her feet. "It sssspeaks!" said Nagini. "The Hisssuss ssspeaks."

"Not hisssuss, Ssheis!" hissed Ginny, and Voldemort laughed softly. 

"Perhaps an illusion," said the creature. "Just for old times sake." He pulled his wand out of his robe and ran it over himself. Slowly, the snakeskin began to change and his red eyes were a vivid bottle green. He was his sixteen year old self.

"Oh." Ginny just stared at him. He was even more handsome than she had imagined, but the image of the snake tongue darting in and out of his mouth was still with her. She tried to hold on to her disgust. She tried very hard to remember that snake's tongue. His face was inches from hers. She felt his breath on her cheek, and struggled to remember this was Voldemort, not Tom. He was old enough to be her grandfather. He was not even human. Nonetheless, she found herself breathless, anticipating his next move, such was the magic he wove. 

He moved his hand up to her face, and she felt the calluses there from the magical burning every time he tried to misuse Tom Riddle's wand. Although his visage did not change, suddenly, the spell was broken for Ginny. She knew exactly who he was and who he wasn't.

"Is the veritaserium still working?" he asked.

She hesitated, uncertain of what to answer. "Yes," she said slowly.

He wrapped his arms around her, like the coils of a snake, and instead of feeling sheltered, as he intended, she felt trapped. "Do you have something that belongs to me?"

"No," she answered uncertainly. "Was he speaking of Tom?"

"Have you found the emerald that Helga hid from me?"

"No."

"Very well, then. **Imperio.** When you find it, you will bring it to me."

"I will bring it to you."

"I think you do remember what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, don't you, Virginia?"

"The Medi-witches and wizards at St. Mongos removed most of my memories of the time in the Chamber," She answered. "There is much I don't remember."

"But you will try to remember for me, won't you Virginia?" His voice was coaxing and soft, almost seductive.

"Yes."

"Do you remember consenting to being possessed?"

"Yes."

"When."

"Every time I brought the basilisk," Ginny answered.

"And who controlled the basilisk?"

Ginny shivered with the memory. "You did. Through me."

And afterwards, in the Chamber, when the Diary was destroyed, Tom called out to you."

"Yes." Ginny answered.

"And you let him take refuge in you."

Ginny nearly answered yes, but she remembered Tom's fear of Voldemort knowing he existed in any form in her.

"No," she said. There was no pain. Her mouth did not burst into flames. Nothing happened because of her lie.

__

A whoop of joy sounded within her, and she felt Tom's elation. "Kiss your Professor for me," he said. "He didn't give you veritaserium!"

Voldemort eyed her critically, and Ginny had the very definite feeling that he was trying to discern what she was thinking. "Testudo," she thought, but although the charm could block spells, she didn't think it could do anything to block telepathy.

"He called out to you--" the Creature said again. "What did he say?"

"Yes," Ginny said. "He asked me to save him."

"And did you?"

"I didn't intend--" Ginny began, but he interrupted her, grasping her shoulders and glaring at her.

"He said, _ 'Save me_.' And--what--did--you--say?'" roared the Creature.

"Get out!" 

Voldemort began to laugh as he released her. "All your work and wooing did no good at all," he muttered to himself--or perhaps to the wizard who shared his body. "You are a fool," he laughed aloud. 

Dropping the guise of Tom Riddle completely now, he wrapped his arms more tightly around her, like the coils of a huge snake. "And you have not seen nor heard from him since the Chamber, correct?" He asked.

"Not since," Ginny began and then her mouth fought over saying the next words. "Not since I told him 'get out'," she said, and to her amazement, tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. Perhaps the strain was finally getting to her.

"You are lying," he said. 

And Ginny felt the blood run from her face.

"I felt the magic of Tom Riddle in your spell, when you called the Elementals." Said Voldemort, his nostrils flaring. "I too, recognize his magic."

Ginny's mouth went dry, and her heart was beating in her throat so that she thought she would choke if she uttered a single word. Voldemort's red eyes were hard and staring into hers, and then they seemed to glaze over, as if he were no longer seeing her at all.

__

"Voldemort heard laughter in his ears. When you performed those immortality spells you should have checked to be sure they would also ward off senility," said Tom. "Of course, you never did have any Ravenclaw brains, did you, Salazar? I've bested you again. Don't you recognize the magic that has been inside of you for the past 54 years?—or inside of me—because actually this is still my body—as much as I hate to admit it."

Voldemort wrapped his hand around his wand and walled off the annoying voice in his head.

Abruptly he broke the ward, and turned from Ginny, leaving her confused and frightened.

"Return to your teacher," he said, as he walked back to the center of the Death Eaters, and commanded their attention.

Ginny stumbled to her feet and returned to Snape, her heart slowly regaining its natural rhythm. Why? She wondered. "Why had he just let her go?"

==

"Edward Lestrange," said Voldemort.

"Yes, Master."

"Give me your arm."

Edward, white-faced and tense, held both arms out to Voldemort.

"Look how well Carman has taught this one," remarked Voldemort. "Ask for one arm, and receive two." Voldemort took hold of Edward's left arm and pushed up the sleeve of his robe, revealing the Dark Mark which still showed red and angry on his skin. 

Edward sucked in his breath.

Voldemort turned his wand to the earth, and commanded, "**Mors Mordre! Edward Lestrange.**" The Earth was burnt with the Dark Mark and Edward sank to his knees with the force of the spell. 

"But I'm here," he murmured through gritted teeth, as the Dark Mark on his skin burned black. 

"Lord Voldemort, and only Lord Voldemort can take away your pain." Voldemort placed his hand over Edward's Dark Mark and it hissed as though fire was immersed in water. Edward closed his eyes--Relief in every line of his posture. "A little demonstration to show you that I've perfected it's calling power so that I can call you individually as I wish, gently or for those of you who defy me, with more persuasion. No longer can potions or charms dull the pain of defying me. You are different from your parents, my young Death Eaters, because you were called to me after my resurrection. Before that, I was a mere wizard, the greatest of wizards, but a mere wizard, nonetheless. All that has changed, since my resurrection Ihave powers unheard of in all magical history. And you, the privileged first new generation of Death Eaters will learn what it truly means to follow the King of Snakes."

"And now, young Lestrange," said Voldemort. "You know I am immortal?"

"Yes, Master," Edward whispered.

"Have you ever wondered how such an accomplishment could come to pass?"

"I—no Master. You—you are great beyond my wondering."

Volemort chuckled softly. "So, like your Mother. She is dear to me," he said as he laid the back of his hand against Edward's cheek, magic crackling, but Edward did not pull away. "Yes," murmured Voldemort. " I would enjoy feeling her magic—a complementary magic—inside of me again. I think, perhaps, you, Edward, may be given a great honor. I'm not sure. I haven't tested this part of my new powers. You would like to help me, wouldn't you?"

"Anything, Master," replied Edward. 

"Good. Perhaps you will be given the chance to die for me. I'm not certain how it will work—We shall see--Unlike Lucius, you understand what an honor it is to give your power to me, do you not, Edward Lestrange?"

"Yes, Master," Edward said hesitantly.

"Give me your arm then," said Lord Voldemort.

"No," cried Ginny, but Snape's fingers closed over her arm, and held her back.

"But--But if it pleases, my Master," said Edward, "I would like to know if the girl is actually the Prophecy Child, before-before-If you would grant this-small favor-It would give me great pleasure to know that I was the one to bring her to you."

For a moment, Voldemort held his hand over Edward's Dark Mark. All the while, Edward sweating and tense, his left arm held motionless in Voldemort's hand. Nothing seemed to be happening. "Very well," said Voldemort. "As thanks to your mother and father who are still in Askaban, I will still my hand. Perhaps they would like to see what a fine Slytherin you have turned out to be. Too long have my faithful ones waited," he muttered, as he brushed his knuckles against Edward's cheek. "Far too long, and you, young Lestrange. You, who hold nothing back from me, you will be rewarded with my faithful ones." 

"Severus! Which of these are going with us to Drumstrang? Have you decided?"

"I have, Master," breathed Snape, producing a parchment from his robes, but Voldemort waved it away. 

"Bring it tonight," he said to Severus.

"Yes, Master, I—will it be soon?"

Voldemort fixed Snape with his cold stare. "I shall not tell you the date, nor the hour," he said. 'We wouldn't want that old bird, Dumbledore to wheedle that information out of you, would we?"

"No. Of course not. You are wise, Master."

"I will call you earlier than the others tonight, Severus. We have things to--discuss—you and I."

"I am—looking forward to it, Master," said Snape with a low bow. 

"We shall see," said Voldemort as he laid his hand on Draco's shoulder. "You do not shirk from performing **crucio** on your own father?" he said.

When Draco glanced up at the Dark Lord, his gray eyes were intense. "I only wish that I could also practice on my mother, if you would permit it," he said softly.

The Dark Lord smiled, looking at Narcissa who was busy with young Nott, at the other end of the garden. "Perhaps," he whispered to Draco. "We shall see." He raised his voice to call across the expanse of gardens. "Bring young Nott to me, Narcissa."

Shivering with fear the boy was brought before the Dark Lord. 

"See that you don't become a disappointment to me," he said, putting a long finger under the boy's chin. "I hope you have more strength than your father."

Struggling to stand tall, Alvin Nott said, "We do not have to be like our fathers."

"No," said Voldemort. "We don't. We certainly don't."

==

****

Quick. Review.

Notes to my faithful reviewers—You shall be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams.

Jager 

Glad you like the Tom/Ginny stuff. More to come. 

**Kemenran**

**__**

Well, now you know what happens to Ginny. Still want 'more please?"

****

**ennui2**

**__**

WOO_HO! Yes. I've read "My Eternal Curse" I agree it is one of the best Ginny/Tom stories. ID is 817783. Go read it. Right after you review. About all the Vol/Tom/Sal/ Gin stuff—RIGHT. Your comments about Edward helped me to revise this chapter and make it clear that Edward has his own agenda and he doesn't care if it includes Snape.

****

Fan of Herbert! OH Wow! That's better than JK! Jumps up and down! Sparks! Whoosh! OK, gotta go release this magic somewhere-- Yeah, I'm really 14. The veritaserium is working.

****

Jager

Still think Chapter 45 is the best chapter yet?

****

**Silverfox1**

That's Gryffindors. Who cares. It's just a Slytherin**_._**

**Reiven**

**__**

I like Spike too. Ready for the next chapter? 

**__**

hesed 

Oh yeah. Tom is Good. He's very—good—heheheh. I'm a Tom/Ginny fan too, but I refuse to turn Slytherins into Hufflepuffs so if you're looking for "sweet" good, you won't find it here.

****

**Raven173**

**__**

Psychologist? LOL Must be because of all the Ginny/Tom stuff. "OK, Ginny Love, tell me about the voices in your head" Hehehehe. Of course Tom is up to something. He's a Slytherin for gosh sakes. About Microsoft word. I write everything in Microsoft word, then I click, file, then click "save as" and save as HTML. Keep the Word doc, because after you save, if you try to edit, mine messes up the spacing. I don't know why, but I just will put it back in Word if I need to change anything. My AIM is carmandoogle if you want to IM me and we can work on it together. (ladylestrange was taken! Can you believe that?)

****

Reiven

__

Yeah, I'm really 14. I've had English teachers accuse me of cheating too, but I'm homeschooled now. I can't spell worth crap though and would die without my spell check. And I'll write English papers in trade for your doing my algebra—Anyone??? Thanks for the info on the fan fic sites. I might put my stuff on efanfiction.net too just so when ff.net is down, my readers have somewhere to go to see my stuff.

**Eizoku**

**__**

No I promise, once again, that I won't turn Tom into an innocent. He's a typical Slytherin, but without Salazar, I doubt that he would have gone as far as Voldemort did.

****

The Elemental Sorceress. 

Thanks. Do you think Tom wants his body back? Yuck. It's OK to be confused. Soon, all will be clear as mudblood. Heheheh.

****

trillium 

OK so now you have twice as many questions. Guess you have to keep reading, right? And send me an email and I'll get that pic of Ginny under an invisibility cloak right out to you. Happy Birthday. Glad you decided to spend your birthday with me. I feel special. Ready? OK make a wish and ON COME THE CANDLES. (;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;) In case you are wondering, that's your birthday cake with 21 candles—no present, just cake. Yes, Samara is rather impulsive, isn't she?

But maybe not as impulsive as Ginny—stupid Gryffindors—Opps. If I offended any of you Gryffindors out there—hey, oh well, you expect that of Slytherins, don't you?

************************************

****

You know what you have to do. Click that review button. **10 REVIEWS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER**—unless you aren't quite ready to return to the Chamber ????? to find out what happened to Draco's sister???? To travel with Ginny and Tom to their darkest memories??? Oh yeah, and there's the Gryffindors trying to help too…

Warning: PG 13 . Not for the faint of heart. 10 REVIEWS IF YOU DARE. Heheheheheh—Cough—Choke—Sparks--

Lady Lestrange

So why are you still reading this? You're supposed to be writing your REVIEW. Now, copy the address of this story and send it to everyone in your email box. If you do, **You shall be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams **If you don't, well,** Crucio!**

Lady Lestrange

************************************************

(A/N: The poem, BLACK CHANT was written by,** Skull Bearer**

After the ff.net thing, **profile.php?userid=323240**

(Sorry, but if you ever tried to put up a link, you know that ff.net won't let you)

If you like dark and scary, read Skull bearer's stuff. Short and straight to the heart. I'm sure Edward could have written his poem himself, but I loved this description of Death Eaters and wanted

To share it with you. So, as soon as you review, go read Skull bearer.)


	46. CH 45: Blood and Magic Mingled

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Blood and Magic Mingled

Chapter 45

(A/N: School's started. Sorry I'm late with this chapter. I will try to get the chapter up as soon as you have 10 reviews.) 

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter—I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said.

Be warned, the upcoming chapters are the reason this fic is rated PG-13. 

****

Blood and Magic Mingled

Chapter 45

The group of Slytherins arrived back at Hogwarts by using the portkey three separate times, because Millicent Bullstrode took it into her head to chase Wormtail into a knot in a tree instead of grabbing the bird's nest. 

Snape had to go back to get her and he was currently berating her for her lack of tact, while the excess wind elemental, escaping from her fingertips whipped his robes around his ankles. "Do you really think it is wise to make an enemy of a wizard who is so close to the Dark Lord?" he asked her. "It's no wonder so many of the Slytherins end up dead before the graduate. Even Goyle has more brains."

Goyle, meanwhile was digging in his robe pocket for a snack. He pulled out a handful of sticky Bott's Beans. "Didn't want to eat it while we were doing the **crucio** on your Dad," he explained to Draco. "Vincent said it would make him sick. Eww! Vomit!" He spat the bean out on the ground and popped another into his mouth. That's better."

"What flavor?" asked Vince.

"Cherry--or it could be dirt, I think, or it could just be the Earth Elemental—He pulled the remainder out of his pocket and proceeded to wipe the dirt off of them. He handed a few to Vincent.

"Ah—they all taste like dirt." Vincent complained. "They're ruined."

"No, they're alright," said Greg, popping another into his mouth. "I like dirt."

"Edward, you just melted when the Dark Lord let go of you. You were so—a puddle," said Ethan, pushing his hair back with a hand that was still trailing sparks of wandless magic. "For a while there, I thought I might get to be an only child."

"I wasn't a puddle," said Edward loftily.

"Maybe you just pissed your pants, then," said Draco.

Edward lifted a threatening hand and a blast of wind followed it, but Ethan gave Draco a hard shove, knocking him off balance, and spreading sparks.

"Oh, like you wouldn't, Draco!" said Ethan. "I thought Edward thought pretty quick on his feet. Ethan cleared his throat. "If only I could know if she really was the Prophecy child, I'll die happy," Ethan intoned laughing.

"Well, I would like to know—" said Edward, releasing the wind and harmlessly ruffling their hair.

"Wonder what Carman is going to say, when she finds out she missed your prophecy child," said Draco, pulling his wand and blasting several small trees as he walked. "She's not going to be happy."

"Yeah," said Ethan. "knowing Carman, she'll** crucio** first and ask questions later. Better be ready to duck, baby brother." He threw a handful of sparks playfully at his twin.

Edward blew them back to him in a shower of fireworks. "I couldn't help it," said Edward. "You saw what happened. I mean, I thought I had her after the Quiddich game and then that stupid poltergeist flew through her head. Who knew she was going to waltz in here today and say, I'm going with you to the Dark Lord?"

"See what happens when you write women poetry," said Ethan, and they all sniggered.

"Yeah, you damned near get yourself killed," said Draco, absently levitating a leaf in front of him. "So does McGonagall still think you're the prophecy child, Edward?"

"Oh, yeah, ever since I've painted my wall."

"I want to see that wall," said Draco allowing the leaf to drift to the ground. 

"Don't need to, cousin," said Ethan. "Just go out to the Forbidden Forest about midnight."

"Been there," said Draco boredly. "First year."

"Liar!" said Ethan. 

"You know, sometimes, you really get on my nerves," said Draco turning his wand on Ethan.

"Do you still need a wand?" joked Ethan, lifting his hand, causing sparks to crackle in the air several feet away. "I feel like I'm still holding enough magic to curse half of Gryffindor house. You should be easy, Draco."

"That is exactly why you have no control, Lestrange," said Draco coldly.

Snape's hand on the back of Ethan's neck, stopped the spell. "Release," he said. "I can't have you going to McGonagall drunk on magic. All of it," Snape warned, shaking Ethan slightly, sparks showering the ground. 

"Yes, sir," said Ethan meekly releasing, and Draco smirked at him.

"Suck up," Ethan mouthed. "Watch yourself in transfig."

"Well don't do anymore wandless magic in her class, Ethan," said Goyle nastily. "If you lose us any more points, I may strangle you with my bare hands."

Edward had finally fell back to walk with Ginny, who seemed to be in a trance. She didn't say one word to him the entire walk back to the classroom.

Nott was walking alone several paces behind everyone. "So how long do you suppose it will take her to assimilate the foreign magic?" he asked following Draco's example and taking out his wand to channel the remainder of the wandless magic.

"A lot longer than you," Vincent joked and Nott blushed and looked away.

"The length of time really doesn't always determine what kind of wizard you are," said Draco. "It really depends on how much of his magic you took in, in the first place. Obviously, if you only take in a little it isn't going to take you long to assimilate."

"Are we going to go through that again," complained Edward. "Ethan and I took just as much magic as you. You just puked longer—"

"Personally, I'd be amazed if she made it under 20 hours," said Ethan. "In fact, I'll bet you 5 sickles, Draco—" 

Make it a galleon, drawled Draco, Sixteen or seventeen hours at most, or will that break you?

"Done," said Ethan.

"I have to agree with Draco," said Edward.

"What!" said Ethan.

"Well, she held out a hell of a long time. I thought we were going to actually get to see someone spontaneously combust.

"That's a myth," said Ethan.

"No the Ravenclaws believe it," said Edward. "That's why they don't do wandless magic."

"You're kidding," said Nott.

"Hey. Alvin, back to the land of the living, I see," said Draco.

"I'm not sure, actually," said Nott, examining his Dark Mark.

"Oh, cheer up," said Vincent, clapping him on the back. "You're part of the group now."

"I know," said Nott, "But now my Fridays are ruined. You know, I used to get up in the morning and think about you guys, off to the Dark Lord—I actually felt sorry for you. You've got this ugly little tattoo that burns like hell, not my idea of a pleasant wake up call. Then, you go to Him and have a good chance of getting crucioed at least, maybe even killed, for what? So you can go kill some muggles that you don't even care whether they live or die? Me, on the other hand, I had a pleasant Friday morning with Lauren, and Pansy, and Blaise and Millicent all to myself. We could practice a little wandless magic, play Quit, or play–other things, and then Ginny joined our little group, and we lost Millicent. Personally I thought it was a good trade, Millicent for Ginny—but now—"Alvin sighed. "The girls have no one to protect them."

Ethan sputtered and sparked, laughing "Protect them?"

Alvin shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a lover not a fighter."

"Yeah, he's certainly not a fighter," Millicent purred, sounding rather cat-like.

"Hey Millicent—" began Goyle.

"No!" she snapped.

Goyle sighed. "How about you Alvin, do you have your transfig homework done?" 

"Yeah," said Nott.

"Can I copy it?"

"You don't have time now, you stupid git! Are you out of your mind?"

"No, that's Weasley over there," said Draco. "She's got loony all monopolized."

"Are you alright, Ginny?" Edward asked worriedly. "Do you think I should take her to the infirmary?"

"And tell Madam Pomfrey what?" shrieked Draco. "Oh, she just came back from the Dark Lord. She was comatose before she got her Dark Mark, but she seems to be a little worse now."

"I've never seen anyone get so dizzy that fast," said Ethan, "but she did take a major dose of His magic. Why did he have her pull the Elementals, anyway. He didn't do that for any of us. She practically put on her own Dark Mark."

"The Dark Lord was just being cautious," said Draco while painstakingly levitating a dozen leaves at various levels in front of him. "The Prophecy child would have to make the choice. Haven't you read the prophecies, yourself, Ethan? Oh, I forgot. Your house-elf isn't here to read it to you, is she?"

"Actually—"began Ethan, showering sparks, but Edward interrupted him. "So, Draco, you finally admit that she is the prophecy child."

"No." Draco said. He dropped one of the leaves, and stopped to levitate it again. "She's not."

Edward sighed. "You're such a prat, Draco."

"And you're such a—Gryffindor!" Draco replied smirking.

"Professor Snape?" Edward turned toward his instructor. "Ginny hasn't said a word since we portkeyed. Do you think she's alright?"

Snape walked over and looked carefully at Ginny's eyes. "Go to Transfiguration," he commanded the rest of the class. Edward, keep a watch on her today. She's just exhausted, but I'd like to see her get through a few more classes before she goes to her room. You know what's coming," Snape said. 

Edward nodded, as Snape searched his shelves for a potion.

"What is that?" Edward asked.

"Pepper up," said Snape.

"That's it?"

Snape nodded. "The effects of the foreign magic just have to be endured. Did your grandmother do anything else for you?"

"No, Carman said that—" Edward shook his head. "Never mind."

Snape nodded and continued to force the potion drop by drop down Ginny's throat, and then did a drying spell on Ginny's soaking wet hair. "You can tell Professor Sprout she took Pepper up because she wasn't sleeping well. We don't want anyone to think that the smoke coming out of her ears is a symptom—"

"Thank you, Sir."

"Keep talking to her as long as she is awake. That will help her to focus. We don't want her breaking down and confessing to getting the Dark Mark in one of her classes." Said Snape. "And give her this potion later today. It will help her to sleep tonight."

"She can't do that—Confess I mean, can she?" said Edward. "Wouldn't the Dark Mark itself prevent her—"

"Yes," said Snape, "But you don't want her to go through that, do you?"

"No."

And Edward, your hair is still blowing. Release the rest of the Air Elemental."

"Oh Professor Sprout won't mind," said Edward. "She said she likes a little breeze blowing through the greenhouse. It's good for the plants."

"Mr. Lestrange," Snape said sternly. "That was not a request."

"Yes, sir," said Edward, and reluctantly released.

== 

Portkeys never made Ginny sick, and yet she felt nauseous as she clung to the bird's nest. The jerk behind her navel, pulled at her guts and if she had eaten anything for breakfast, she was sure it would have been on the forest floor.

"I don't feel well at all," she thought, licking her lips and tasting the salt and wetness of sweat and tears and magic on her own face.

__

"Don't feel well!" shouted Tom. "Sweet Merlin, girl you are lucky you aren't dead! What do you Gryffindors use for brains? Cobwebs? And didn't I tell you to start with Fire? He was expecting you to start with Earth."

With her wet hair trailing down her back, Ginny shivered and swayed dizzily. "He's still there—you—Tom. I felt his magic—in that—that—creature." A cool fall breeze was blowing around them, and she felt chilled, although the Mark on her arm still was emanating heat. It wasn't really painful right now, but a dull ache coursed through her arm. She felt like she was getting the flu or--some other illness."

"Why did he let me go?" she wondered. "He said I was lying—"

__

"Don't question miracles, girl. Just be thankful for them," spat Tom. "No thanks to you."

"I don't understand what happened. He said, I was lying. He knew. Don't you think he would have sensed your magic? Just like I sensed you--Tom in him?"

__

"I would have thought so," said Tom. "But if he did, he wouldn't have let us go. We'd be dead. No, maybe not. He'd probably still be torturing us."

"What's going to happen to me now?" asked Ginny softly.

__

"How should I know? You got yourself into this mess! And me! I can't believe you got ME mixed up in his spell. You have to be the stupidest witch who ever walked the face of the Earth. I might have been better off in Crabbe or Goyle's head."

She shivered again, as the cold wind whipped around her, and she was suddenly aware of Edward's arm around her. She leaned against his shoulder.

__

"Don't trust Lestrange," Tom yelled at her. "Don't you see, you were just his prize?"

"I chose to go. Edward didn't make me go and Edward nearly died," whispered Ginny.

__

"Yes, well, better him than us. I told you not to go, Ginny Love."

"How could you have ever become that monster, Tom? Why didn't you fight him? Stop him from becoming--"

_"If you are going to continue to be this asinine, Ginny. I'm not even going to speak to you."_

"Wait! Tom! Salazar said-- Did you—and he really enchant the diary like a love potion?"

__

"What?"

"Am I so controlled by the enchantment of the diary? Is that why I went to him?"

__

"You're asking **me **why you went to him? This is too ludicrous!"

"What exactly was the diary enchantment, Tom? Tell me."

__

"It's complicated. I doubt you'd understand."

"Please?"

__

"It was different for different people—all Gryffindors needed was a person to rescue. The others needed something different. For a Hufflepuff, a strong pity—a need to free—the person in the diary—a promise of power if the writer was a Slytherin, a tantalizing puzzle for a Ravenclaw—There were many enchantments. There had to be variations for different types of people. Why?"

"Because He said I was still controlled by it. That I—love him—you because of it--"

__

"How could that be? Use your head, Ginny. The diary is destroyed."

"But you're not, Tom"

__

"WHAT! Don't you dare blame me for your mistake! I didn't do anything! If you remember, I told you NOT to go to him! As a matter of fact, I didn't even enchant the diary to allow a person to be possessed. Salazar did that. If it had been up to me, Salazar would have stayed in it with no doorways out."

"So there was no—love enchantment?"

__

"Ha! Do you seriously think Salazar would even recognize love? Let alone how to enchant a diary to elicit it? Love. Pity. It's all the same to him. Helga loved him. Pitied him. Feared him. And believe it, she was the only one that ever loved that miserable bastard. No one could love him—He was—He was--" Tom's line of thought suddenly faltered. 

"What! What are you thinking, Ginny? Of course, I'm talking about Salazar! I'm nothing like him!"

****

"Nothing!"

"Do you hear me?"

"It's hard not to. You're shouting in my head, Tom."

__

"Tom's thoughts were suddenly chaotic. Angry. Impossible to discern. Trying desperately to shut her away. Behind a resounding slamming door—

Ginny was silent. Waiting. After a long while, she asked, "What will this Dark Mark do to me, Tom?"

__

"How the hell should I know? It was only a theory, and anyway, I never planned to be on this side of it."

==

Someone was ladling potion into her mouth—Snape. She gagged and sputtered, nausea gripping her. Snape paused, but only for a moment. A few more drops of the nasty stuff trickled down her throat. He sinuses started to clear and her eyes watered. In a few minutes, she felt heat and energy coursing through her body. Smoke escaped her ears and nose. Pepper up potion, Ginny recognized. Snape dried her hair with a spell and sent her off to herbology with Edward. She wondered how on earth she was going to make it through classes. She wanted nothing but to lie down, although the effects of the potion was making her feel hyper. She paused for just a moment at the doorway, looking around the classroom, steeling herself to get through herbology class. Ron and Hermione had their heads together, whispering furiously. Harry was conspicuously absent from the little trio.

"Ginny!" shouted Samara. "What the hell did you do?" In seconds, she was at Ginny's side, shaking her. 

Ginny couldn't speak. It took all of her effort not to throw up all over Samara. 

"Your aura!" began Samara, but Professor Sprout, with her cool efficiency, directed Samara back to her plants, and allowed Ginny to sit down. Although the Pepper Up, made Ginny able to function in class, she felt keyed up and continued to fidget as Professor Sprout spoke to her.

"Are you alright?" Professor Sprout asked frowning at the smoke coming out of Ginny's ears.

"She said she took Pepper up this morning because she wasn't sleeping well," said Edward. "She seemed tired in ADADA."

"That's right," Ginny agreed listlessly. 

It must be wearing off," said Edward. 

Professor Sprout nodded sympathetically, and patted her back gently. As Ginny began pruning her plants, Harry Potter joined the class. He handed a parchment with Dumbledore's seal on it to Professor Sprout and took his seat. Immediately, Ron and Hermione accosted him with questions. 

Ginny nearly made it to lunch time before asking to go to her room. By then, her pale face was flushed and sweating. No one who looked at her could deny that she looked like she was feeling ill. All she wanted to do was go to her room and lie down, but that seemed like an impossibility. 

She stood in the Great Hall clutching the bottle of potion that Edward had given her from Snape. She held it for a few minutes uncertain how fast it would work. She couldn't drink it until she was in her room, and she never wanted to be in her room more than she did right now.

==

Harry, Ron and Hermione all wanted to know what Samara saw in Ginny's aura that upset her so. They seemed to think that it had something to do with Harry's pain in his scar last night and his passing out in Advanced Charms this morning, but Samara didn't see how it could be connected and she didn't take the time to answer them. She needed to talk to Ginny first. Harry, Ron and Hermione all skipped lunch with the intention of following Ginny and finding out if Harry's scar hurting this morning, and Ginny's aura changes had anything to do with each other, but Samara convinced Harry and Ron to wait. "Ginny isn't going to open up to your inquisition," she said, but it was actually Samara who was full of questions, and would not give it up. Hermione followed at a discrete distance, respecting Ginny's request for privacy, but trying to be close enough to be helpful if she were needed. At last, Edward rescued Ginny from Samara's badgering, by saying that one of the Slytherins did a spell they shouldn't have.

Samara looked at him and sudden understanding seemed to dawn. Yes, she thought. One of the unforgivables would probably cause the murkiness that she saw, but when she suggested that Ginny go to Dumbledore, Ginny flatly refused. 

"Hermione," Samara said softly. "I think I can help her feel better. Would you tell Ron?"

Hermione nodded and went back to the Great Hall.

Samara followed Ginny back to the room and caught her hand before she had time to set up the privacy ward. "Your hands are wet," she exclaimed.

"Elemental magic," Ginny explained shortly. "I got a little out of control."

__

"Well, that's the understatement of the century if I ever heard one," thought Tom.

Ginny closed her eyes. "Samara, please go away. I just want to sleep." She was shivering violently now and beads of sweat had broken out on her forehead. 

"Ginny, if your hands are wet, you still need to release," said Samara. "Were you using the water elemental?"

"It's not my magic," Ginny whispered sleepily as she drank Snape's potion.

__

"No. No. No. Don't fall asleep, Ginny Love. You have to put up the ward. Come on you can do it. Just one word. You've done it before when you were exhausted."

"I thought you weren't talking to me, Tom."

__

"I wouldn't if you didn't have control of the magic in this body."

"In **my** body," Ginny corrected. "You know, it's ridiculous to try to shut each other out. You're in my head. It's not like I can turn off my brain."

__

"You seemed to have managed to do it this morning," said Tom.

Ginny was silent for a moment. "I guess I deserved that," she told him. "I'm sorry, Tom."

__

Humph.

==

"Ginny?" Samara was gripping her shoulders, looking curiously at her.

"Snape gave me something," Ginny told Samara. "He said it would make me sleep, and I'd feel better in the morning."

"Well, that's good," said Samara. "Who—did this to you?"

"I'd rather not say," replied Ginny.

"I'm not Dumbledore," said Samara. "It's not like I'm going to expel them—or send them to Azkaban."

"Samara. Please. Just leave it."

Samara nodded and wrapped her arms around Ginny with her healing magic. She had not been able to heal the murkiness in Ginny's aura, before, but if this was just an excess of Elemental Magic, she should be able to help her to release it. And thought Samara, it should feel _good_—exceedingly good-- not like—Samara pulled her hands back in shock. Not like Death and Destruction. Ginny's entire aura was teaming with, not just Elemental Magic, but Elemental Dark Magic. "Ginny. What did you do?" Samara whispered pulling her hands away and looking at her shivering form in helplessness. After a moment, Samara pulled the blankets up around Ginny, did a warming spell on them, and headed back to the Great Hall to talk to the trio even though she was not at all certain what she should tell them.

==

__

"Ginny. Ginny Love. You need to put up the ward before you fall asleep."

"I'm already asleep," Ginny muttered. "Go away."

__

"I'm not going anywhere, Ginny. _Remember someone was in this room before and took the Quick Quotes Quill notes. It's not safe, Ginny Love. You need to put up the ward."_

"Maybe they'll come back and kill me," said Ginny shivering violently.

__

"Ginny Love, I'm sure you'll be alright in a little while. After all, you aren't the first person to get a Dark Mark. The other Slytherins got through it. You'll be OK. Come on. Get up and set the ward."

"I don't want to be OK," said Ginny. "I just want to die. I thought this potion was supposed to help me to sleep."

'Ginny!" Edward's voice called as he knocked on the door. "I need to talk to you."

"OOOH," moaned Ginny. "Go away, Edward. I'm not fit for company."

"Why won't anyone leave me alone," she muttered to Tom.

"Ginny," Edward called again. "I know what you are going through. Please let me in."

"Come in, then" muttered Ginny. "The door's open."

"No wards?" questioned Edward. 

"I'm too tired to set them."

"I'll set them before I leave," Edward said. "I wanted to talk to you for a moment before you fell asleep." He took her hand. "I'm sorry Ginny. I don't think this is what you wanted to happen." He pulled his wand and dried her wet hair and bed clothes.

"It's not your fault," said Ginny. "It's mine." She shivered. "I hurt all over," she said leaning back on her bed .

"It won't last forever. It just feels like forever," said Edward. "You should try to eat something."

"I'm not hungry."

"I know, but you would rather throw up something than have dry heaves later."

"I couldn't eat," said Ginny, her hair already becoming damp again. "How long does this usually last?"

"I don't know," said Edward. "It's different for everyone. Right now, your body is fighting the foreign magic. It thinks it's some kind of sickness. After a while, your body will realize that it can't get rid of the magic and instead it will assimilate it. It would be helpful if you release all of your own Elemental Magic and then your body only has to deal with His."

"And then I'll feel better?"

"Not for a while. I'm afraid it will get worse before it gets better."

"Worse," moaned Ginny, closing her eyes. "Do you know **Avada Kedavra**? Just kill me now, OK. I can't go home like this anyway." Tears escaped her closed eyes. 

Edward reached out and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her soft, slightly damp auburn hair. Within moments she was asleep on his shoulder. He lay her back on the bed, tucked the blankets around her and did another drying spell and a warming spell, since Ginny was still shivering. He **accioed** the ever clean trash can, and set the wards around her bed. No one would bother her now. She would be able to sleep for a while—until the nausea came. Edward shuddered remembering, and then he went down to the kitchen to tell one of the house elves to pop something up for her to eat.

==

Ginny awoke because she had to retch. She held up a hand to **accio** the trash can, but trying to use wandless magic sent waves of agony through her. 

__

"No, no, no." said Tom. "Use your wand to **accio**"

Luckily, she realized that the can was right beside her. She stuck her head in it and gagged until she ached with the exertion. It was a little after seven o'clock in the evening and the bedclothes and pillows were wet again. Her dripping hair streamed around her face and she shivered with cold. 

__

"Use your wand," Tom urged. "The Elemental magic is only part of the problem, but at least using your wand will help to siphon it off. Then, maybe some tea will help--"

True to his word, Edward had sent a house elf up to the room with food. The tray was sitting untouched outside of her ward. The very thought of food brought the nausea to her lips again. 

She was vaguely aware of Ron and Hermione talking in hushed whispers in the room. Their conversation was punctuated with an occasional kiss. She ignored them. They were talking about animagus and Hermione growing her hair. Ginny didn't care, then she caught a whispered word that brought her face out of the trash can.

"I was hoping we could go to—The Chamber," Hermione whispered. "We need to smash the eggs as soon as possible. We don't know when they are ready to hatch."

"We have to wait for Ginny," said Ron. "Why don't we just let her rest tomorrow. We can go to the Chamber on Sunday."

The conversation ended, and Ginny turned her head toward the wall, her mind ablaze with what she had heard. They were going to hurt the eggs! She had told them she would help them to smash the eggs. The very thought of hurting the basilisks brought another wave of nausea to Ginny. She had to stop them—No, she decided. She would hide the eggs. They would think they were mistaken. They would think there were no eggs. As soon as she felt a little better—but something inside of her demanded. NOW! Do it now!

__

"Ginny," said Tom. "You're sick. You stay right where you are."

Shakily, Ginny raised her wand, and dried her hair and clothes. There seemed to be no ill effects from using the wand, only wandless magic. 

__

"I told you that," said Tom. "Will you ever listen to me?"

She needed to take down the barrier and go to the Chamber. She swayed dizzily as she moved. Lack of food, she decided, but the thought of food brought another bout of nausea, and she gagged several more times before she got control of herself, and sat up, intending to stun Ron and Hermione and go to the Chamber, but just the act of sitting up in bed taxed her strength. 

__

"Oh sure," Tom said. "You couldn't stun a beetle. What explanation do you have for them when they block and want to know why you tried to stun them?"

"You're right," she had to agree. "She'd never be able to stun Ron and Hermione. She had to wait until they left."

__

"Very good," said Tom. "Just rest. You don't need to go to the Chamber now. Maybe later or tomorrow or never." 

She stared wide eyed at Ron and Hermione as they talked and snuggled on Hermione's bed. She didn't care what they were doing. She only wanted them to leave. She tried closing her eyes again, but something inside of her pried them open again. Watch and wait for your chance it said. Protect the eggs. Protect the eggs. Protect the eggs. She opened her eyes to see Ron and Hermione finally leaving, hand in hand.

She pulled her wand and broke the ward. She took two steps toward the door but the movement seemed to aggravate the nausea. She started gagging again, bringing up some green slime, but she didn't make it to the trashcan this time. Thankfully, her stomach was pretty much empty. She performed "**Pergo**" with her wand to clean up the floor and taking deep breaths, she started towards the Chamber and the eggs. She hesitated, and turned back toward her bed, resetting the ward and causing the outside to become opaque. Anyone who looked at her bed would think she was still in it. Somehow, resetting the ward, seemed to clear some of the fuzziness away from her brain and her hands felt drier. She reached up, touching her hair. It was damp, but not dripping now. 

__

"See, I told you using your wand would help to siphon off some of the Elemental magic," said Tom. "Don't you feel better?"

"A little."

__

"You should rest though—"

"I can't," said Ginny. "I have to protect the eggs__"

__

"Ginny! Tom shouted at her. "Do you realize you are under **imperio**? You do not want to protect those damned eggs. You want to smash them. The eggs are Salazar's! He's the one who wants them safe."

"Shut up, Tom."

Ginny threw up twice more on the way to Mrytle's bathroom, and once more in Myrtle's toilet. Myrtle, screeching wildly at Ginny, flew up out of her U bend, and through Ginny's face.

"How dare you—do that—that—that in MY TOILET. Don't you have any decency?"

The Baron and Olive Hornby thought the whole thing was particularly funny. They were swirling around the ceiling in gales of laughter.

Ginny sunk to the ground shivering with the combined effect of the Dark Mark and Myrtle flying through her. 

__

"Tell the stupid bitch that it's her own fault," shouted Tom. "She's the one that chose to haunt a toilet, for Merlin's sake. If she doesn't want to deal with what goes into a toilet, she should stop haunting it." 

Ginny covered her ears and moaned. After a few minutes she licked her lips, and looking at the snake on the faucet, hissed "Open!" 

__

"No, Ginny Love. You don't want to do this. Fight the **Imperio**." 

Then, she stood, intending to go into the Chamber, but the nausea assaulted her again, and gagging and spitting green slime, she sank to the ground, beside Myrtle's toilet. "I can't," she muttered, and leaning her forehead against the cool bowl of the toilet, she began to cry. Sobs wracked her body, and her muscles trembled.

"Can't what?" asked the Baron.

"Save them," sobbed Ginny. "His babies will die." 

__

"And good riddance," said Tom.

The imperious curse was causing her legs to shake and spasm in an attempt to get Ginny to her feet, but she was too sick to stand.

The Baron hovered close, looking at her for a few minutes. "A New Dark Mark?" he wondered aloud.

"And something else," Olive assessed. "It's tearing her apart. Perhaps **imperio**—We may have a new ghost soon."

"She can't die in MY BATHROOM!" shouted Mrytle. "She can't. I don't want her here! I'm telling Madam Pomfrey, maybe she can save her."

"NO!" shouted the Baron, flying in front of Myrtle. "Snape. We have to find Severus Snape. He will know what to do. Go! Go! Go!" He hustled Olive and Myrtle out of the bathroom, and after one more look at the pale girl retching weakly in Myrtle's toilet, he dropped through the floor to the dungeon in search of Severus Snape.

==

Half an hour later, Ginny was still lying on the bathroom floor. A frantic Ethan and Edward along with Myrtle arrived in the bathroom. 

"She's not even conscious," said Ethan.

"Good thing she doesn't have to swallow it then," replied Edward.

"Wait!" Ethan stopped his brother from opening the flask. What if this doesn't work?" whispered Ethan. "I mean, we could kill her. Snape would--"

"Well, drag her out in the corridor first then," urged Myrtle.

"Shut up Myrtle. The girl's life at stake." Said Ethan. "I wish Snape were here—"

"It's not just her life at stake," said Edward. "It's mine. What will the Dark Lord do to me if she dies?"

"Well considering he was going to kill you anyway—"

"He wasn't going to kill me. It was just a test—"

"I don't know about that," said Ethan.

"Shut up!"

"All I meant was, it seems like your life is at stake either way, brother dear."

And your life will be at stake if you don't shut up," spat Edward. "Let me think."

"But, I thought you liked this girl," said Ethan.

"I like ME better," said Edward.

"But what if she dies?"

"Well.," said Edward thoughtfully, "That would be a shame, but even if she dies, It'll take her a while to die." Edward shrugged. "How long does starvation take? At least twenty to thirty days and no one will be able to pin it on me. Plus, she'll still be able to do the eggs—for Him." Edward passed a flask of smoking potion under Ginny's nose. 

__

"Hold your breath, Ginny Love." 

"Are you telling me not to breathe, Tom?" she thought.

She sniffed and coughed, but did not wake up.

"Come on, Ginny. Wake up," Edward coaxed. 

It's something to stop the nausea," said Ethan. "From Snape."

Edward frowned at his twin as he helped Ginny to sit upright and take several more deep breaths. Then Edward took the flask away from her and stoppered it. "That's enough," he said.

"I feel better. Why didn't Snape give me that in the first place," demanded Ginny reaching for the flask.

"It's a new potion," said Edward, and he pulled the flask away from her and handed it to Ethan as she reached for it again. 

"It's not to stop nausea," said Ethan. "It shuts down the entire digestive system. Snape hadn't been able to perfect it—until recently--because the potion itself had to be swallowed—"

"Shuts down?" muttered Ginny. 

"Yeah, so a person starves to death even though they are eating," said Edward.

"Of course, I don't think they even get hungry, because that's a function of the digestive system too—"

"Shut up," spat Edward.

"It's OK, I never want to see food again anyway," muttered Ginny miserably. "And if it kills me--I don't care—"

__

"I DO!" shouted Tom.

"But don't worry, it will be alright to use since you haven't eaten since breakfast—"said Edward. "It needs food to activate—"

"I didn't even eat breakfast," said Ginny crawling to her feet with the help of Edward and the toilet seat. "I have to—the eggs—" She started immediately for the open Chamber of Secret passageway, Edward holding her around the waist and Ethan, just a step behind her.

__

"Ginny don't do this. You have to FIGHT this. It's **imperio**!"

Edward and Ginny stepped into the passageway and Ginny spoke in parseltongue. Immediately the passageway shut behind them, brushing dangerously against Ethan's face.

"Damn you, Edward!" shouted Ethan. "When's the next time I get to see the Chamber of Secrets—THE WEEK AFTER NEVER!" A loud rumbling traveled down the ramp as he hit the sink with either a kick or a spell. 

==

Once they reached the floor of the Chamber, Ginny stood and immediately started to walk to the Chamber door. She stumbled once and Edward put his arm around her again to steady her. The Serpents greeted her. 

"Good evening, Mistress."

"Open for us," she hissed. "Hurry."

The basilisks slithered aside, and once they were through, closed behind them. Ginny lit her wand and Edward did likewise. "Do you know where—" Edward began, but Ginny was standing in the middle of the great room with one hand outstretched she hissed several times and a door appeared which opened into a corridor. She hissed again and started forward. "Here," she said as she opened the door into a large sandy room. Heat poured out. There are thirteen eggs," she said, stepping carefully on the sand, and shining her wand toward several small containers half buried in the sand. "Don't step on any." She began gathering the containers, but she swayed, splashing blood on her robe. Edward reached out to steady her, took the container from her, and then nearly dropped it. "Shit! I think it's hatching!"

"It's not," said Ginny blandly.

"I saw its eyes."

"That's just the toad," said Ginny sitting the container on the floor outside of the hatching ground, and staggering back for another one. "They hatch with their eyes closed and if you saw a basilisk's eyes, you wouldn't be talking about it."

"It's alive. The toad's alive." murmured Edward in amazement touching it's sewn lips. Some of the skin of the toad's mouth peeled off as he touched it. "Ouch!' Edward exclaimed. "Rubbing his finger on his robe."

"The potion is pretty caustic," said Ginny "You shouldn't touch it." She staggered again, this time dropping one of the containers.

__

"Good," muttered Tom. "Let it die."

"**Glomerare camella**," said Edward, gathering the blood with his wand and putting it back with the toad in the container. "Sit down," said Edward. "I'll get the rest." He raised his wand.

__

Tom smiled. "Twelve more to go."

"No," shouted Ginny. "No magic." Ginny staggered forward. . "I have to—"

"OK, OK," We'll do it together. Carefully, they moved the rest of the containers out onto the anteroom floor."

"What now?" asked Edward. 

"We do a cooling charm on this room and smooth the sand. Then we move the eggs to a safer place. I'm thinking--where? Maybe the potions room. Shelves there are spelled to stay at a specific temperature, but the magic is minimal."

"Is it far?" asked Edward. 

"Everything's only as far as a wish in the Chamber," Ginny said enigmatically as she sank down on the floor of the corridor. Wearily, she raised her wand.

"I've got it," Edward said, as he did the cooling spell on the warm hatching ground and spread the sand smoothly. 

"Shut the door," Ginny ordered. She spoke in parseltongue, and then in English. "Open the door."

"But you just said—" began Edward.

Ginny pulled herself to her feet and tottered down to the same door that had just closed on the hatching ground. When she opened it, it was the potions room.

Edward stared in wonder. "Did the whole room move? Or did we move?"

"Does it matter? Come on," Ginny urged picking up a container. "Let's get the eggs in." 

"Ginny," asked Edward in amazement. "How do you know all this?"

"I thought everyone knew I'd been possessed in first year. Haven't you heard the stories?"

"So—these eggs—" 

"Were here, and done. All I had to do was sprinkle the rooster blood on them."

__

"And we couldn't stop him then either, could we Ginny Love? I suppose it was hopeless thinking you could throw off his **Imperious **curse—not when it was something he really wanted done."

Edward continued to silently help her and they were about half finished when Ginny announced, "I'm going to be sick again." She thrust the container in her hands at Edward, splashing the blood and venom potion on both of them and turned aside gagging, but nothing came up.

"You'll be alright now," said Edward. "We're almost done." He continued putting the eggs on the shelf in the potions room while Ginny panted and wiped her mouth on her robe sleeve. Edward did a cleaning spell on the floor and silently handed her his handkerchief. 

"Thanks. I didn't think I could conjure one. I feel dizzy. It's all coming back."

"I think we're done," said Edward.

__

"We need to get out of here, Ginny Love."

"I know," Ginny said. "I just want to fall into bed. We have to go out another way." Ginny spoke in parseltongue and opened the door. The room in front of her was not the passageway out. It was the ornate bedroom. Ginny slammed the door and spoke again in parseltongue.

"What's the matter, Ginny?" asked Edward.

There's another passageway. It's too steep to go through Myrtle's bathroom. The other passageway comes out near Slytherin. I just dread all the steps to the tower. Come on. Please, she whispered to the doorway. Tears threatened and she dashed them angrily away. She took a deep breath, and then spoke in parseltongue. Ginny reached out to open the door. 

Once again it was the ornate bedroom.

"I can't concentrate," Ginny said, teeth chattering with cold and exertion. "Help me, Tom."

__

"I don't have the voice here, Ginny Love. You know you said you were glad I couldn't possess you."

"Damnit," she muttered turning her head and retching onto the floor.

****

"Pergo!" said Edward. "Ginny? Why don't we just go back the way we came?" asked Edward. "I'll carry you."

"That won't help," said Ginny. "You can't get us out." She spoke again in parseltongue and opened the door to the bedroom once again. "Ah, the hell with it," she said, stripping off her soiled robe, dropping it on the floor and falling into the bed.

Edward stared at her for a moment and then sat on the edge of the bed. "It's ok," he said as he stroked her hair. Her face felt hot again and she whimpered, shivering. "No one will miss us. It's the middle of the night." He thought that under other circumstances, this room with Ginny would be his dream come true. She muttered something unintelligible, and he pulled the covers up around her neck and did a warming spell. At least he knew that she would be all right once her body assimilated the Dark Mark. Obviously, since she was sick again, the potion he and Ethan had stolen from Snape's private stores wore off. 

"Potion," he thought. That potions room was awesome. He might as well explore—He wasn't likely to get another chance. He stepped out of the bedroom, carefully leaving the door open and walked down the corridor and across the room to the door where he hoped the potions room still resided. He opened the door into a long passageway. Well, he thought. It may not be the potions room, but it had to be interesting.

It was the Chamber of Secrets.

==

**Kemenran**

Thanks and here's more

**Reiven**

Did I say Ginny was the prophesy child? Although it would make sense—Ginny being a Gryffindor with a little Hufflepuff or vice versa, and Tom being a Slytherin/Ravenclaw. There's a reason why it's not her. I keep telling everyone Draco isn't "sweet" but no one believes me. Sigh. Glad you think this is the 'best' chapter and schnoogle only saw the first five chapters, but I think I've seen worse on Schnoodle if I do say so—oh well. better then JK ? Well I don't want to get anyone mad at me—Though I did hate that JK thought Hermione was stupid enough to mix up cat hair and human hair. Obviously, JK doesn't have a cat. More Edward, Ginny, Draco, etc coming including "selling body parts, now, are you, Lestrange?"

****

Trillium 

Glad you couldn't give up reading this story. Goosebumps? Good.

****

hayes1966 

A little explanation of what was going through Snape's mind when Ginny said she wanted to go with them will be coming up shortly. He could have chosen differently, as Dumbledore will be sure to tell him, but then what of this 'double agent' thing Snape is doing? Which of the twins are more evil? Hmmmm.

****

The Elemental Sorceress A guy on TV with a snake's tongue? Yuck! Did he actually cut it then? And I thought I was weird for thinking of it. Ginny is still the Ginny we all know and love. No new special powers.

****

Reiven: Glad you regained conscienceness. Nah—She isn't. Yes, the Sorting Hat did know—That's why it said there was something very Slytherin there. We all know Ginny doesn't have a Slytherin bone in her body—except for what Tom brought.

Yep. Ginny's in a whole lot of trouble. The prediction I was talking about was in chapter 41. It isn't a Draco Prediction. It is a reason why the prophecy child can't be Draco.

**Crystal Megan**

"UH-snake food" Yes, snakes eat little animals like mice—and bunnies. Which is why Edward didn't tell Beatrice what he fed it earlier—UH snake food.

Yes, wandless magic does have that problem attached to it—How many times have Ravenclaws, etc. said it's addictive—changes the wizard, etc. OK about the crucio thing. If you read my long explanation about OOC in my bio, obviously you didn't, but that's OK. I wrote the first 45 chapters of HPST before OotP, so when OotP came out and some of the characters changed in JK's book, I had to clarify that my story is canon up to the end of GOF, with me now adding OotP stuff after chapter 45. However, I need Sirius and won't be killing him off any time soon. As far as a child doing cruico, I think like JK , Lestrange told Harry you have to REALLY WANT TO HURT ME—Intent.

As far as families teaching their children young, the spell was 'Ethan's' It was simply thrust back at him—reflected. So, now doesn't that make sense?

Draco's version of a muggle kiss is without magic. 

Thanks for the cookies. Delicious.

Glad you are enjoying reading. Review again.

****

Eizoku: I almost didn't put the part about Voldie telling Ginny to kiss him, it kinda freaked me out too--but I tried to think of what would make the reader scared—shuddering—Like nightmares--I wanted it to be clear that he was evil, cunning, ruthless, and would allow nothing to stop him. If you're shuddering, you got it, so I guess that means I wrote it the way it was supposed to be. Notice that he doesn't deny it when Ginny says, "You like causing pain." Instead he justifies it—"There is a certain satisfaction in crushing your enemies." Glad you like Tom. I like him too.

****

Ennui2 The way I see it, Tom's Ravenclaw gets impatient with Ginny's Hufflepuff naivete and Gryffindor spontaneity and his Slytherin side would hex her but all he can do is yell at her.

****

Trillium: If only all I had to do for school work is write. Sigh. Anyone wanna do my algebra?

**Raven173****:**

The new bet is Hermione? LOL


	47. CH 46: The Seventh Suffering

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

BY Lady Lestange

The Seventh Suffering

Chapter 46

10 REVIEWS. Here's the new chapter— Sorry, we didn't stay with Ginny—Well, no I'm not sorry, but the next chapter continues in the Chamber. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is T

relawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked.

Be warned, this chapter is the reason this fic is rated PG-13.

--Lady Lestrange

****

==

A/N: This idea came to me in a dream—OK, really it was a nightmare—so being the Slytherin I am—Here it is for your enjoyment---or your discomfot. Muhahahaha. Cough. Chokes. But remember_, it's just a story…._

****

==

The Seventh Suffering

Chapter 46

"Hermione, I don't understand," said Samara. "First you wanted to grow your hair long, and now you want to shorten it? Why don't you just cut it?"

"It's not the length of the hair that matters," said Beatrice. "It's the fact that she can alter it at will."

"You should try it, Samara," said Hermione. "I'll bet you could do it too."

"The one who should try this is Harry Potter," said Beatrice. "If anyone needed to have an animagus it's him."

"I'm sure I can convince him sooner or later," said Hermione. "Come on Samara, try to change the length of your hair."

"Oh, there's no point in talking to my hair. It never listens to me anyway," she laughed. "Besides, I've got enough schoolwork without adding anything that I don't have to do, thanks very much." Samara finished twisting her hair into it's knot and stuck her wand through it. Did you try to wake Ginny?" she asked.

"I tried," said Hermione, but nothing's getting through that ward. "I hope she's OK."

Samara stood for a moment at their dorm room door. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me, Beatrice?"

"Nope," said Beatrice. "I'm going over to Hufflepuff for supper. I have no desire to go to Slytherin."

"But it's for Ginny."

"You'll deal with Draco much better on your own anyway, Samara," said Beatrice. "Maybe Edward will go with you if you want moral support."

Samara sighed. No, she thought. Having Edward with her would not help her to get through to Draco. 

"I don't know what you are so worried about," said Hermione. "You know he likes you. He hasn't even called you a Mudblood, Samara. He'll tell you what happened to Ginny. If he doesn't tell you because he likes you. He'll tell you so he can gloat. I know he will."

"I guess you're right, Hermione." Said Samara.

"Of course, I'm right."

"OK," said Samara reluctantly. "Find out if Sally Anne's dad is any better, OK Beatrice?"

"Sure." Beatrice nodded and smiled.

==

The distance across the Great Hall to the Slytherin table seemed to be miles. When Samara got there, she hesitated. Draco did not even look up, but Vincent Crabbe did.

"Do you think I could have your seat?" she asked him.

"Sure, Samara," said Vincent, moving to the other side of Greg Goyle.

Samara slid into his seat. "I wanted to apologize," Samara told Draco.

Draco looked at her. His aura, a swirling mass of dark reds immediately pulled in closer to his body, closing her out. "You did that already," he said. "Anyway, how sincere could you be? You meant to curse me."

"You did it first!" Samara accused, and Draco's aura darkened, and although no indication of anger showed on his face, she realized that his guard was up—Did he feel threatened? She took a deep breath, trying to be patient with his stubbornness. "I know what I did was wrong," she whispered, putting her hand on his shoulder. Immediately, she knew that was the wrong thing to do and she pulled her hand back. "Draco, I didn't finish it. I stopped. Do you think we could start over—"

"I don't think I want to do that," he said.

Samara waited for a few moments, watching him eat. His aura was still pulled close to his body, turbulent and dark. This wasn't working. She stood with the intention of going back to Gryffindor table, but as she passed, Pansy, the girl stretched out her hand and caught Samara's. 

"Sit with us," she said, making room between her and Lauren. Samara sat.

"No one is more stubborn than Draco," she said. 

"So I see," said Samara. She wasn't really surprised. She knew when she first met him that he could be stubborn to the point of obstinancy, but she just never expected that side of him to be directed at her. "I really didn't come over here to make up with Draco anyway."

Pansy looked at her. "Really?"

"Well, I mean, I'd like to make up with him, but I thought I'd just give him a little more time. His aura is still really closed, and what I really came over for, was to find out what happened to Ginny this morning. Her aura looks like—Well, Pansy, you saw what I see—I can't ignore Ginny's aura and pretend that nothing has happened. Her aura is completely changed. When I touched her, I felt –a lot of dark magic. She's sick, Pansy. She's my friend. I want to help her."

Pansy and Lauren exchanged glances. 

"She isn't the first one, to have these changes, but hers was the most dramatic—first there was Millicent and then Alvin and now Ginny—" 

"We can't talk about this here," said Lauren, abruptly pushing away from the table. "Are you finished eating?"

"Yes," said Samara, standing and leaving half of her food still on the plate.

The three girls went to the Slytherin dungeon, and down to the girls' room. Millicent was in the room reading when they got there. Lauren shut and warded the door. 

Millicent looked up. "Private conversation?" she asked. 

"Well, sort of—but you can hear if you want to, I guess," said Pansy. "Remember what I was telling you the other day, after I did the polyjuice switch with Samara?"

"--About her being able to tell who had the Dark Mark by their auras, if she knew what she was looking for?" questioned Millicent.

"Yeah," said Pansy. "Well, she sort of—figured it out."

"But Ginny?" began Samara. "She wouldn't get a Dark Mark. She isn't—" Samara pulled her wand. "What did you do—"

"Us," spat Millicent. "That's rich! No one twisted her arm. Personally, I think Snape tried to stop her. Too much flack from Dumbledore if one of the Gryffindors got a Dark Mark."

"I thought only Slytherins—"

"Oh, yeah, Samara. That's right," said Millicent bitterly. "It's only the Slytherins who are evil. Not those goodie goodie Gryffindors. Well, believe me, if I already have the reputation of being evil, and have to endure the prejudice anyway, I might as well have the gold and glory. If I have a choice between being weak and evil and powerful and evil, I'm choosing the power. Excuse me," she said gathering up her books. "Us, Death Eaters have to study too."

After Millicent left, Lauren and Pansy's aura's both lightened and extended out from their bodies slightly. 

"Lauren?" questioned Samara. "Alvin too?"

"Yeah," Lauren said softly. "We had agreed—that we wouldn't—and Snape won't force anyone. He told us that. It has to be our own choice. But Draco has been pressuring him—"

"Draco?"

"Yeah. Draco," said Lauren. "It's been hard for Alvin to stay with us girls. And then, Mr. Nott didn't agree either. On Thursday, he came and got him. 

"Alvin's Dad?"

"Yeah," said Lauren. "He said he had been embarrassed by Alvin's cowardice long enough."

Tears brimmed for a moment in Lauren's eyes and then with a loud bang, that made Pansy and Samara both jump, the pillows exploded on one of the beds. The fire was immediately quenched with an out-pouring of water from Lauren's fingertips. "That skinny old zombie! He should have died years ago! Do you know his father is older than Dumbledore? I would have cursed him myself if I'd have known—I never wanted to do Avada Kadavra, but--Damn him!" Lauren stood with fists closed over the magic in her hands.

Pansy handed Lauren her wand. "Those were my pillows," she said softly.

Lauren held her wand for a moment, looking at them. "Sorry, Pansy. I think they're beyond **reparo**. I'll buy you some new ones." She said as she dried the bed and removed the soot stains with her wand.

"It isn't unusual for them to get sick," said Pansy. "It's the foreign magic that does it. I'd say give Ginny a few hours and she'll be all right. Well, I mean as all right as they ever get again after being connected to –Him."

"I just can't believe Ginny would—why? It doesn't make any sense."

"Actually, it does," said Lauren. "It was the influence of the diary."

"What?"

"There was this diary—" said Lauren. "Draco and I used to play with it when we were little. Of course, Aunt Narcissa and Uncle Lucius had forbidden Draco to touch it, but sneaking it was half the fun. When we finally figured out that it had belonged to the Dark Lord, we dared each other to write in it. Not enough to be possessed of course, as if we knew what it took to be possessed--Then in our second year, Uncle Lucius gave it to Ginny Weasley and she was possessed by it.

"That would have been Ginny's first year?" asked Samara, and Lauren nodded. Visions of the number of times that Ginny had said—I had this friend, first year—this Slytherin—first year—he was not my boyfriend—first year—"My God," whispered Samara.

There was a long silence. At last, Pansy broke it. "I think, Draco's looking for you, Samara."

Samara looked up in surprise. "How do you do that?"

"It's her gift," said Lauren. "Telepathy."

"But why with Draco?"

"Because they were a couple until he got his Dark Mark," said Lauren. "And then—"

"Lauren—" Pansy said warningly, and another silence stretched before them.

"I think I'll go," said Samara. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She just wanted to be alone to think. She walked up to the Common room, and although there was several Slytherins in the room, they didn't give her a second glance. She was cautious nonetheless, pulling her hood up around her face and hurrying forward. It seemed strange. She knew everyone in Gryffindor Tower, and if this were Gryffindor half dozen people would have called 'hello' or invited her to play exploding Snap, but Slytherins were more private. No one had a reason to speak to her, and she seemed in a hurry so they didn't delay her. She went directly to the picture of Salazar and the green door, but stopped before she got too close. She wished she could get into the room to dance. She needed something to clear her head. Maybe flying, she thought as she retraced her steps, sat down in the gold and green sofa and looked at the fire. 

If Draco was looking for her, he obviously wasn't looking very hard. Thoughts of Ginny and the Dark Lord's diary were running through her mind. First she was stunned. Then she was amazed. Then she was angry. Why hadn't Ginny told her? She stood up and paced the length of the floor, which took her back to the picture of Salazar Slytherin behind which was the green door. The snake was still sleeping on his shoulder.

"Hey!" she told the picture angrily. "Tell your snake to wake up."

The image of Salazar smirked at her. He lifted a bejeweled finger and stroked the snake between its closed eyes. The huge emerald on his hand glittered as brightly as Salazar's green eyes as he brought his finger to his lips signifying silence.

"No picture is going to tell me what to do," she muttered as she prodded the snake with her finger. "Wake up," she told the snake, and the doorway opened soundlessly. Still no one looked at her. 

She stared at the open door in surprise for a moment, and then shrugged. Maybe Salazar knew she wanted to dance.

"Well. Thanks," she said.

She slipped quickly behind the door and ran down the thirteen steps before she thought to light her wand. She paused at the landing and lit it. Then she continued, still hurrying. What if the great door did not let her in? Draco had said it would only open to Slytherins. Well no matter. If she had to, she would wait outside the secret chamber and hope that no one found her sulking there. At least the corridor would be a quiet place to think.

She paused at the door concentrating. It was a complicated ward. One that she had never seen before. She studied it for several minutes, her hands feeling the texture of the wall. Several spots started to show signs of edges. "Open," she murmured almost to her self. "I will have this secret—" When she looked at the edges, they moved. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one appear. What would a Slytherin do? She ignored it. And then another. The first disappeared, but she thought it stayed in the same place. Studiously, she ignored it. Almost an hour later, she finally discerned where the whole perimeter was. At last she ran her wand around the whole edge without stopping. She heard a small click. IT OPENED. She had opened it. Draco was wrong. You didn't have to be a Slytherin. You just had to—well--understand them. 

She took off her shoes and felt the warm earth beneath her feet. Warm? Something was different here. She sensed—Draco's magic—what they had shared and more-- something else—painful--Someone else—Uninvited—leaving discordance behind them. Who she wasn't sure—Who knew about this room? Snape? No, not Snape. Not Slytherin. No, that wasn't possible. It had to be a Slytherin—but who? She turned the puzzle over and over in her mind. 

Suddenly her heart dropped to her knees. What if Snape came in here instead of Draco? What if anyone came in here instead of Draco? Perhaps she should run. Run home to Gryffindor. Oh yeah, that was Gryffindor bravery alright! Run to Hufflepuff and make a few shirts. Desert those who need you. That was loyalty for you. The colors and swirls from her current emotions were filling the air around her. She didn't like how they looked—discordant and fragmented—adding to the turmoil of the uninvited guests and Draco—unhappy and hurting. 

With a sigh she raised herself up on the balls of her feet and began to dance, humming the song she heard in her heart. There didn't seem to be anything else she could do here. The dance soothed her fragmented nerves, as the song broke through her lips. 

Ginny. Taking the Dark Mark. And Draco. What could she have been thinking to have cursed him with that curse? **Imperio!** Sometimes she just acted before her brain was attached. He would tell her in his own good time or not. Did it make a difference? Yes, she told herself as she gave herself to the dance, it did, because it defined trust— If he couldn't trust her enough to know she wouldn't hurt him or his family willingly, then what was their relationship based upon? Did they even have a relationship? Well, not now, she mourned. Not after what she did. Unforgivable. How could he trust her, after that? What could she do to make it up to him? And what about Ginny? Had she ever been her friend? Was there any trust between them either?

The beat of her heart was fast and turbulent, pouring out her anxiety for Ginny and the hurt she had caused Draco. The dance was cathartic and healing and wild. 

She felt the magic of the room subtly change. He had entered the room. He stopped, waiting. She felt his emotions—surprise—determination—and something else—something unknowable. She faltered and then poured energy into the dance. She didn't want him to know that she sensed his presence—not yet.

Hadn't she already told him she was sorry? What could she say now? She said nothing, but she finally slowed her wild dance, waiting. He approached her, also in silence and took her hand. His arm went around her waist and he began to move to music that she didn't even hear. It was a waltz. Did anyone waltz anymore? Only Slytherins, she thought. She felt the three beat cadence and followed easily, her body attuned to the room's rhythms, and his. Her left leg had slipped between his and he pulled her close for balance and guidance. His aura was its usual murky dark red. He didn't seem angry. She couldn't place the emotion emanating from him. It seemed to defy definition, flitting from one emotion to another. They continued to dance quietly. His body was warming and she acutely felt his breath on her neck . . . His hand gripping her fingers. . . His palm on her back where sweat was starting to make her robe cling . . His lips touched hers once. Twice. Finally, he sat on the ground pulling her with him.

"I don't want to ruin this," he said. "He kissed her deeply and then turned her so she was settled in his lap, but couldn't see his face. She could however see his aura which radiated out several feet beyond his legs and his arms which were still wrapped around her.

It was black. 

She did not speak. Did not dare to breathe.

"My sister was eleven," he said. Immediately the aura began to clear. 

She hadn't even dared to touch him with her gift. She knew he would feel it and was afraid it would scare him away from her. 

"She died when she was eleven. My sister Aislinn--Roan predicted her death in first year. He said, 'It's always the innocent who die first." He was speaking to Harry Potter, but he looked directly at me—"

"Draco, I was wrong to ask."

"Hush," he said. "Don't interrupt me." He spoke in a monotone voice, like someone who was given veritaserium.

Darkness covered his aura again.

"She was cursed--a squib—like your brothers. Do you know what happens to squibs in Slytherin families?"

Samara opened her mouth to speak and then shut it. She shook her head.

"Ugly things You see, Salazar Slytherin had decreed that there would be no squibs if we only married pureblood wizards, but he was wrong. Every seven generations or so, a family will start producing squibs. Sometimes one, two, three squibs would be born before the true--child. This was simply an inconvenience to be--dealt with. 

Draco took a deep breath and continued. My parents knew she was a squib, but they kept trying to get her to exhibit some sort of magical qualities: Study. Pain. Fear. Sometimes—" 

Draco broke off. His aura flickered roughly with the thoughts. It was difficult for him to speak of this time, but Samara could also see his aura clearing little by little, so she did not stop him. The darkness was leaking from his aura and entering the room. The room was sucking away what he wanted to leave behind. Samara realized that he had thought about this for a long time here in this room. He must have sat here thinking—'what shall I say?' It was the same magic and the same pain she saw in the new colors of the room.

She suddenly understood that he was not mad at her Imperio curse. He was frightened to tell her something he had never told before—Frightened? Embarrassed? Uncertain? Yes. That was the emotion. It was such a new and unaccustomed feeling for him, he dealt with it by pushing her away, but he was here now. 

She let her hands linger, warm against his. His fingers were long and flawless. They were perfectly manicured and without scars, or blemishes or calluses. Presently, they were devoid of magic, but as she touched them, he unconsciously spread them an equal distance apart, as if ready to do a spell, but no magic sprang into them. 

"Sometimes," he began again, "When my sister was frightened—or hurting—I--I would help her. Little things. My parents knew." He took a deep breath. "I didn't understand then about magical signatures. I thought I was helping. Showing her how to do something that she thought was hard. My parents locked me away from her the summer before Hogwarts—so I couldn't help her. While they—they— 

He took a deep, ragged breath. "My parents tried everything. Nothing worked." 

Then they sent me to stay with my cousins for a while—Gawd—I hate them." Abruptly, he pulled a handful of magic from the room—Fire, Samara realized.

Which cousins? She wondered, but she didn't interrupt.

Aislinn owled me during my first year. She begged me to get her away from them, but I was eleven, only a year older than her. What could I do?" Draco let the magic drop--drip, drip, drip, from his fingers until he was empty again. 

"Here were the great and powerful Malfoys and they had brought a squib into the world. It was an embarrassment that would not be borne. She had to be a witch. My parents willed for her to be a witch. 

Sometimes they blamed it on each other. My father said that my mother pulled Elemental Magic when she was too young, and my mother said it was my father's Slytherin inbreeding and they both blamed it on the Longbottoms for cursing them—They blamed each other, but they weren't the ones who suffered. It was only Aislinn who suffered. Damn Longbottoms," muttered Draco. "I wish they could see their own squib son—"

"Neville?" thought Samara. "Was he talking about Neville Longbottom?"

Draco took a breath and continued. "You see, my father had a task for Aislinn, if only she was a witch, even a poor one. He had a diary that belonged to Lord Voldemort when he was sixteen years old. At that time, Our Dark Lord was gone, wiped out of power by—by—no matter. Father thought that Aislinn could write in the diary on her first year at Hogwarts and open the Chamber of Secrets. Father had given a great deal of thought to the plan. Then even if she were a weak witch, she would still be remembered as the witch who gave Lord Voldemort life again. She would be honored. And the Malfoy name would be honored."

Samara dared not move or speak and break the tenuous thread that Draco was following.

But Aislinn's eleventh birthday came and there was no letter from Hogwarts. There was no letter from any wizarding school, because Aislinn had absolutely no magical powers. Her birthday was in January. Five months later at the summer solstice, June 21, after I had turned twelve, my parents decided they should perform the sacrifice. They didn't tell me until that day. There was a special potion to heighten the senses that they gave to her. I remember asking why I couldn't have any. 

Draco took a slow ragged breath. "We were in the garden—It's a place of power--elemental magic—earth, fire, running water—"

Draco shook his head. He looked ready to burst with sadness, but no tears were shed. Aislinn fought. She had to be put under the **Imperio** curse and then she lay there, still as a stone. She didn't even try to fight it. I didn't know then, that muggles and squibs have no power to fight it.

Samara started to speak but he held up his hand for silence.

"The ritual requires the **crucious curse**. My father was to perform it on Aislinn."

"Your father," Samara burst. "That's barbaric! Inhuman!"

"He's not human. He's a wizard."

"Your mother?" Questioned Samara in a whisper, "surely she—"

"She was to do the killing-," said Draco. 

Of course," Draco continued "That was only much later. Death was the easy part. Seven different forms of **Crucio** first.

"Oh gawd," Samara felt like she was going to be sick.

"But it didn't happen that way. They argued about which curses would be the most powerful and in what order. Bone or blood or flesh--They argued—about which form of **crucious**," Draco spat. "about the order of the Elementals—They couldn't agree on any of it. Draco recited as if from a Book:

Inferior flesh from the muscle is torn

Under the sea a new creature is born.

Bury the squib like a muggle in earth.

Fire enkindles a new wizard's birth.

Impurities crushed by blood and by bone.

The seventh suffering to make your own.

Avada Kadavra completes the rift

Flow to the true child all magical gifts.

"They were—my parents were arguing over which crucious curses would be the most powerful when—" Draco's voice cracked and he bit his lip.

"And then Father said, 'Let's just get this over with—'

When I realized what they were going to do—I—I—flung myself in front of her—and took—and took—"

Draco shuddered with the memory. "So, stupid," he muttered.

"Oh Draco," Samara said. "It wasn't stupid. It was brave."

"Ha! That's rich!" said Draco, suddenly no longer able to sit still. "My parents were just glad I'd been sorted already. They kept blaming each other for that little Gryffindor stunt."

"It wasn't strictly Gryffindor," said Samara following him. "A Hufflepuff would do something like that too, for love."

"Oh, that makes me feel lots better," said Draco, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

There was a long silence. Samara didn't know what to say. She just stayed with him and held him and watched his aura flickering like a weak candle, first yellow and then with varying shades of russet and orange, and the red overlay, dripping over it all like blood. After a while, Draco licked his lips and started talking again.

"I was so tired. I—hurt." Draco shuddered. "If you've never felt crucio, you can't imagine. They had sent the first two crucio curses together. I don't know if they meant to or not, but that meant that the spell—Aislinn's sacrifice--was considerably weakened. My fault." He took a deep breath. "They were so angry." Draco whispered. 

"When I realized they were going to kill her, I tried to escape—I could floo--I thought of Professor Snape—He would help me—help her. 

My father bound me to a chair. I had to be present, you see, because I was part of the reason for this sacrifice. Her life's blood, even as a squib would strengthen my magic and I wasn't as powerful a wizard as my parents wished. That Mudblood Granger got higher marks than me all first year, so they had to do this, because we are Malfoys. We have to be the best."

"I tried to protect her from them, but only managed to shield her from two of them."

"Draco," whispered Samara. "You did all you could."

But Draco shook his head. "Even if they hadn't bound me to the chair, I wouldn't have taken any more.

I just wouldn't have done it. It hurt too much to take voluntarily. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the screams. She looked at me. I could feel her eyes on me. She just looked at me and I had to open my eyes. We never lost eye contact until the end, when her life force slammed into me and I lost consciousness."

"When I awoke, My father talked to me about—it. He said she wouldn't have wanted to live like that, with no magic. It was better this way. This way, something of her could live on in me. 

I suppose he was right. I wouldn't want to live without magic—to be able to touch it and smell it and see it, and never use it. That would be torture. Her whole life would have been a torture, wouldn't it?" Draco looked at Samara as if for confirmation.

The question rattled Samara. She thought of her brothers and knew without a doubt that they would choose to live, but she couldn't say that. She couldn't say anything. 

"I don't know," she said at last. "I guess I never thought about it."

"Father talked about the new power I should feel. I did feel some, but it wasn't impressive. I didn't realize what she had given me. Not then. Not until-- later. My father had always said love was for the weak, but he is wrong. Her love—gave me a barrier to perform against **Crucio**. She was a squib, and she did that. I don't know how, but I know it isn't in the ritual. I looked."

"**Crucio** doesn't hurt you?" said Samara stunned.

"Oh, no," said Draco. "It still hurts, it's just not at **crucio** mentally. Even in the pain, I know it's a curse. That's what drives wizards crazy with the **crucious** curse. They really think they are dying—torn apart or drowned or burned or suffocated or crushed or whatever—over and over again. I can acknowledge the pain, and although I can't completely block it, I can stay focused on the fact that it is not real and eventually it will stop. Aislinn thought she was dying seven times—a sob caught in his throat—but he shed no tears.

"Five times, Draco," said Samara. "You saved her from two."

"I did, didn't I?" His voice was soft, and small and alone.

Samara wrapped her arms around him and held him. No, not alone, now, she thought. She was here with him. "Draco, you didn't need to do this—for me. I shouldn't have asked. Shouldn't have—pushed you—"

If ever she wanted to heal him it was now, but she hesitated. All mixed up in the pain was the protection that Aislinn had given him. Until Samara was sure that she would only take away his pain and not his protection she was afraid to try to help him.

"And now, you're wishing you hadn't asked," he said. "Or wishing I hadn't told you."

"No." Samara hesitated. "I'm glad you know you can trust me."

He took a deep breath and seemed to get a grip on himself, the molten red of his aura gaining the confidence that she was used to seeing. 

"And do you know, you can trust me too?" he asked softly.

With each word, the ripples grew, a vast untamed power underneath—more power than she had ever seen in him. "I won't lose you,' he said, his gray eyes intense.

"I'm here," she said gripping his hand. "For you to share this, when we haven't know each other all that long—" she paused, feeling terribly guilty that she'd been less than honest with him. But she couldn't tell him she was muggle born now. Later. It would have to be later. As soon as there was an appropriate time, she promised herself, she had to tell him.

"It must have been an awful night for you," she said.

"It wasn't over yet," he whispered. "Mother came in afterwards. She talked about control and my lack of it until I finally told her to shut up." 

"Ha!" Draco laughed shortly, but his aura was filled with fear. There was fear, even in the memory. "I guess that confirmed my lack of control—If I'd have been in control, I would never have told her to shut up." 

"But she got very quiet then," said Draco. "Mother's always most dangerous when she's quiet. She said, 'How could I ever hope to master magic, if I couldn't even master my own tongue.' Then she left me alone. I thought it was over, but she came back, later that night. She said, that I had to understand, there were consequences to my actions." 

Draco became quiet, the silence stretching before them, as Samara waited for him to finish. "There are always consequences," he whispered. She had to lean close to hear what he was saying.

Mother performed the other five crucious curses—the ones I missed—I think I would have went crazy then if Aislinn hadn't given me—what she did. Mother said—said if I ever interfered with another of her spells—I would think the day Aislinn died was a holiday and those crucio's a tickling spell."

"Your mother—" whispered Samara.

"I hate her," said Draco. "I hate them both."

==

****

PLEASE REVIEW

(A/N: Next chapter: Back to the Chamber with Ginny and Edward. I promise, you will never again see Draco so vulnerable. You wanted more Draco--"And now, you're wishing you hadn't asked," he said. "Or wishing I hadn't told you."

After I wrote this chapter, I felt a terrible need to write something funny. I wrote the poem 'Twas the Order of the Phoenix. If you've read it, you now know why the wit is so caustic in that poem.) Lady Lestrange

****

Thanks to my reviewers:

**Kemenran**

More coming and more Chamber too, next chapter.

****

Reiven: 

Sorry about your ulcer. Are you really worrying about my characters—

**Silverfox1**

Ginny knows they won't find the eggs in the potions room, because they already looked there, but even if they didn't, she is going to take them right to the hatching ground and they will have no reason to look elsewhere.

****

Ennui2 

Millie is definitely a Slytherin, not a Ravenclaw. Yep. She'll be back.

****

Hayes1966 

Yep. Ethan will be a little upset when Edward gets back. No omelets yet. I think this chapter explains why Draco asked Voldemort if he would be allowed to practice crucio on his mother.

****

Trillium: 

You like Goyle? Yuk. Mud flavored beans and all?

****

Eizoku: 

Edward's gonna get lost? Think so? Ginny rescuing him? Wonder what Tom will think of that. Silly boys.

****

Slytherin's Silver Snake: 

Dark enough for you? Yes, more Snape in the next chapter.

****

Raven 173 

OK Hermione has some qualities to be the Prophecy Child. She's Hufflepuff helpful, although I don't think she'd like to hear that she could have been Hufflepuff. Gryffindor brave, definitely Ravenclaw and there are a few Draco/Hermione scenes that would work with a stretch, but I think she would be appalled to think that anyone would even consider that she has a Slytherin bone in her body. I actually considered her, but she didn't like it. That's why I found it so funny that you said Hermione.

****

TaJu Akiel 

Ha! You've found out my secret. The adhesive charms on the computers! Now what should I do? Obliviate! What kind of charm?

****

Kirizchi 

I read your story. Awesome. **If my readers want to read a well written "Harry" story, try Kirixch**i. She has a Harry that is a strong character. I like him a lot! And I generally don't read Harry stories because they are too sappy. Go check her out. Kirixchi read my Bellatrix story first so I don't think she'll be as fooled by Edward as the earlier readers were. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts, Kirizchi. As you read, let me know if you think Edward is as 'sweet and innocent' as my earlier readers seemed to think he was.

****

Smily cow: Thanks for alerting me to the fact that I misspelled Mungo's and reparo. I was looking up fix/ repair on a Latin translator site, and that's where I got the repairo. I just figured JK used it from there, but she didn't. I probably spelled it differently throughout the book, unfortunately I can't set my spellchecker to keep new words like the spells, and I have to keep looking them up. Thanks for keeping your eyes open for me.

****

Ele- Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh- (No. that's not parseltongue.)

****

Kristy-secludedexistence Glad you're reading. Sorry I have a few more chapters on this one and a sequel coming. After you get to chapter 20 or so, you won't be worried about how long it is. Just take it one chapter at a time. No rush. 

If you have not yet reviewed, please do so now.

Lady Lestrange 


	48. Ch 47:Snape's Secret And Salazar's Treas...

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

BY Lady Lestange

Snape's Secret and Salazar's Treasure

Chapter 47

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret?

And now, back to the Chamber—AND. . . .

****

Snape's Secret and Salazar's Treasure

Ginny awoke feeling tired and achy. Her head throbbed, but the nausea was gone. She rolled over and suddenly realized where she was!

"Tom! I'm in the Chamber!"

__

"Hmmmm. Just like first year," said Tom boredly. "Did you have a nice sleep, Ginny Love? No nasty dreams about Salazar?"

"I don't—"She reached for her robes, but the whole front of the robe was sticky, and she dropped it thinking of the bloody front of her robe when she strangled the roosters and sprinkled their blood on the basilisk eggs. "Tom!" she whispered "Is this blood?"

__

"Yes, it's blood-among other things," said Tom. "Just like first year.

"I don't remember—"

__

"Well, you got the Dark Mark. Do you remember that? And you were under **imperio**, just like first year, and we fiddled with the eggs—Just--"

"Just like first year," snapped Ginny. "It's not funny."

__

"Do you hear anyone laughing?"

"Someone was with me," said Ginny hesitantly. "Weren't they?"

__

"I'm always with you, Ginny Love. In case you hadn't noticed—"

"NO, I mean, Edward was with me."

__

Tom was silent.

"Wasn't he? We moved the eggs—Tom! Where is he? We can't just leave him here."

__

"Leave who?"

"We have to go find him! He can't get out by himself."

__

"So Ginny, he's not going anywhere without parseltongue. He'll be here when we get back--in a week or a month or never—"

"So Edward waswith me! I'm going to find him." She hesitated wondering if she asked the door to open to the intruder if that would be a good idea. She hoped none of the stone snakes had attacked him. "You wouldn't really leave him here, Tom--"

__

"Ginny, you know me so little—I never really liked Lestrange, you know. Especially after—"

"But you liked Carman." Ginny smiled, thinking of the memories that Tom had of Carman.

__

"She didn't deliver me to Salazar like a prize pig in a poke."

Ginny ignored him, stood at the door and hissed.

__

You know that's my parseltongue. If I weren't in your head, you wouldn't be able to find him at all.

"If you weren't in my head, I wouldn't BE HERE," Spat Ginny.

__

Tom was silent for a moment. You have a point, Ginny Love. Some of my Ravenclaw brains must be rubbing off on you.

"What Ravenclaw brains?" said Ginny. "If you had any Ravenclaw brains YOU wouldn't be here!"

==

She strode into the Hall of Eyes and extended her hand. "Direct me to the one who does not Speak," she hissed in parseltongue. The door opened to what looked strangely like a cupboard. Edward was sitting hunched in the corner. He was wide-eyed, staring at her.

"Well, come on," she said. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

"I hope you enjoyed your time exploring—"

"I—" Edward looked cautiously at the walls which were covered with various serpents all carved out of stone. "A moment ago, those weren't stone," he said as he stood and came carefully out of the enclosure. Studiously avoiding all contact with the walls.

Ginny said nothing.

"They weren't—" Edward insisted.

"Did I say I didn't believe you?" She asked, her mouth involuntarily curving into a smirk colored by Tom's mirth. 

__

"Ginny Love, you have to ask the snakes what they were doing," coaxed Tom. "You have too—Look at him. He's scared to death."

"You have a really macabre sense of humor," she replied to Tom.

"What?" Asked Edward.

"Oh," Ginny said softly. "I wasn't talking to you."

__

Tom burst into gales of laughter.

"Shut up," Ginny murmured to Tom, and Edward followed her back to the Hall of Eyes.

Ginny made her way slowly from the Chamber to the bathroom between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. She was so tired. She just wanted to sleep. Please, Tom, she thought, just let me sleep.

__

"Of course, Ginny Love as soon as we get out of the Chamber and you can lose Lestrange.

The bathroom was deserted. "Do you know what time it is?" Ginny asked Edward.

"No. Early. I would guess about 6 or 6:30."

Ginny nodded. "Good. Everyone should still be asleep, right?"

"I would think so," said Edward. "It's Saturday. No one in their right mind would be up at this hour—"

__

"I beg your pardon," said Tom. "Only I'm allowed to call Ginny crazy. After all, I know for a fact that she hears voices in her head."

"Sh-h-h-h-" Ginny hushed Edward and Tom. She heard voices—and not in her head. The sounds were coming from the dungeon ahead of them.

They were coming from Snape's office. She listened. It was Snape and Dumbledore. A small part of her remembered Tom chiding her for eavesdropping on Hermione and Samara. She knew that Gryffindors didn't listen to private conversations—Slytherins did—but she listened nonetheless. She moved behind one of the pillars so that she wouldn't be seen by any early risers. Secrecy seemed important. She didn't know why.

==

Dumbledore's voice was low and threatening. Ginny shivered. She had never heard him like that—so angry. "How dare you! How dare you, Severus!"

"We can't discuss this here," interrupted Snape.

"After all the chances I've given you!" Dumbledore continued as if Snape hadn't spoken at all.

"I had no choice," Snape's cold expressionless voice answered. Ginny could tell he was not frightened of Dumbledore. She glanced at Edward, who was unabashedly listening too.

"You always have choices," growled Dumbledore. "This very evil comes from making these ill-conceived choices, and calling them right, calling them unavoidable—making excuses--"

The voices were getting softer, and Ginny realized someone was putting up a silencing spell.

__

"Disrupt it," suggested Tom, but Edward already had his wand out muttering a counterspell and the words broke back through the wall. First there was Dumbledore's low angry murmurs and then Snape's.

"NO!" interrupted Snape. "Great evil comes from _taking away_ people's choices."

"I told you no children would be given to him. How much more clearly could I say it, Severus? You chose to misunderstand."

"She wanted to go. She chose--"

"That's a lie!" snapped Dumbledore. "She's a Weasley."

They were talking about her! Edward gripped her shoulder, and she looked at him. His eyes were smoky and hooded. In his other hand, he held his wand.

"She threatened me at wandpoint," said Snape.

"Oh, and what did you expect her to do? Jelly legs? Curse your feet to the floor? You could have taken her wand."

"Well, I don't know that I could have, actually," said Snape. "I've taught them several tricks to hold on to their wands, but that wasn't the problem."

__

"Not like you really needed your wand anyway—Did you, Ginny Love?"

Ginny leaned in a little closer, not that she needed to. It's a wonder they didn't hear the argument in the towers. 

"She insisted that she be taken to Voldemort. She insisted in front of the whole class. If I refused, my entire cover was blown."

Ginny heard Edward suck in his breath beside her. The fingers around his wand tightened making his knuckles white.

"And you cared more about your slimy ass than a little girl!" accused Dumbledore.

"No," shouted Snape right back. "I cared more about YOUR slimy ass. It's your operation that would have gone down the toilet." Snape's voice again dropped to a whisper. "Everything we've worked for-- from wheedling my way back to the inner circle, to befriending those scumbags, to the tight rope I walk daily with their children—everything--everything leading to Voldemort's demise. She's not worth losing that chance!"

"She's a child!" snapped Dumbledore.

"She's not the first!" Snape yelled right back. "What you mean is she's a Gryffindor child."

"How many times do I have to tell you, Severus. We cannot sacrifice children. If we do, we lose what little chance we have against him."

"The words are: 'Do not sacrifice children or truth' We have already sacrificed both. Many times over. If we are dependent upon that ridiculous prophecy, we are already doomed."

There was a long silence. 

At last Snape spoke. "Alvin Nott also received the Dark Mark—on Thursday—his father came and took him—"

"Well, that was expected, wasn't it," said Dumbledore softly. "His parents are both Death Eaters."

"His mother is dead," said Snape.

Another long silence ensued.

Ginny heard Dumbledore sigh, and the rustle of robes as he put a hand on Snape's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's been a rough couple of weeks for you hasn't it, Severus. Does he still suspect you?"

"He suspects everyone," said Snape, sighing heavily. 

"What happened with Ginny Weasley--it can't be reversed now. How can we use it to our advantage? Did he give her the Dark Mark?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes."

"But does he think it's her?"

"It would seem so."

"But she can't be, of course. She came here before 'Hufflepuff's' loss."

"The Dark Lord wasn't thinking of Diggory," said Snape. "He was thinking of Quirrel."

"Quirrel? Oh, yes," said Dumbledore enlightenment dawning. "He was a Hufflepuff wasn't he? You know I had to have taught him—but I can't remember him here at Hogwarts. I'd forgotten that he was a Hufflepuff. His mother was a Crabbe, wasn't she?"

"No," said Snape. "Shaking his head. A Goyle."

A long silence ensued, while Ginny and Edward sized each other up. 

__

"Edward's going to confront Snape with this new information," said Tom.

"I don't think so," thought Ginny. "That would be foolish. Snape could just obliviate him, like he did me. I think he'll bide his time and go to the Dark Lord with news that Snape is a traitor."

__

"Not a bad idea, for a Gryffindor," said Tom. "You may be right."

"We have our moments."

Dumbledore had stepped to the doorway, and Ginny backed up behind one of the pillars in the dungeon. Edward did likewise. "How will I tell Arthur?" muttered Dumbledore. "Oh!—wait--she's a pureblood—"

"What did you say?" Snape asked.

"Oh, just something Harry Potter told me about—She can't be the prophecy child because—" Dumbledore hesitated looking into Snape's dark glittering eyes, and changed the subject. "I was just wondering how I would tell Arthur and Molly and her poor brothers. She's their only girl."

"Don't tell him anything," suggested Snape. "Let her tell her parents herself when she's ready."

There was another rustle of robes—Dumbledore pacing. "He'll kill her, won't he?"

"Probably," came Snape's reply. "If—when he find out she isn't the Prophecy Child."

Ginny sucked in her breath and clutched the doorframe.

__

"Ginny Love, if he wanted to kill you he would have done it already. Anyway, you haven't found his emerald yet. You're safe."

"We will have to try to get some control over her comings and goings, Severus. And I don't want her going again with the class."

"That will be difficult," said Snape.

"You'll think of something," said Dumbledore. "I have faith in you."

"You'd better put your faith in Lily Evans," said Snape. "There's the only chink in Voldemort's armor and we both know it."

"Lily Potter," corrected Dumbledore.

"Potter," repeated Snape as if he were saying a curse word.

"And a mother's love is still a mother's love no matter what you call her," said Dumbledore.

Snape said nothing and Dumbledore swept from the Office.

In that moment, Edward stepped forward. Ginny noticed that he had put his wand away. That meant only one thing. Edward was going to bide his time and go to the Dark Lord instead of confronting Snape. That, Ginny would not allow. She pulled her wand and leveled the spell as soon as the tip of her wand left the confines of her pocket. **"Somnus!"**

Edward crumpled where he stood as the spell hit the back of his head. He was snoring before he hit the ground.

__

"Why **Somnu**s?" asked Tom. "He has to be **obliviated**."

"I know," Ginny answered, "but if I just obliviate this little conversation, won't he be suspicious that he just woke up in bed. We have to fool him into thinking that he didn't lose any time, or that the time he lost makes sense. I need to think about where to put the boundaries of the **Obliviation** spell.

__

"Well if you **obliviate** enough, they just think they are going crazy."

"And if you **obliviate** enough, they might be **right** when they think they are going crazy," returned Ginny.

Tom chuckled, and Ginny was standing there right outside of Snape's dungeon when he suddenly opened the dungeon door and came striding out.

"Professor Snape," said Ginny breathlessly.

He turned his dark eyes on her. "Yes, Miss Weasley?"

"I need your help."

"See me in class," he said coldly.

"No, Sir, I mean—I did a sleeping spell on Edward. I need you to do **Obliviate**. He heard your conversation—so did I."

Snape looked at Edward, who was now lying slumped in the corner. A second later, Snape was levitating him inside of his office. "Come in," he said. "Who disrupted my silencing spell?" asked Snape as he walked.

"Ah---" Ginny frantically tried to think of something to say, but Snape pulled Edward's wand from his pocket and placed it tip to tip with his own. He pronounced**, "Prior Incanto."**

"A razor-like sharp edged ghost of a spell erupted from the point where the two wands met, and although Ginny didn't recognize what the shape meant, obviously Snape did. **"Deletrius!"** he said, his eyes hardening as he turned to look at Edward. The ghost spell vanished without a trace. 

"Tell me exactly what you heard," said Snape. "Leave nothing out, and I'll know if you're lying."

Ginny stood in front of him wringing her hands nervously.

__

"Pipe down, Ginny Love. He's just a teacher. You've handled worse—"

"Sit down, before you fall down, Miss Weasley," said Snape with no hint of compassion.

Ginny sat.

__

"I think you should tell him the truth," suggested Tom.

"I was planning to—"

Ginny told the whole story from her being sick, but going to Myrtle's bathroom anyway, under **imperio** and Edward and Ethan helping her there with his potion. She continued, relating the time in the Chamber with the eggs and being sick again and sleeping there, to the first moment of his conversation with Dumbledore. She told him that she and Edward heard him tell Dumbledore that he had no choice about taking her to the Dark Lord, and they heard his comments about Lily Evans Potter. "So what is it that is so important about Lily Evans Potter?" asked Ginny.

"Her blood," answered Snape, "Blood which runs through Harry Potter's veins and now, runs through Voldemort's veins and also yours. In fact, through the veins of every Death Eater that has taken the Dark Mark since last May."

"I don't understand," said Ginny.

"And it is better if you don't," said Snape. "Then you will have no reason to have to lie to Him."

"Sir," said Ginny, suddenly remembering. "Thank you for not giving me the truth serium—"

"Oh, it was truth serium," said Snape. "Just veraxis, instead of veritaserium."

"I've heard of that," said Ginny narrowing her eyes in thought.

"I daresay you should have," replied Snape. "Third year potions—" He did not tell her, but waited expectantly for her to remember. She had the feeling that this was some sort of a test—and she was going to fail it—Tom, help me—" she thought.

__

"Honestly, Ginny. Don't you know anything? It's a truth potion invented by Helga Hufflepuff in the year 941. It allows the person to lie only if their own or another's life will be jeopardized by the truth. Absolutely, a Hufflepuff invention—"

Ginny parroted the answer to Snape, and he nodded before shuffling her off to her room to sleep. 

"What about Edward?" asked Ginny.

"I'll take care of Edward," said Snape, his dark eyes shining.

"But where—" began Ginny. 

"He will remember entering the Chamber, because Ethan was with him in the bathroom, but he will remember nothing of what happened in the Chamber. He will assume it was part of your **imperio **spell." Explained Snape.

Ginny hesitated at the door, uncertain if she should wait for Edward or not.

"You are dismissed. I will deliver Edward to Gryffindor shortly."

__

A gleeful Tom, seemed to think that Edward was in trouble. 

"I wish he wasn't," thought Ginny as she climbed the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. "He helped me."

__

"Using a potion that was highly dangerous, and stolen no doubt from Snape's private stores." Tom surmised. 

"Do you think so?" Ginny asked worriedly. "I shouldn't have said anything about him and Ethan. It was bad enough that Snape knew Edward disrupted his silencing spell—"

__

"Forget it," said Tom. "Go to sleep."

"It could have been me," thought Ginny. "I was going to disrupt it."

__

"Do you think I would have let you do that to a teacher with a wand?" asked Tom.

She started to get into bed.

__

"Wait!" said Tom. "What are you forgetting?"

"Re-set the ward," said Ginny.

__

"Very good. There may be some hope for you, Ginny Love."

==

Ginny awoke several hours later because Hermione was knocking persistently on the outside of her ward. The sun was streaming in the window, making the room feel warm even though Ginny knew it was cold outside. Samara, Beatrice, Parvati and Lavender, all busily getting ready to go to Hogsmeade, were in the room. Their constant chatter and giggling was annoying.

She pulled down the ward and snapped at them to be quiet.

"Do you still feel sick?" asked Hermione.

"No," Ginny said with a moment of thought about the subject. "I don't feel sick--just still a little tired. I don't think I want to go to Hogsmeade. Maybe I'll just stay home and sleep. If I feel up to it, I might get a head start on our Transfiguration paper."

"Good idea," said Hermione. 

"You're crazy," said Samara. "That paper isn't due for two weeks!" 

Ginny opened her tightened fists. She had to quit reacting, every time someone said she was crazy. It was just an expression.

"Anything you want us to bring you?" asked Beatrice.

"How about some chocolate frogs?" said Ginny, getting up and searching her trunk for her money. Her stomach rolled at the thought of chocolate, but it was supposed to alleviate some effects of Dark Magic, and anyway, when she felt better, she loved chocolate.

==

After they left, Ginny fell back asleep, and it was nearly lunchtime when she awoke. She hurriedly put on some of the twins' make-up potion, covering the dark circles under her eyes, and went down to the Great Hall. Most of the upper classmen were gone. Only a few were still in the Great Hall and they were clustered together avoiding the younger children, except for Harry Potter, Ginny noticed. He was helping a little girl who didn't even look like she was eleven. 

"What is most important about the swish and flick," he was saying, "Is your concentration on it. See, if you are thinking about the movements and saying the words, you are not worrying about next week's defense test. You are concentrating on the spell at hand. It all comes down to Intent. What do you intend to do with the spell?"

She nodded eagerly, her pigtails bobbing. "I see—" She stopped as she spied Ginny walking over to the Gryffindor table, and Harry looked up. "Thank you," she called back nervously, and scampered off.

'Anytime," called Harry as he pushed his unruly hair out of his eyes. Ginny noticed that his scar was red and angry looking. "Harry what happened to your scar?"

"Donno," he said pushing out a chair for her to sit on. "It has a mind of it's own. It started burning Thursday night and then Friday morning in Advanced Charms, it just exploded. It's a lot better now. Flitwick let me go and tell Dumbledore, but I can't see that he can do anything about it, at least he never has before--" 

"Yeah." said Ginny glumly as she picked through the lunch selection. "I understand."

As she reached for a piece of bread, Harry caught her hand. "Ginny? We were all worried about you," he said. 

"I know. I'm sorry."

For a moment his green eyes met her brown ones and all Ginny could think of was the warmth of his hand on hers—and everyone was at Hogsmeade.

__

"Ah, Ginny Love, just when I thought you were all mine—"

Ginny snatched her hand away, embarrassed. The moment was shattered. She looked at her plate, the floor, anywhere but his vivid green eyes.

Just then, the door to the Great Hall opened and in walked Fred and George muttering to each other. 

"You're the one who said we could have it done by the Quiddich game—"mumbled Fred under his breath.

"Well, you backed me up!" said George

"I haven't the foggiest idea how to—" said Fred.

"You never have the ideas," interrupted George. "I do."

"Well this time your bright idea really got us—"

"Mine! It's not like I thought of the clown face. I was just wearing it!"

"Hi!" Ginny interrupted them. "I thought you were going to Hogsmeade—"

"Been there," said Fred.

"And back," replied George.

"But—" began Ginny.

"No time," interrupted Fred. "We have to finish these clown faces your brother promised."

"I promised!" Said George indignant, as they moved out of earshot.

Ginny and Harry finished eating, talking about Fred and George's multiple jokes, classes and teachers and mundane topics that didn't matter to either of them. 

"Why didn't you go to Hogsmeade?" Ginny asked.

But he just shrugged. "No reason. Once you've seen it, it kind of loses its glamour, you know. Ron's bringing me back some chocolate frogs."

"Ron and Hermione went together?" Ginny asked.

"Well, there is that too," Harry replied, eyes sparkling.

"I hear there's a new Firebolt due to come out next month," Ginny said and for a while they talked animatedly about Quiddich—the professional teams and the team rivalries at Hogwarts, specifically, the Gryffindor-Slytherin game that was coming up next week.

But just as they were ready to leave the table, Harry took her hand again and his face grew serious. "Ginny, if something—happens and you don't want to talk to Hermione or your brothers--Don't—" He pushed his hair back. "I don't know what I'm saying—" he laughed. "Are you going back to Gryffindor Tower?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"I'll walk with you." He kept his fingers wrapped around hers as they walked, but once they got to the Common room the conversation seemed to dry up. She was very aware of the warmth of his hand, the intensity of his gaze-- 

"I think, I'm going to go fly," Harry announced, still holding her hand. "Do you want to come?"

Ginny shook her head. "I have so much homework—" she lamented.

"Oh." Harry disentangled his hand from hers and there was a moment when they just looked at each other, the magic crackling between them, but the moment stretched too long, and Ginny turned to hurry up the stairs to the girl's dorm.

__

Tom's commentary about her and Harry Potter was ringing in her ears and making her blush. 

"Shut up," she told him. "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."

==

After lunch, she decided to work on her homework. Classes were always somewhat of a struggle, and one could always wish for a little less homework--especially Defense. Ginny had most of it piled on her bed. She was currently working on the Transfiguration Paper, but she needed some more research and didn't feel like going to the library. Instead, she switched to her Defense homework. She struggled along herself for a while, trying to get it done. Eventually, she decided she needed help.

"Tom? Are you there?"

__

"Where else would I be?"

"Sorry. I thought maybe you'd be in a better mood by now."

__

Tom didn't answer.

"I was wondering if you might know the answer to this," Ginny asked turning the page in her advanced defense book. 

__

"What am I now, your dictionary?"

Ginny continued undaunted. "It's a question on why you shouldn't use a level four block to block stupefy. It would work wouldn't it?" 

__

"Of course it would work, Ginny," said Tom with bored patience. "Stupefy is a level two spell. You wouldn't want to use a level four block because it takes more power, and in a duel, you never know when you might need that last little shred of power."

"And what would you use to block curse of the bogeys?" asked Ginny.

__

Crimeny, Ginny. Can't you do your own homework? I've done all this already."

"Come on, Tom. Just tell me. I know that you know. Samara said you got the highest NEWTS ever. It was the first time a Slytherin beat all the Ravenclaws—And that record still stands."

__

Tom was silent for a moment, and then said, "I guess all that studying paid off in one respect."

"You didn't know that, did you?" Ginny asked softly. "Highest scores in Hogwarts' History and still a prisoner."

__

"That's exactly what I was thinking. You know me too well. You're getting way too perceptive, Ginny Love." Tom was silent for another moment and then said, "Curse of the Bogey, a sixth level spell that target's the victim's own fears--"

"Probably because curse of the bogeys is a sixth level spell—" Ginny surmised. "That's how the medi-witches realized that it couldn't be my memory. Should I look this up—"

__

"You won't be able to look it up in real life, Ginny Love. Ask yourself what you think you should use, and then check to see if you're right."

"That's a good idea."

__

"Of course it is," Tom said with utter boredom

==

"Ginny?" said Samara peeking into the room, and looking around. "I thought I heard voices." She shrugged, and put her packages down. "We just got back. Here's your chocolate frogs." She laid the package on Ginny's bed. "Are you coming down to supper?"

"I'm not hungry," said Ginny, without looking up. "I have to get this finished."

"The homework will still be here when you get back," said Samara. "Unfortunately."

__

Tom chuckled. "Ginny Love, go get something to eat."

"I can't," said Ginny. "You may not be having any trouble keeping up, Samara, but I'm falling further behind every day. I never was meant to skip ahead a grade." She felt tears creeping into her eyes. "I need to finish this."

__

"You also need to eat." Said Tom. Ginny felt a slight tingling in her legs, as Tom tried for the millionth time to see if he had any control over her limbs. "I guess I still don't have power to control your actions—"

"You don't," Ginny snapped.

"Yes, I do!" Samara said annoyed. "Of course, I need to finish my homework. Come and eat if you want to, or just stay here. I don't care. I just came up to drop off my packages and because Ron asked me to see if you were awake." She turned on her heel and walked out.

Ginny closed her eyes and laid her head on the bed. "I didn't mean to snap at her," thought Ginny. As she reached out to put the chocolate frogs away for later, she hit upon something that was not bedclothes. Samara's book. It was open on her bed, and although Ginny was cautious about books, she had seen too many people handle this particular book to be afraid of it. Only Harry Potter seemed to be affected badly.

"Do you think it's an omen, Tom. She left it on my bed instead of hers. Should I open it?"

__

"Totally up to you," said Tom. "If you're worried about it possessing you, I don't think that's a problem—"

She had opened this book when there were other people around. Now, Ginny was alone, and a little rush of apprehension rippled through her. The pages were old and yellowed.

Trelawney predicted this," said Ginny. "She said: A window to the past will open to you, Virginia. You are afraid, but your Gryffindor heart will prevail."

__

"What about your homework?" Tom asked snidely.

"What are you now, my conscience?" she asked, riffling through the pages.

__

Tom's amusement filled her. 

"Find that funny, do you?" 

Ginny stopped where the ruined pages were, and leafed one at a time toward the end of the potion. When she got to the last page, there were notes in the margin. Scrawled round letters jumped out at her, marking the dates that each of the items were collected.

"Tom," she whispered. "Do you see this?"

She clutched the book so tightly she thought she would tear it. Never mind what the words said, she recognized the handwriting. It was the same handwriting that had appeared in her diary. Not Tom's fine aristocratic script. No, this was a round, rough handwriting that she only saw in the diary right before something bad was going to happen. Foreboding filled her. Something bad was going to happen. 

__

"Ginny Love," interrupted Tom. "You see too many omens. Go down to supper. Go down to supper now."

Ginny ignored him and continued to leaf through the book. 

__

"Ginny. Now."

"You can't make me, Tom." Her eyes narrowed as she continued to leaf and on the second to last page of the chapter at the bottom of the printed text, she saw something written in that same handwriting. The writing was faded with age—very faint. Very pale. Barely readable.

"Help me, Tom. Do you know anything about this?"

__

"I haven't the foggiest notion."

With effort, Ginny read the faint writing. 

****

"Aparecium!" said Ginny. 

__

"Ginny," Tom reminded her, "It's not invisible, just faded. Do you have a revealer?"

"No," said Ginny, "But Hermione does." She jumped up and pulled open one of the drawers where Hermione kept her extra quills.

__

"Tsk, Tsk," said Tom. "Going through other people's desks, now, are we?"

"It's not private—" began Ginny. "It's just quills and stuff--Oh, here it is!"

She rubbed it over the page, and the writing became visible.

**__**

She is not awake, and yet aware, as the vision takes her.

She sleeps fitfully now, and I know I am the cause, and yet I cannot be sorry.

Then a poem was captured, the writing large and sloppy and scrawled as if taken down in a hurry, while the Seer was speaking. Ginny assumed that it was what "she" said. The first part was unreadable until she used the revealer and even then, the writing was faint. She continued, struggling to make out the words.

****

You of auburn hair and parseltongue,

You've never painted, danced or sung.

You read a book, now dead and worn

Its pages lost, soiled, marred and torn.

With a little cry, Ginny dropped the book as though it had bitten her.

__

"Pick it up!" Tom demanded. "It's you, Ginny. Who else could have auburn hair and parseltongue?"

"I know," Ginny muttered. "I can't."

__

"Don't be a fool, Ginny. You have to read it. Then we'll decide what to do with what it says."

Hesitantly, Ginny reached for the book again, and opened it to the proper page. She continued to read.

****

For twins you're not, yet appear to be

But you are not what others see

You see that little time will be allotted

Unless the Snake can be out-plotted.

Find the treasure long neglected

Of my house that you rejected.

In his picture, locked and warded

There the twins dire quest rewarded.

You must seek a sighted friend

Or let your toil in time end.

For if you do not take the jewel

You will lack the vital tool.

The next several lines, to Ginny's chagrin was rendered completely unreadable by whatever had been left in the book, and another pass with the revealer, caused the revealer to begin to smoke.

"Tom!" cried Ginny frantically, as the thing burst into flames. **"Glacio flagro!" **

"Nicely done," said Tom. "You are definitely getting better."

Ginny looked at the newly uncovered words.

**** ****

You cannot have what you cannot see.

So find a friend to let Snakes see.

Let time reveal what you do not know.

All must be clear before you go.

__

But there were no more of the poem, and no more notes from the one who wrote down the vision. The next several pages afterwards were blank, designated for notes at the end of each chapter, and they had all been torn out.

"Damn it!" swore Ginny as she flung the book from her. "Tom did you write this?"

__

"Did I— No."

"Are you telling me the truth?"

__

"Ginny Love— I told you before I think we can no longer purposefully keep things from one another."

"I never did," said Ginny defensively.

__

"I know, Ginny. Do you know what this prophecy is about?" Tom was brimming with excitement.

"No Tom, but apparently you do. Suppose you tell me."

__

"It's the other jewel. The other eye for the giant basilisk in the Chamber. I couldn't do anything with just one, but now--"

The other eye? What about the first one?

__

"It was in the Sorting Hat," said Tom.

That means Voldemort still has it, doesn't it?"

__

"Yes, but—"

Suddenly Ginny remembered Voldemort asking her about this. "This was Salazar's book," Ginny said with conviction.

__

"Ginny, you can't be sure—"

"Tom," said Ginny glumly. "Do you recognize this handwriting?"

"No."

"Its Salazar's," said Ginny. "Tom, I've seen this writing enough in the diary to recognize it and that means, even if we find this eye, we will only have one of them again. And to tell you the truth, these clues aren't exactly specific. Salazar has had a whole lot longer than us to work on it, and Voldemort doesn't have the jewel yet."

"How do you know?"

"He asked me about it," said Ginny. "Now I understand—"she said. "He asked me, 'Have you found the emerald Helga hid from me.'"

__

"And he knows you speak parseltongue."

"Yes, he does." She said tiredly. "Let's go to supper."

__

"No. No. No. We have to figure this out," said Tom. "Let's look at again."

"No. I'm hungry, and we aren't going to solve this now anyway."

__

"Don't you have a single drop of Ravenclaw curiosity in your body?"

"Only what you brought," said Ginny. "And luckily, it isn't in control of my legs."

__

"Now, who's out of sorts," accused Tom.

"I'm just tired and hungry, and I can't deal with this right now." 

__

"Just let me look at the poem again," said Tom. "Give me a minute to memorize it."

"One minute," said Ginny, and shivering, she opened the book again.

==

Please review.

****

THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS

Hayes1966: No. Draco cannot block the crucio curse. He realizes that it is a curse, not _real_ when he is in the midst of it. The physical pain is not blocked, but the mental pain is. Pansy's secret? Just that she and Draco broke up because of his taking the Dark Mark. I thought you could have surmised that, and even if you didn't, it's not all that important. Draco knows that the Longbottoms cursed his parents and Aislinn with their last sane breaths. I'm sure he has a good idea what happened even if his parents didn't spell it out for him.

****

Trillium: But Samara doesn't think before she acts.

****

Trillium: 

Glad you liked the mud incident. I looked up all the Hindu mythology you suggested. I don't know if I will use any of it, but it's awesome—maybe in the sequel. I have to think about it a while. Yes, I agree, I Ravenclaw would, too but they wouldn't jump blindly in front of it. There would have to be a logical reason For example, 'if I disrupt the spell enough, it will be useless and they will have to do it a different day, giving me time to plan.' That was too complicated a reason to bring in here and took away from what was happening between Draco and Samara. Draco's action was not a very "Slytherin" thing to do as Narcissa and Lucius agreed, but Lucius explains the issue away with his 'silver tongue' and Draco starts to believe that maybe squibs are better off dead. Narcissa uses this as a time to teach that nothing is without cost. There are consequences to every action—think—be in control—weigh the cost—trust no one, not even your mother—love no one, not even your sister. Draco himself calls his action 'stupid'. I rationalize my letting Draco do this by explaining how I think the houses may affect people. I believe everyone has a dominant and at least one less dominant house. Once they are sorted, the fact that they are living constantly with that house CAUSES them to become more like that house. (They may all have parts of every house—but not like the Prophecy Child—because if they did, I would have no story—lol.) At the time, Draco was younger., and more impulsive. He would probably now be less likely to risk himself, unless the prize was greater than the risk. His mother taught him that. 

****

The Elemental Sorceress 

More Draco later. You like the poem? Shivers.

****

Taju akiel 

No I won't make Draco a hero. Please read the 'teasers' in chapter one and you will see that Draco remains true to his character. And Ginny—Well alas. She's a horrible Death Eater. More of her coming soon.

Your other comments about Lupin, I don't understand. No Lupin in this chapter. Maybe you cut and pasted part of someone else's review???

****

Kemenran: 

Will Hermione get her magic back? She hasn't lost it. She only had trouble with breaking Ginny's ward because it's the ward Tom taught her—and very complex.

****

Raven 173

You were crying. Oh my.

****

Ennui2: 

Yes, Samara can't see beyond Draco's looks/confidence/sexiness. Sigh. Who can? The question is—is Samara stupid or is Draco manipulative? He might kill her when she realizes that she's been outright lying. Yep. It's a possibility. About Samara not having a Slytherin bone—Let's recap: She had Draco eat shit for 15 hours, curses him with the Devil's Snare with thorns. He shielded it, but it was her curse, crucioed Ethan—OK that was his spell, but she didn't even appologize. She imperioed Draco, Mouthed off to Snape, and then cursed his feet to the floor. She walloped the Weasley twins in DRAGON BREATH MINTS AND BLUDGER BATS…And your ideas on the Ginny stuff. Per-fect. About the Malfoys—do you want to do that with a wand, wandlessly, or will the old-fashioned muggle way prove a point about 'squibs'.

****

Silverfox1: Sniff? Poor Draco. Muhahaha!

****

Reiven: Glad that Eddie made it out OK? Right from the clutches of the snake to the clutches of Snape. Opps. Sorry Edward. Should have known better than to steal that potion while Snape was with the Dark Lord. About Narcissa. JK told us nothing much about her, and we got a picture of her from Fanfics. But she's Valeriana's sister (aka Bellatrix). How sweet and innocent could she be? Ethan and Edward were born on May 4 (if you read my Bellatrix story, you find that out.) Aislinn was born in January. The Longbottoms were tortured in November of the previous year. Count the months or re-read (18/20) IN REMEMBRANCE, (38/40)FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE

****

kristy- secludedexistence (kriskala@juno.com) 

more interesting than 5th book? Wow! Author dances wildly around the room.

==

If you haven't reviewed yet, please do it now. 

" 


	49. CH 48: Secrets Kept and Thoughts Shared

****

Harry Potter and the Seers' Truth

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 48

Secrets Kept and Thoughts Shared

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE.

And now, back to the Chamber—Where there are--

****

Secrets Kept and Thoughts Shared

On her way to supper, Ginny heard Harry Potter calling her.

Ginny! Ginny! Wait." 

Harry caught up with her just outside of the muggle studies classroom. "I wanted to ask you something—" He hesitated, and then pulled her into the empty classroom.

"It's about Edward—I know this sound crazy, but I've been talking to his snake, and—um-- Ginny. I know it's none of my business, but—I wish—" He took her hand in his. His hand was so warm—so comforting. He brought his other hand up around hers completely encasing her hands in his. He stood for a moment, saying nothing, just looking at her. "I hope that you and he aren't—um—well—er" He took a step closer to her. "And you and he aren't—are you--, a couple?"

"We're friends Harry. That's all," said Ginny. 

He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "So, that's all there is between you and Edward—um—friendship?"

"Sure. Right now, anyway." Ginny nervously brushed back non-existent wisps of hair from her face with her free hand. She was acutely aware that Harry Potter, her one time crush was standing just inches away. They were in an empty classroom and he had just asked her if she was part of a couple. The air was electrified. Harry edged a bit closer to her, and then put one hand on her arm, sliding it up beneath her hair at the nape of her neck.. Omygosh, he was going to kiss her. Ginny had imagined this moment since she was eleven. "Ginny," he whispered and his lips, soft and warm brushed against hers.

She had imagined this moment forever. Now that it was here, she found herself far away in her memories of it. She had written of this moment to Tom.

"I wish Harry would kiss me. I could just imagine—"

__

"What do you imagine, Ginny?"

"What it would feel like to have him kiss me—and me to kiss him back—"

__

"Tell me," said Tom.

"I—can't."

  
_ "He's a year older than you," said Tom. "Let me help you—You don't want him to think you are just a little girl--"_

She wrote nothing, staring at what Tom had written, thinking at least the words sunk into the parchment and no one would know she was having this conversation.

__

"Ginny? Are you still there?" wrote Tom.

"Yes."

__

"Put up the privacy ward."

"OK."

Ginny put up the ward, but didn't write anything else in the diary.

__

"Ginny Love?"

"Yes, Tom. I'm still here."

__

"Is the privacy ward up?"

"Yes."

__

"This spell needs something of yours— _saliva should work."_

"Which spell, Tom?"

__

"Didn't I tell you I would need something of yours to escape the diary."

"Yes, but—this—"

__

"Would your prefer blood? That would work too," wrote Tom.

She had slammed the diary shut, but after a while, she opened it again.

Ginny whimpered, remembering.

"Ginny?" Harry's voice interrupted her musings. He was still holding her in his arms. "You're shivering."

"I know," she said, turning her gaze on him. Harry met her gaze with another kiss—a warm, chaste kiss that did nothing to quench the burning tangle of emotions that thinking of Tom had unleashed. She wanted to run. She wanted something more--to take the kiss to the next level. She wanted to share her magic with him.

__

"No don't," Tom warned.

"Jealous Tom?"

__

"No. Well, yes, actually, but—I think your magic—ours and Salazar's may affect his scar—"

"No," thought Ginny horrified. "That's not fair!" She buried her face on Harry's shoulder, trying not to cry, thinking, "Not fair--Not fair—" the warmth of Harry's hug finally bringing her back to the moment.

"I'm glad you and Edward aren't a couple," Harry said softy, keeping his hands properly at her waist. 

Ginny shifted away, reaching out and interlaced her fingers in his. "Let's go to supper," she said.

"Sure."

They walked into the crowded Great Hall together and looked for Ron and Hermione. Once they had filled their plates, Hermione leaned close to them. 

"Ron and I were just talking," she said. "We should go to the Chamber tonight."

"Tonight?" said Ginny. "I thought you didn't want to go at night."

"Well, like you said, there aren't any windows, so I guess it doesn't matter, when, and we should break those eggs as soon as we can."

Hermione's words sent a flash of physical pain through her. Nothing can happen to those eggs! She thought, but it was good to go tonight. Then she could get the eggs back to their natural hatching ground tomorrow. "Yes," she agreed. "Let's go tonight, right after supper."

"You're sure you're feeling up to it, Ginny?" asked Harry, reaching for her hand, but she lifted her hand away and pushed back her hair with it.

"I'm fine," said Ginny. 

__

"No you're not. You're under imperio, Ginny Love. That doesn't sound fine to me."

==

The little group decided to use the bathroom between Slytherin and Hufflepuff instead of Myrtle's bathroom, because the ghosts were in Myrtle's bathroom. They could hear Peeves reciting poetry in a sing-song voice outside of the Great Hall.

Ginny froze, listening.

There once was a girl who spoke snake

Who attended her very own wake

'Cause she doesn't dread 

The voice in her head

And no doubt that will be her mistake.

That is the worst limerick I've ever heard," said Hermione.

"What do you expect, Hermione," asked Ron. "with Peeves as the poet?"

"But the tense is all confused—"

"Hermione," said Ron, hurrying her forward to catch up with Harry. "Who cares? Come on Ginny," Ron called over his shoulder.

Ginny was still standing in the corridor staring after Peeves.

"The other bathroom will be better anyway," said Harry. "We won't need brooms to get out."

  
"Brooms?" said Ginny, but Tom hushed her. 

__

"I don't think he really knows how the Chamber works, Ginny Love. There's no need to tell him right now. You need to learn how to keep secrets." 

"No, Tom," thought Ginny. "I have too many secrets to keep." She hesitated. "Tom? Did you hear Peeves. Just now?"

__

"He never liked me much, Ginny Love. I wouldn't count on his poems being the truth where I'm concerned."

"But—"

__

"Oh come on Ginny," said Tom. "He tells the truth when it suits him and he lies when it suits him. He tried to convince the whole school that Harry Potter was the heir of Slytherin! Remember? Potter, you rotter—"

"OK, you're right," she thought. "But I don't like the idea of my wake—It's just--" she shivered.

__

"Giving you the heebie geebies?" asked Tom. He gave a mental shrug. "Well, obviously it's not really your funeral if you're attending it." 

Ginny sighed, thinking, not if I'm a ghost, and tried to put her morbid thoughts behind her. 

__

"You worry too much," scolded Tom.

When they got to the bathroom, Ginny and Harry looked at each other self-consciously. "You open it, Harry," said Ginny and he nodded. 

Kneeling down at a rather awkward angle, he looked at the snake under the tap, and hissed, "Open!"

The sink moved aside, revealing a dark, dank tunnel and Ginny started to sweat. "Go ahead, I'm coming," she said motioning the others forward, but Harry grasped her hand tightly in his. 

"I told you, you won't have to be alone in the Chamber and I meant it," he said. **"Lumos!"**

The foursome proceeded down the long winding staircase and through a corridor, before Harry asked, "Which way to the hatching ground?"

"Just ahead," Ginny answered, as they came to a set of twin, stone basilisks guarding a door. 

"Open," Ginny hissed automatically, and the serpents greeted her.

"Good evening, Mistress," hissed the basilisks in parseltongue, as the door slid open. "Ahh-we see you have found the other Speaker. He is a better mate for you than—"

"Silence!" Hissed Ginny abruptly, a blush covering her face in the dim wandlight. 

__

Tom's amusement did nothing for Ginny's embarrassment. "See," said Tom. "The serpents agree with me. Edward is no good for you, Ginny Love.

"What did the snakes say?" asked Ron.

"Nothing," said Harry and Ginny together, Ginny blushing furiously.

Tom's mirth was making it hard for her to think. "Sorry," she hissed to Harry.

"Don't worry about it," said Harry, his voice a soft hiss. "It seems like everyone is trying to fix me up with someone—" He smiled at her.

"But basilisks?" she answered, again in parseltongue and they both started to laugh.

__

"Stone basilisks, no less," cried Tom, howling with laughter. 

"Shut up, Tom. I can't think with you laughing."

__

"Think?" Tom laughed, his amusement blocking out all other thoughts. "You want to think now? When did you take up that pass-time, Ginny Love?"

"Why are they speaking in parseltongue?" wondered Ron.

"It's a good thing," said Hermione. "They obviously didn't want us to hear."

"Why?" wondered Ron.

"It's called privacy—"

__

Tom started laughing all over again. Ginny—Ginny—they think you have privacy!

"Yeah? What's that?" asked Ron, putting his arm around Hermione.

"The basilisks called you mistress," said Harry softly. "And with me, they didn't want to let Ron and Hermione through."

"I told you," Ginny replied. "I was here a lot. It's this way--Down this corridor and through a door—"

"Ginny," whispered Harry. "We're speaking in parseltongue."

"Oh, sorry. It's just down this corridor and through a door," she repeated in English, for Ron and Hermione's benefit. "When you are here alone for very long, speaking to the snakes doesn't sound like such a weird idea."

"Either that," said Harry "or the place is enchanted to prefer parseltongue—"

"Oh, it's enchanted to do a lot of things," agreed Ginny. "I just want to get out of here as soon as we check to see if the hatching ground is—"

She paused to lift the ward and open the door to a vast sandy expanse. The room was tidy and the sand swept.

"Empty," finished Ginny, moving aside to let the trio inspect the hatching grounds.

__

"Potions room," urged Tom.

"Shut up, Tom," thought Ginny.

"Could they have hatched already?" asked Ron hesitantly.

"I don't think so," said Harry. "Unless Voldemort possessed someone before Quirrel."

"You're right, Harry," said Hermione. "There are too many ingredients, and too many of them are obscure. I don't think Quirrel could have put the potion together before October."

__

"Let's show them the potions room, Ginny."

"Hermione saw it already, Tom." 

"It's a wonder Quirrel could do it at all," said Ron. "Werewolves, and Dragons and –" 

"He did have a dragon egg though," said Harry.

"Norbert!" said Hermione. "But what about the werewolves? The blood had to be collected for three consecutive months—" Hermione shook her head. "They would have to still be eggs. Would Voldemort have taken them anywhere else?"

"Yes, the potions room," added Tom.

"No," said Harry and Ginny together. "This is the best place for them to hatch," Ginny added.

"So, there were no eggs after all," mused Ron.

"I was so sure," said Harry as they climbed the stairs back up to the bathroom. "I really thought there would be eggs."

"To tell the truth, Harry," said Ginny. "I thought I knew something about that potion, too. I'm relieved that this little trip is over though—"

"Me too," said Hermione, as she and Ron climbed the last of the stairs.

'You really don't think there is any chance that You-know-who got to them first, do you?" asked Ron.

"I don't see how," said Ginny. "I mean, he would need a student wouldn't he? Besides, Dumbledore is the only wizard that He ever feared, and the Chamber is right under Dumbledore's nose."

"There is that," agreed Harry. They discussed what they knew of the prophecies and their homework as they climbed to Gryffindor Tower.

"What a trek!" complained Ron as they reached the portrait hole. "Puppy Puffs," said Ron.

"Did you think of that password?" asked Harry.

"Yes," said Hermione. "I wanted something easy that Neville would remember. Of course, he's doing a lot better these days—" 

The Fat Lady opened the door and they were greeted by the sound of Fred and George trying to console Beatrice, Beatrice crying and Samara threatening to curse the two twins into oblivion. 

"What happened?" asked Hermione as they entered the Gryffindor Common Room.

Beatrice raised her face out of her hands and looked at Hermione. It was covered with purple spots and a light dusting of bright violet hairs.

"Fred and George!" said Ginny in a low angry voice that would have rivaled Mrs. Weasley's. "You fix her this instant." Behind her Ginny heard a soft snort, and she elbowed Ron in the ribs causing his snort to turn into outright laughter.

Samara whirled on Ron removing his mouth entirely from his face.

"That was uncalled for," snapped Hermione. "Ron didn't do anything to Beatrice."

Samara, turned, wand drawn, glaring at Hermione,

"Don't even think of it," said Hermione, her own wand in her hand, and her eyes flashing fire.

"Everyone calm down," said Harry, stepping between Hermione and Samara. "Fred and George if this is your joke, I think it's time for the antidote, and Samara, I think Ron can control his laughter now."

"It wasn't a joke," said Fred

"And we don't have an antidote," said George.

"She wanted some of our make-up potion, and apparently something in it reacted with her skin." Said Fred.

"We've never seen anything like it," added George. "She must have some kind of sensitive skin. We don't know why she turned purple."

"And until we know why, we can't turn her back," said Fred.

Ron tapped Samara on the shoulder, and she frowned at him for a moment before re-creating his mouth.

He rubbed his face a moment, as if to be sure all the parts were there before he spoke. "What is in this potion?" asked Ron.

"Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed and knotgrass " said Fred.

"Horn of bicorn, and skin of boomslang," added George.

Harry interrupted, "It sounds a lot like—"

"Polyjuice potion," Ron and Hermione finished.

"And Beatrice is an animagus," said Hermione. Come on." Hermione took Beatrice by the hand and started to lead her out of Gryffindor Tower. 

"No!" she shrieked. "I don't want anyone to see me."

"**Pulchra facies,"** said Samara, but the glamour charm did absolutely nothing. She tried, "**Dissimulatum** **aspectum**." Again, Beatrice's skin remained the same.

"I'll be right back," said Harry, sprinting up the stairs.

"Beatrice," said Hermione. "If you let these clowns try to fix this, you might be stuck purple forever. Madam Pomfrey managed to change me back from catwoman in second year. She can fix this."

"Who are you calling clowns," said Fred.

'You," replied Samara, changing Fred's face into a white skinned, red nosed, sad clown. His red hair stuck up at odd angles. She swiveled to George, but he blocked.

"Oh no, you don't," he said to Samara, but another spell came from the doorway, changing his face into a clown identical to his brother's.

Samara glanced over to the doorway to see who had sent the spell. 

Hermione was grinning at her, but her grin faded as she looked back at Beatrice. "You better hope Madam Pomfrey can fix Beatrice's face," she said to Fred and George as she pulled Beatrice towards the door. "And in the meantime, don't give any of your make-up potion to animagi. It might turn into a permanent joke."

Beatrice let out a small sob.

"Wait," said Harry. He pressed a small, silky bundle into Hermione's hand. As it unfolded, her hand disappeared. "Don't let anyone see it," he whispered, gesturing to the people in the room. "Except for us." 

"See what?" said Samara. 

"This," said Hermione, pulling the Invisibility cloak over Beatrice. "Come on Beatrice. Let's go."

"I'm coming with you," said Samara hurrying after Beatrice and Hermione.

==

"I guess we could have them test it on a small portion of their skin," said Fred.

"Maybe they could try it on their arm or something, before they put it on their whole face," said George.

Neville, Lou and Joe came into the common room and glanced around at the room's occupants.

"Who are the clowns?" Neville whispered to Harry.

"Fred and George," he answered.

"Oh, wicked!" said Joe. "Is that what you finally did with your make up potion? So how much is it for a clown face?"

"A-h-h-h," Fred looked at George.

"We have to perfect it a little," said George.

"It should be done some time this week," Said Fred.

"Before the Slytherin-Gryffindor game?" asked Joe hopefully.

"Oh, Yeah," said George.

"We should definitely have it done by then," said Fred.

__

"So they want students to try this potion on their arm—their inner arm," Tom said. "I wonder—Ginny, we have to try something—"

"What Tom?"

__

"Your brothers' potion. If it works, I think we've found a solution to that ugly mark on your arm.

"Tom, you're a genius!"

__

"So I've been told."

==

For the third time this weekend, Ginny prepared herself to go into the Chamber of Secrets—this time—alone.

__

"Ahh--Ginny Love, you aren't alone. I'm with you," said Tom.

"You were with me—before. It doesn't make me feel very confident."

__

"Well, why don't you just hit the sack then. The eggs should be fine in the potions room."

"Hit what?," said Ginny, nervously twisting her robe. 

__

"Go to bed—"

"No," said Ginny miserably. "They are safer in the hatching ground. They cannot be found by Harry Potter there, and the temperature and humidity are better regulated for them—"

__

"Ginny, you are under imperio. Can't you at least try to fight it?"

"I am, Tom. I'm trying. I'm going to go through the kitchen."

__

"Do you think that your twin brothers will stop you? They won't. They never stopped you in first year. They don't even see you, Ginny Love. Remember what you wrote about them in the diary--"

"Don't," interrupted Ginny as she stepped out into the darkened corridor. "I know," she whispered. It was a little after midnight. Everything was quiet. 

__

"That wasn't me, Ginny Love," said Tom. "That said—the things--about your brothers—"

Ginny was silent. "I know," she said at last. "I know it wasn't your writing." She used the tunnel, hurrying to get to the picture of the bowl of fruit. 

__

"I thought you didn't like the tunnel," said Tom.

"I don't; but you do."

__

"You went that way because I like it?" asked Tom.

"It is quicker, and no chance of meeting Filch."

__

"Well, that's what I always thought. No use antagonizing the squib," said Tom. "Are you going to get a snack on the way?"

"I don't think so—"

__

"Hot chocolate?"

"No."

__

"Some fruit?"

"No."

__

"Talk to the house elves?"

"No."

__

"Ginny, you aren't fighting the **imperio**. You aren't even delaying it."

"Tom, there's no point. No one is going to stop me and send me back to my room. I'm just going to hurry up and take care of the eggs and then we can go to bed—"

__

"I wish," muttered Tom and the thought that flashed by was decidedly sexual, bringing to Ginny's mind their moments of shared magic.

"Tom?" Ginny paused, but the imperio would not allow her thoughts to linger. She kept walking, and her attention was drawn back to the Chamber, and the eggs.

__

"And Tom was uncomfortably silent, burying the brief thought in images of Ginny fighting the imperio and smashing the eggs after all."

Ginny tickled the pear and entered the kitchen.

"Miss Ginny," exclaimed one of the house elves that she didn't recognize. "How may Mickam serve?"

"Just a piece of fruit—anything," Ginny said dismissively. She eyed the Hogwart's towel around the house elf and wasn't sure if he knew about the entrance to the Chamber here. She wasn't sure she wanted to tell him if he didn't know. 

"Which fruit?" Mickam questioned.

"Whatever you have," said Ginny. "A pear? Grapes? An Orange? Something here. At Hogwarts. Don't disapparate to the continent to get it—"

"We have them all," said Mickam. "Mickam will—"

"No," interrupted Ginny. "Just the pear then."

Mickam went to get the pear and returned with the pear and Winky, who was wringing her hands and crying. She looked like she had just awakened or perhaps she hadn't slept for days. Her eyes were red from crying and her ears looked crumpled and burnt.

Nonetheless, the imperio caused Ginny to take the pear and begin to walk toward the entrance to the Chamber, without inquiring after Winky.

"Winky is bad," she cried. "Winky must be punished. Winky is so sorry. Winky is not sleeping. Winky is shutting her ears in the oven ever since she took Miss Ginny's papers, but—"

"You took them! You took my Quick Quotes Quill notes. Where are they?" Ginny spun around angrily.

"O-O-O-O! Winky is bad. Bad. Bad. Bad." Winky began pounding her head wildly on the table.

"Winky, no," said Ginny.

"Winky should have shut her whole self in the oven and be burnt up with the papers," said Mickam coldly. "Professor Dumbledore would be angry. House elves is not to touch student's work—ever."

"Stop!" shouted Ginny. "You shouldn't have taken my papers, but you've punished yourself enough, Winky." She looked at the other house elf, still holding the pear on the plate. "Mickam," she said. "Go, see that Winky gets to bed, now and no more punishment." 

"Yes, Mistress," said Mickam.

Although Ginny wanted to find out why Winky took the papers, the **imperio **was pushing her forward toward the entrance to the Chamber and she had already wasted enough time. She took the pear and strode forward, speaking in parseltongue before she even reached the sink. The doorway opened. She stepped through and hissed it closed. She took a bite of the pear as she walked. Within ten steps, she was at the basilisk sentry. "Open," she hissed. 

"We have missed our mistress," said one of the basilisks, slithering around the pillar. 

"Have you?" she replied.

__

"You didn't miss them, I guess," said Tom.

"No," she replied, but this was her favorite entrance to the Chamber. She knew it well, and didn't bother to light her wand. She could find her way in the dark, although it wasn't completely dark. Firefly plants bloomed up ahead of her. As far as Ginny knew, they were the only plants that would bloom in complete darkness. They did require magic though, and Ginny didn't know how they were spelled to continue to bloom when no one was around to perform the spells. Their tiny blinking lights reminded her of miniature Christmas trees with twinkle lights. She called this, the Corridor of Lights. She followed their path of lights to the room with the statue of Salazar, the room she called the Hall of Eyes because all of the stone snakes and basilisks had gemstones for eyes—or at least they were supposed to have gemstones for eyes. Some of them were missing. 

She stood in the center of the room and hissed the words to open the potions room on the other side of the Chamber. She strode forward, carefully bringing the containers with the eggs into the Hall of Eyes and then opening the hatching ground. She took the eggs into the hatching ground and separated them as much as she could in case no one was present at their hatching. 

__

"It won't matter," said Tom. "If no one is present, they will still kill each other. They travel lightening quick even as hatchlings."

Nonetheless, she separated the containers, burying the bottom of the containers in the sand. She looked carefully at the one which she had dropped when she was here with Edward. Although the egg seemed alright, the toad was dying. It's eyes were closed and the skin had peeled off of it exposing parts of its skeleton below.

"Do you think I should **enervate** it, Tom? I think the toad is unconscious."

__

"No," said Tom. "Maybe incendio or avada kadavra."

"Tom!"

He sighed. "Leave it alone. You don't know what **enervate** will do to the egg. 

"Maybe you're right," said Ginny. "I shouldn't use magic until after it hatches. Poor thing."

__

"What? The toad?"

"No. The basilisk," said Ginny. 

__

"Ginny, you are under **imperio**. I know that's not you talking. You would never feel sorry for a basilisk."

"I felt sorry for you, didn't I?" thought Ginny. "That's what got me in so deep—"

__

Tom said nothing, but Ginny felt him retreat from her.

"You heard that didn't you?" asked Ginny.

__

"Yes. I guess you're turning more Slytherin by the minute, Ginny Love. Must be my influence—"

Ginny stopped in the corridor and sighed. "No. Tom," she said. "I would have never said that aloud, but I would have thought it, even before--I'm sorry—" Ginny thought of a number of times when her thoughts had inadvertently traveled to things she would have rather not shared with Tom, and she knew Tom felt the same.

__

"I guess," replied Tom, "It's going to take some adjustment—hearing each others' thoughts." 

"Forget it," she said.

__

"I don't want to forget it."

==

Please be a responsible reader. **REVIEW.**

(A/N: Next chapter: How does Snape keep Ginny away from Voldemort? Or does he?)

****

Answers to Reviewers:

Silverfox1: I loved Greenie. I would never make fun of him. I always expected the book to be Tom's or to belong to some ancestor of Samara. Me too. 

**Kemenran****: **To be expelled, she would have to be caught—publicly caught.

****

Jager : Missed your reviews. Glad you like. Homework? **OBLIVIATE!** What homework, TEACHER? You didn't give us homework. What? You're the new substitute? Miss Snape? OPPS.

**ennui2****: **About Ginny, actually, you are right, with Lily Evan's Potter's blood, none of the new Slytherin Death Eaters could probably do old magic which required pure blood. However, the Slytherins would still CALL her a pureblood with a Dark Mark, since none of them would want to admit the "taint" they allowed into themselves with the Dark Mark. Tom isn't a pureblood, but although she shares Tom's consciousness and has shared his magic, she has not shared blood. Gryffindors never pull obnoxious pranks. Everything obnoxious comes from those sneaky Slytherins. McGonagall told me. Remember the prophecy is bilinguis. I'll tell Samara that you want to smack some sense into her. But you've talked to her counterpart in real life haven't you? Bright, pretty, talented, and hopelessly blinded by charm and good looks. You also have to remember, if she fights with Draco, since we only see him through her eyes, we lose Draco in this story, and then all the fanfic Draco fans will be out for _your blood_—

Lots more Ginny/Tom on the way.

**Raven173** Glad you like my Harry. This chapter should have pleased you with the bit of Ginny/Harry at the beginning. I don't neglect Ron. He neglects me. Every time I look for him, he's off with Hermione somewhere. Samara? Voices? When? Glad you liked.

****

Trillium Glad you love Tom. Funny, devious, intelligent, do they come any better? I don't think so. I like him a lot too. Yes. Salazar was writing down another's words.

**The Elemental Sorceress****: **Got a peeve's poem just for you. More's coming.

**Reiven** Will satisfy your hunger for evilness and gore. **READ REIVEN'S FICS. VERY GOOD!**  
More riddles, more questions. Yep. I hope you don't die of brain overload! Oh dear, I'm sure I had a potion for that somewhere—I'll just send an owl to Madam Pomfrey. I'm sure she can help you. Yes, I said about 50 chapters and a sequel, but I don't think this is going to be done in 50, maybe 55-57??. I cut a couple in half though, so that increased the number of chapters. I have a lot written and I have to figure out where is a logical place to put a chapter break. The sequel is already in the works, so it will begin immediately after this one.

****

i can not tell you who i am : Noneed. I know who you are. This is the "seers' truth" after all, Liz.**  
**

**Crystal Megan**

LOL! That put a smirk on my face. Love those smirks. You wrote, my quote: *Oh, Ginny Love, just when I thought you were all mine—" That was funny, too, but I got the impression that Tom was just mocking Ginny, and not being serious about the comment. *He was mocking, but remember he's also 16, and the selection of girls in Ginny's head is severely limited, so I think he was half serious too, but didn't want Ginny to think that he was. Rejection would be really rough. Where could he go?

**Eizoku** Glad you liked. You wondered what Severus will do to Edward? Me too. I think I'll leave that to your imagination though--  
  


  
  


  



	50. CH 49: What is a Dark Wizard?

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 49

What is a Dark Wizard?

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

**Disclaimer**: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

***

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

**UP TO THIS POINT**: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost--

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in this chapter--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. Worried about those dark wizards? Which brings me to my next question,

What is a Dark Wizard?

Ginny and Edward had crept out of Gryfindor Tower earlier Friday evening. She had left her bed surrounded by its awesome ward in the hopes that no one would miss her, and if they did, she knew they would assume that she, like Lavender and Parvati, had made other sleeping arrangements.

She had spent the first half an hour nervously pacing the Slytherin Common Room, as it slowly filled with Slytherins, some she knew, but most she didn't. 

_"Ginny Love, will you sit down? I'm starting to get sore feet."_

Ginny stopped dead still. "You can't feel my feet," she thought. "Can you?" 

"_Ha! Got you!" said Tom, who sent a tingling through her body._

"Why did you do that?" asked Ginny.

_"I thought maybe if you thought I already had some control maybe I could get some control."_

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

_"No, going to Salazar is the stupidest thing I ever heard."_

"It's not like a have a choice."

Finally, Edward had pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. "Stop being so nervous," he said. "You'll do fine. It'll be fun. You'll see. Wasn't Beaubaxtons just amazing?"

"Yeah," agreed Greg. "When the whole dormatory went up like a fireworks! Whoosh! It was beautiful!"

"Well, you got a close up view, you stupid Prat," drawled Draco. 

"It was worth it," Greg said sincerely. "I didn't even realize my robe was on fire."

"That was because he was trying to save the Veelas from the flames," quipped Vincent.

_"Veelas? It's a good thing we weren't there," said Tom._

"Why?" thought Ginny confused. "You wouldn't have control of my body—"

_"Yeah, but I wouldn't have control of my brain either," thought Tom as several memories were quickly squelched._

"You've seen veelas?" began Ginny.

_"Yes," said Tom dryly and it's not a memory you would appreciate, Ginny Love. Talk to the nice Slytherins—"_

"Nice?" repeated Ginny.

"But," muttered Ginny, trying to catch the gist of the conversation. "People died—"

"Virginia," said Millicent, growing into her black robes from her cat form. "People die all the time. The people involved were wizards and witches, people who should have been able to protect themselves. But many of them weren't people at all. They were Veelas. Do you know why Beaubaxtons is by the sea?"

"I never gave it much thought," said Ginny. 

"Because the Veelas are descendents of the Sirens. They've left the sea, but they aren't witches. They are _creatures_—like werewolves and vampires and hippogriffs or blast-ended screwts."

_"Wait a minute," thought Tom._

"And they still don't feel badly about drawing wizards to their deaths," said Edward. "Do you know they still sink ships—not as many as they used to of course—but they still do it."

_"You can't put vampires in a class with hippogriffs, and what in the world is a blast ended screwt?!"_

" A mindless worm," answered Ginny.

_"What! I know some vampires, and they aren't creatures. They are, or were either wizards, witches or muggle at one time. Unlike a blast ended screwt that was never anything but a mindless woruot;_

_"Shut up Tom. Shut up Tom. No. I'm not going to shut up. I'm going to—"_

"We all—all the males had to be charmed with **obsurdesco." **Edward continued, and Tom got quiet, listening to the conversation.

"I don't know that spell," said Ginny.

"To be deafened." Replied Ethan.

"You were deaf? None of you could hear during the attack on Beaubaxtons?"

"That's right," said Draco. "That's why Millicent and the other female death eaters were so important during our raid there."

"But it's still wrong," said Ginny.

"Wrong," spat Draco. "Why do you Gryffindors have label things right or wrong. Good or evil. The labels don't mean anything. All that matters is Power—you are either in control of it or subject to it. Which would you rather be, Weasel?"

Ginny bristled at Draco still calling her weasel.

_"Good question." Thought Tom. "Why don't you answer him, Ginny Love."_

"Who's side are you on?" Ginny thought.

_"The Slytherin side. I can't help it that I'm in your head."_

"Yeah," thought Ginny. "Me either—" "But all of you are subject to Voldemort," she said aloud.

Immediately a furious rustle went through the group. "The Dark Lord!" snapped Ethan.

"Lord Voldemort!" corrected another.

"Whatever you call him," said Ginny. "He's still a dark wizard—and he--"

"So what's that?" interrupted Draco.

"What?" Ginny was confused.

"A Dark Wizard. What's that?" said Draco.

"And what makes a wizard dark?" asked one of the older Slytherins.

"I—I –don't think I know how to answer that."

"Yes, well neither do we," said Edward. "So you're in the right group."

The little group broke into laughter.

"This isn't funny," said Ginny. 

"She's right," interrupted Nott. "It's not funny. When wizards do things that go against their consciences, that's wrong. That's dark."

"What's a conscience?" joked Ethan.

And the group broke into laughter again.

"It's not when wizards go against their consciences, but when they do evil things that they no longer consider evil," said one of the older Slytherins. "something hurtful—"

"What is this? Ravenclaw?" demanded another of the Slytherins. "It doesn't matter."

"It does matter," said another.

"When the Mark burns, nothing matters but going to Him—doing his will—"

"But there are no veelas at Drumstrang," said Ginny. "Why would you—or the Dark Lord want to kill these wizards?"

"Oh we're not going there to kill them," said Ethan. "We're going there to welcome them to the fold. Too many wizards that believe as we do, have been scattered. It's time we band together."

"And then Askaban," whispered Edward, glancing at his brother. Their eyes held one another's for a moment and Ginny felt the magicial communication between them. "Mother," breathed Edward.

"Soon," muttered Ethan, sparks dripping from his fingertips.

"Suck it in, Ethan," drawled Draco. "You're going to set the carpet on fire."

"Again—" said Vincent.

Edward lifted his hand and misted the carpet with the water elemental. 

"Wish you were here last week to drown your brother's magic," said one of the older Sytherins. "Snape was seriously pissed that none of us could pull from the water elemental without touching water. I thought he was going to drown the lot of us, before he was done."

When Edward turned back to Ginny his hair was damp and his damp fingers felt cool against the nape of her neck.

Snape strode into the room from the corridor and surveyed his young group. With eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring he contemplated each of them. "Nott," he said softly. "Go back to bed. You aren't going. You too, Goyle."

"What?" Alvin's eyes were wide with fear. "Sir—please. I can go. I—want to."

"I'll be more careful this time," said Greg. "Please."

"We'll deal with it later," said Snape sharply. "It wasn't--my decision."

The room went deathly quiet. The fear palpable. 

"Does he think I'm—unworthy?" whispered Alvin.

"I've convinced him, that you will mature," said Snape, his voice still a rough sneer. "I said, we'll discuss it later. Here." Snape handed Nott a small bottle of potion. "Share it," he said. "Go to sleep."

Ginny suddenly felt as if someone had placed a drop of molten metal on the inside of her left arm. She screeched and clawed her robe away from her inner arm, tears welling up in her eyes. Her Dark Mark was an angry red welt.

"The rest of you, let's go," said Snape. "Animagus, transform now. Those of you who can apparate, may go directly to the apparition point and go to Him." 

"You're alright," Edward encouraged her. "It's not even burning black. I think he likes you."

"I was surprised, that's all," said Ginny, resisting the urge to try to claw the mark from her skin. I'm a Griffindor, thought Ginny. I have to be brave.

"_Right Ginny. Gryffindor!" Tom shuddered and tensed. "You know, Ginny Love, I may not be able to feel your feet, but I can feel that."_

"You feel the Dark Mark?"

_"I was part of the spell, remember how you dragged me into it?"_

"I did not. I was trying to help you."

_I knew Gryffindors were stupid, but I never knew how stupid—_

Shut up, Tom.

Snape turned into the hallway that lead down to the boys dorm, but instead of taking the stairs, he stopped at a picture of an aristocratic gentleman that looked enough like the Bloody Baron to be his father or grandfather. Snape spoke the spell and the picture opened revealing a very wide tunnel that led out onto the grounds. 

A light frost was starting to form, making star patterns on the grass and leaves, and Ginny could see their breath in front of them. Starlight twinkled and the last quarter of the crescent moon was already high. It was a cold clear night and going to be colder where they were going. Ginny pulled a frost covered leaf from a tree and placed it over her burning arm. It did nothing to quench the fire there.

"The only thing that helps—supposedly--is phoenix tears," said Edward. "I've never tried them. Snape guards his store of them with wards that are nastier than the pain of the Dark Mark. It will stop as soon as we portkey."

Ginny nodded, unable to think of anything, but getting to the portkey and stopping the pain. She wanted to run.

Some of the older students apparently had the same idea as they jogged ahead several yards, into the Forbidden Forest, a flash of white—someone's animagus streaked ahead of them, apparently off of Hogwarts grounds and then they were out of sight.

"The youngest will go first," Snape announced. "Snood, Pritchard, Lestrange, Weasley, get over here. You're in the first group. Ethan, you'll bring it back for the others. Be quick. You only have 20 seconds between. Snape turned and paced off into the Forbidden Forest and the apparition point, as Ginny felt the familiar tug of the portkey behind her navel. 

==

The plain upon which Ginny apparated was cold and barren and covered with frost. In the distance was a bleak castle-like structure. As the group approached it, the building looked less and less like a castle and more like a haunted wreck.

"I can't believe my dad wanted to send me to this dump," muttered Draco. "Thank Merlin, mother wanted me closeby."

"But they say, Drumstrang has the best teachers of the dark arts," said Vincent. 

"No," corrected Ethan, "Carman's the best teacher of the dark arts."

"If you live through it," added Edward.

Ginny tried to reconcile Edward's version of Carman with the pretty girl that played chess and went to classes with Tom.

_A flash of Carman and Tom sitting with heads together whispering over some dark book came into Ginny's mind._

"Tom? What aren't you telling me? 

_I told you before, we can't keep secrets. The memory of the study session with Carman and Tom continued. Carman was fascinated by Salazar and the Dark Arts, even then—But of course, she just thought Salazar was another aspect of Tom._

"Isn't Carman your granny?" Ginny asked Edward.

"Yeah," said Edward. "But don't call her granny."

"Call who Granny?" said a soft feminine drawl.

Ginny turned to see a slender witch whose hood was pushed off of her head. Snow white hair that hung loose to her waist was blowing in the cold wind. Bits of ice clung to it. She was small and appeared almost frail, until you looked at her eyes. Although she wore a Death Eater's mask, Ginny could see her dark piercing eyes through the holes in the white mask, and any illusion that this woman was frail, vanished. 

"Carman," breathed Edward, catching her hand, and kissing it. "Good evening, Grandmother."

"We shall see," said Carman. "If you do what is required of you, it may be good."

"I will make you proud, Grandmother," said Edward.

"You have already done so," she said with a softening of her features that may have been a smile. "So this is your Prophecy Child?" She turned her piercing eyes upon Ginny, who cringed internally.

_Tom, on the other hand, was blatantly curious. "Take her hand," Tom urged. "Let me feel her magic—let her feel ours--"_

"No, Tom," thought Ginny, wanting anything but to encourage Tom in this, but Carman was holding out her hand to Ginny as if she expected her too, to kiss it. It would be rude to refuse to shake hands with the old woman, Ginny decided.

_"Old woman!" thought Tom._

"Virginia Weasley, Ma'am," said Ginny as she took the woman's hand. Immediately she felt the woman recoil. 

"A Weasley?" she said with distaste, but she was still gripping Ginny's hand, and Tom reacted immediately to Ginny's ire at having her family insulted. The rush of magic through Ginny's hand was enough to make Carman think again, her eyes narrowing, into hooded slits under the mask, and her grip tightening like iron. 

"A very unusual Weasley," she said as she released Ginny's hand.

_"I think you made an impression," said Tom._

"I don't care," retorted Ginny hotly.

"Ah," said Voldemort turning towards the students. They immediately bowed and prostrated themselves on the ground, all except Ginny. Edward tried to pull her down beside him, and Tom argued with her in her head. 

_"Ginny Love this is going to get you killed. This is stupid. Just bow down and play his little game."_

"The first of our little pioneers," said Voldemort. He moved among them touching some, ignoring others, but when he came to Ginny , she had at last knelt on the cold rock.

He studied her, the wind whipping his robe around his feet. "You know I could put your face in the dirt, yet you resist bowing to me. I'm thinking perhaps, you need a lesson in respect." His snake tongue flitted in and out of his mouth. "Not as frightened of me today, I see. I taste only fear, apprehension, not terror. Well, that can change." He reached forward, placing one of his long fingers under her chin. "Tell me, Virginia. Have you found it yet?"

"I found a **book, now dead and worn**

**Its pages lost, soiled, marred and torn. **That is all"

He nodded. "**Imperio!** When you find it, remember you will bring it to me."

"I will," she answered.

"And my eggs?"

"Are safe."

"Are safe, Master," he corrected.

_"It means nothing," said Tom. "Just say it."_

"Are safe, Master," she said.

He moved on, speaking to some of the children and finally he came to Snape and the older death eaters. He spoke quietly to some of them, and then he stood in the middle of the circle and raised his voice with the **sonorous** spell.

"Today, we celebrate the great occasion of the noble school of Drumstrang joining our ranks as Death Eaters. Some will choose to Eat Death and others will just choose Death. Either way, the school will be purged of those who defile the name of wizard and witch and out ranks will grow. Some of you have wondered how this will be accomplished. Our newest Death Eaters will today prove their worth."

_"I don't like the sound of that," said Tom._

Ginny felt her apprehension escalate to fear. For just a moment she wondered how she had gotten herself to this point, but Tom's thoughts interrupted her.

_"It doesn't much matter how we got here, Ginny Love. It only matters what we do, now that we are here."_

"Lucius," the Dark Lord spoke to his loyal Death Eater who came forward bringing with him the plain red robes of the Drumstrang students. 

Ginny couldn't help but stare. The last time she saw Lucius Malfoy, in the presence of the Dark Lord he was blubbering and crying on the ground. Now, he was serving him as if nothing had happened. Lucius began to hand one robe to each of the student Death Eaters. When he reached Ginny, he paused, his steely gray eyes meeting hers, as if it was somehow her fault that he was subjected to the repeated crucio curses just a week ago. Miss Weasley," he said coldly as he handed her a dark red robe.

"Thank you," she murmured, the manners that her parents had taught her coming automatically from her mouth even though she hated Lucius Malfoy.

The Dark Lord was still talking as Ginny put on her robe. "One of the students in his animagus form has already infiltrated the Drumstrang boundary to make the portkey that will take the students in, and he has brought back this ordinary quill.

**"Engorgio!"** pronounced Voldemort, causing the quill to grow to three times its normal size. "You will put on the robes of Drumstrang. There are students loyal to me inside. They have all been owled. They will be awaiting you. You must find them and bring them out to me. You will have a quarter hour, before the storm begins."

"A quarter hour," muttered Vincent. "That's not very long."

"It's not a big school," added one of the other Slytherin boys.

Voldemort turned calmly to them. "You should not speak when I am speaking," he said. **"Crucio! Crucio!"**

Listening to the screams of her fellow students, Ginny's insides felt like they were melting. Edward's hand tightened around her arm. He seemed to realize that she was about to rush forward to them. "Why was she here? Why wasn't she home safe in bed. Because somewhere inside of this monster, her Tom had to exist, didn't he?"

_"I think he's beyond help," said Tom sadly._

"How can you say that, Tom? As if—as if—he isn't YOU."

_"He isn't. I'm a memory of what he used to be."_

Abruptly as it started, the spell was ended. The boys lay panting and sweating on the frozen ground.

"Get up," urged Voldemort. "I believe an apology is in order."

"I'm sorry—" Vincent sobbed.

"Please forgive me—"

"Put on your Drumstrang robe," Voldemort ordered. "You have cost us enough time. Go! Now!

The boy who had made the portkey stood holding the feather quill next to Voldemort. Several of the children rushed forward at once, anxious to be out of Voldemort's sight.

"Youngest first," snapped the boy holding the quill, and the students made a rough queue. Ginny was shuffled to the front with the younger Death Eaters. When they arrived inside of the castle, they were in a deserted hallway that appeared to be near the dormatories, but she couldn't be sure. The boy who made the portkey, immediately turned into a small white ferret and scampered down the hall. The feather floated to the floor as the others disbursed. 

"Wait," said Ginny. "Don't one of us have to go back after the next group?"

"You do it," said Gloria Snood as she sprinted down the corridor after Ethan and Edward.

Ginny picked up the feather just in time. Immmediately the portkey brought her back to the Death Eater circle. Another group of children laid their hands on it. Two abrupt trips and she was starting to feel dizzy. 

"Someone else has to bring the portkey back, she announced. 

"I'll take it," said one of the older Slytherins, and Ginny looked around for a familiar face. 

"Come on Weasel, you look lost," drawled Draco lighting his wand. He and Vincent Crabbe started down the unlit corridor with her. They made several turns, and Ginny was very conscious of the fact that she would have to find her way back. 

"I was here twice when my parents were thinking of sending me here," said Draco. "Boys' dorms are this way. Girls' that way." He paused at the bottom of the stone stairs and watched a rat labor by. "Guess you are on your own from here, Weasel. Do you remember where the portkey is?"

Ginny nodded. 

"Good Luck, Weasel." They turned and hurried up the stairs to the boy's dorm. Ginny lit her wand and crossed the corridor to a staircase that went down. Please let Draco have told the truth, she thought. The corridor was musty and damp. She couldn't imagine living down here. It was ten times worse than the dungeons. It reminded her of the Chamber when she had first visited it. She shivered. When she got to the end of the tunnel, there was a door. She knocked on it first, but no one answered. She tried Alohomora! Nothing happened. She raised her wand and examined it. 

"Did you hear that, Tom? Someone speaking?"

_"Parseltongue," said Tom. "A snake. Be careful."_

"The mistress-s-s- is s-s-safe. S-She is a powerful sorceress-s-s-s. I will kill her enemiesssss."

"Who speaks?" asked Ginny in parseltongue. "Show yourself. I am trying to help your mistress."

For a moment there was silence, and then a small snake slithered out from underneath a statue. It was reddish brown with a dark brown zig zag pattern on its back. 

"Is your venom toxic to humans?" Ginny asked, thinking it looked very much like one of the adders that was used in the basilisk potion.

_"Long nosed adder," said Tom. "Deadly. Not usually friendly."_

"Hissuss!" the little snake said haughtliy. "I am your death,"

"I am not your prey, nor your enemy. I want to help your mistress. Where is she?"

"SSShe isss sssafe," said the snake.

_"The door is warded," said Tom. "Nothing too difficult. Four point. I'm not sure what's used though—animal and mineral— Ah, that's it. Animal. Vegetable. Mineral and Ether. Watch the snake."_

"Tom, if I break this, what's to say that whoever is inside of it won't curse me, and I won't get back to the portkey."

_"Nothing," said Tom. "But I don't think you want to go back to Him empty handed."_

"OK," said Ginny "How bad can it be? I mean this four point ward is pretty pathetic."

_"They learn the Dark Arts," Tom said. "Not defense against the Dark Arts. You might have someone on the other side ready to do _**_Avada Kadavra_**_. What's the snake doing?"_

"Nothing. Just watching me."

_"It will probably attack if you try to open the door. Talk to it first."_

Ginny hesitated. "Is your mistress in here?" Ginny asked the snake.

"Yessss."

"Would she join Voldemort to save her life?"

"I do not know thisss one of whom you ssspeak."

"I'm trying to help her," said Ginny. She reached down and the snake did not retreat. She picked up the snake, draping it over her shoulder.

She felt Tom tense inside of her, expecting the snake to strike, but the snake seemed content to watch and bide its time.

_"Talk fast," said Tom. "We're running out of time. You know they won't wait for you at the portkey. Ask the snake, does anyone in this room know _**_Avada Kadavra_**_?"_

Ginny asked, but the snake didn't understand.

"Has your mistress or the others in the room ever killed anyone?" asked Ginny.

"Yessss," said the Snake. "My mistress, but not the others. And I have killed for her."

"_Just use, _**_Testudo. _**_Break it and hope for the best," said Tom, "And don't stand in the door way. Move immediately when you enter. Of course you will have to re-do the _**_Testudo."_**

"Ok," said Ginny, holding her wand before her and breaking the ward. 

In front of her stood four young girls all with wands raised against her. Four spells hit Ginny simultaneously and bounced harmlessly off of the shield spell which warded both her and the snake.

Then one of the girls squealed. You hold my Koschchei. How did you avoid his strike?"

"He would not strike me," said Ginny in English and then she switched to parseltongue. "I told him I was trying to help you."

When the girls heard her speak in parseltongue, they moved as a group, backing against the wall and cowering, still holding wands in front of them, but with much less vigor.

_"Honestly Ginny, frightening small children now, are you?"_

"It beats cursing them," replied Ginny

Four point ward," said Ginny, pulling the snake from her neck and handing it to the girl, as she hissed calming words to it. She switched back to English. "I could do that ward in my sleep. You obviously spend too much time on the Dark Arts and not enough time on defense against the dark arts."

_Ginny Love, you can do a 12 point ward in your sleep._

"I don't want to brag, Tom."

"Now," she continued. "If you want to live you can join Voldemort. Otherwise, you are going to die, because this place is going to be leveled in—she checked her watch—about seven minutes."

"But," said one of the girls nervously. "We've heard bad things about him."

"They're all true," said Ginny blandly. "Here's the choice. Join him. Live. Stay here. Die." 

_"That's not really the choice, Ginny Love. It's more like stay here, die for sure; join him and you'll get tortured and maybe die—"_

"I'm not going to tell them that, Tom."

And, she checked her watch again. "We now have six minutes and I'm leaving. Are you coming or not?"

"The girls looked at each other and put their wands away. Two of them, came immediately. The other two were more hesitant. "The teachers said to hide," said one. 

"If you stay here—you—will—die," Ginny said.

The other girl asked if they had time to get some of their friends."

"Run," Ginny told them. 

"Wait. Where's the portkey?" asked the girl.

"At the intersection of the corridors by the boys' dorm staircase," said Ginny.

"Meet you there," called the girl. 

Ginny turned to leave, with the other two girls, when the third one, threw a spell in her direction.

Ginny analyzed. Second level, and blocked flawlessly, sending a stupefy spell over her shoulder without even looking. After Snape, this was easier than playing Exploding Snap. She turned, frowning at the girl who was lying on the floor. No one else had even drawn their wands. 

"Hilda!" screamed one of the first girls.

_"Leave her," uged Tom. She didn't care about you."_

"I can't leave her to die, unconscious. She won't even have a chance to get out.

_She won't have a chance anyway , said Tom._

Ginny levitated her stunned body toward the portkey. "Get her wand and Go!" she snapped at the other girls. They ran.

When they reached the place where the portkey should be, there was no feather quill on the ground. 

Maybe they just left, thought Ginny. "The portkey will be right back."

_"Don't bet on it," said Tom._

"We still have two minutes," shouted Ginny. 

She counted to twenty. If the portkey was coming back, it would be here by now. 

"OK, we have no portkey," she announced to the girls. "Any of you know a fast way out of here?"

"It takes ten minutes to walk out to the grounds," said the girl with the snake. "I doubt if you could fly it in two minutes."

"Fly!" said Ginny, "Where are your broomsticks?"

"In our rooms," said one girl taking off at a run.

"No! Wait! " called Ginny, and the girl skidded to a halt. Thinking of Harry's tri-wizard task, Ginny said, "**Accio** your broomsticks."

"We don't know that spell," said another of the girls.

"It's a charm," said Ginny desperately.

"We don't take charms," said one of the girls, as the first girl arrived at a run with five more friends. Her snake was hissing loudly in complaint as she rearranged him over her shoulder.

_In fact, thought Tom. We're closer to the boy's dorm, accio some of the boy's broomsticks_, _Ginny Love._

Ginny mentally went down the list for the fastest brooms. "Accio Firebolts," and touched the ground where she wanted them. Accio Nimbus 2001." She touched the ground again. "Accio Nimbus 2000!"

The brooms clattered to the ground around them. One of them was followed by a boy about 12. He was looking at Ginny's wand tip. "That's my Firebolt," he said nervously, pointing to one of the two Firebolts that had arrived.

"You can get on it, fly out with us, and join Voldemort or stay here and die," said Ginny. "Decide now."

He jumped onto the broomstick and flew out of the corridor without looking back.

"Wait for us!" screamed Ginny.

_"Too late," said Tom. "You know you will need to send the Dark Mark ahead of you, or they will kill you as you fly out."_

"I don't know how," moaned Ginny.

_"You can do it," said Tom. "I have faith in you."_

There were six broomsticks. Ginny picked up a Nimbus 2001 and mounted it.

"Lead on," said Ginny as the other girls mounted the brooms either singly or in pairs. "But do not go out into the grounds. I need to go first."

_"You should have taken the other Firebolt," said Tom, as the girl with the snake mounted the Firebolt._

"I'm a Weasley," said Ginny. As they streaked towards the opening. "I've never owned anything new."

The girls skidded to a halt, turning their brooms to face her as they reached the opening. Ginny pulled her wand and pointed it ahead of her into the night sky. "Close to me, now," she called as she muttered to herself. Please let this work, she thought.

_"It will," coached Tom. "You have the intent-"_

**"MorsMordre!" **Green fire flashed ahead of her into the sky above them. Ginny gasped and almost fell off of her broom as the spell hit her left arm with fiery pain. Her Dark Mark burned black.

==

An icy rain began to fall around them and the wind blew wildly whipping their broomsticks off course as they tried to land on the precipice. A group of the adult Death Eaters were weaving the spell using Elemental magic. The Air was fairly crackling with it. Other adults were standing by ready to kill any who seemed to be trying to escape. Several more flew out on their broomsticks and were promptly killed. The green streaks of **Avada Kadavra** marring the sky.

==

"I told you she'd make it back," crowed Edward. "I want my money back. You lost your bet, Millicent."

The money exchanged hands between Millicent and Edward and about a half dozen other Slytherins.

"You were betting?" said Ginny incredulously. "You were betting if I would come back or not! When you took my portkey!"

"It wasn't your portkey, Weasel. It was all of ours," said Draco.

"Who took the last portkey?" she said dangerously.

"Well, we just forgot," said one of the older Slytherins looking at the crowd around her. "We're not used to these massive Gryffindor rescues."

"You!" said Ginny pulling her wand. "I should—I should—"

_"Easy, Ginny Love," warned Tom._

"The Slytherin had also pulled his wand. It was immediately removed from his hand.

**"Expelleramus!"** said a silky smooth voice. Everyone of the students were now silent and watching, as Voldemort held the boy's wand in his hand. "Virginia, I believe the spell you are looking for is **crucio**," said Voldemort.

Thunder rumbled from the storm and lightening flashed across the sky, as the whole castle below them began to shake with the combined Elemental magic of dozens of adult Death Eaters.

"No," said Ginny. "I would never. I—couldn't—"

"If I say you can, you can—"

_Ginny, just do it," said Tom. "It's not like anyone here is going to turn you into the Ministry._

"No. Tom. It's wrong. It's illegal."

_"You have no choice, Ginny."_

"It's illegal." Ginny said softly, the wind now whipping her hair across her face. "I can't."

"Either you perform the spell on him, or I perform it on you," said Voldemort.

"He's unarmed," complained Ginny.

Voldemort tossed the boy his wand, but he made no move to protect himself with it. He seemed to know that it would go worse for him if he did. He stood with the wand, by his side. His eyes closed as if steeling himself for the spell that he knew was coming.

Ginny pocketed her wand. "I guess you'll have to perform it on me--Tom." She said.

_"Don't provoke him!" screamed Tom, but he was too late._

**"Crucio!"** said Voldemort. Ginny was suddenly plunged into fire. She felt her skin melting off, sizzling and frying and burning off of her bones. She was dying. Dead already. Her blood was bubbling inside of her and her eyes felt ready to pop. Why was she still hurting? She should be dead. She opened her mouth and screamed and screamed as if that could in some way release the pain from her body. And then it stopped. Every muscle, every bone, every part of her was crying out in the aftermath of the pain. She had rolled on the frozen ground and her robe and cloak were covered with ice and dirt. Her breath came in short gasps. She looked around stupidly expecting to see flames and smell burnt flesh.

"Ok," said Voldemort turning calmly to the rest of the student Death Eaters. "We retrieved all of the expected young Death Eaters. How many new recruits do we have? It looks like Virginia brought nine. Did anyone do better?"

Edward and some of the new Drumstrang girls were helping Ginny to her feet.

_"Ahhh—Damn it! How can I hurt when I don't even have control of the body?" breathed Tom._

Ginny was stunned that Tom somehow felt a part of the spell—but it was a mental torture too, she supposed—

_Tom seemed to recover faster than Ginny though. "That was stupid, Ginny. More than stupid," Tom chided her. "If you are going to play these games you have to leave the Gryffindor bravado at home. It has no place here. It's just going to get you killed! And me cursed along with you! Did you forget, if you die—I don't! He could have just as easily decided to use _**_Avada Kadavra_**_."_

Voldemort went from student to student counting and corralling the new recruits, most had one or two. Draco and Vincent had five between them, and Ginny guessed that if they didn't come totally willingly, then all five were Draco's' but Voldemort stopped in front of Millicent. 

"Do you have some neat little packages for me, my dear?" he asked. 

She began pulling stunned mice from her robe pocket, and dropping them into Voldemort's outstretched hand. One, Two, Three, Four—oh that one, I hurt. I think my tooth must have hit his spinal cord. He seems to be paralyzed, but he's still alive, Master." She grimaced, looking suddenly afraid. "I don't know for how long though," she whispered, "so you might want to use him first, before he dies." She searched through the rest of her pockets. "I know I had another one. I didn't eat him. I wanted to eat him, but I didn't—I didn't-- where is he? Oh, here he is." She dropped the fifth mouse into Voldemort's hand. 

He smiled at her, and said very softly. "Never damage what is mine. **Dens extractum**!" 

Millicent cried out, grabbing her mouth. Whimpering, she spat blood onto the ground and then reached down to retrieve a single tooth from the frozen ground.

Voldemort had already moved on. "And you?" Voldemort was standing in front of one of the Slytherins who should have sent the portkey back to Ginny. "Who did you bring me?" The boy gestured to the one Drumstrang boy that he brought. 

"Not good enough, Wylie," said Voldemort. **"Crucio!"** After a moment he lifted the curse. That one was from me," he said and before the boy could recover his wits about him, Voldemort continued. And this one is from Virginia. **"Crucio!"**

The storm was now raging about them. Lightening had set some fires, but since the castle was primarily stone, that didn't matter so much. Voldemort lifted both of his hands and concentrated, muttering a spell. Ginny didn't know what it was, but she was pretty sure he was drawing from the Earth Elemental. The rock at his feet was rippling up like sand, on a windy day. 

"Join me, my fellow Death Eaters!" he called and suddenly the force of the Earth magic being used intensified as many of the older Death Eaters and some of the younger ones joined their magic to his. The Earth shook and Ginny felt the heady feeling of magic all around her, even though she had called none of her own.

"Release your magic, back to the Earth!" he called and the Earth beneath Drumstrang gave a might learch and the entire castle shifted.

Finally Voldemort released his own spell and the gap widened, the castle shifting beneath the edges of the crack. Once more, the Earth shook and the castle split along many of the buildings weak spots. Several large chunks of it fell into the gap in the Earth and then the rest of it slipped beneath the surface of the Earth. 

Voldemort sighed and dropped his hands to his side. Ginny couldn't help but notice that he looked exceedingly tired, but his blood red eyes were shining like a predator's. 

The cheer that went up from the Death Eaters was deafening, and the magic crackled around them. Although many of the Drumstrang students and teachers were standing with the cheering mob, some were huddled apart, shivering and afraid. 

To these, Voldemort turned, his robes covered with the dust of Earth magic, and his voice raised with the **sonorous** spell. Although Ginny did not want to listen, she found herself spell bound by his words and his magic.

"For us there are only two possibilities," he said. "Either we raise our hands and our wands and revere the pure blood of wizards which flows through our veins, or we continue to subsist under the thumb of the muggles, and muggle lovers. This latter must not continue. Even if we are small, we are a force. A well-organized group can conquer a strong enemy. If you stick close together and keep bringing in new people, we will be victorious over the Destroyers—and Despoilers--the Muggles.

A cheer went up from the Death Eaters, and Voldemort waited until they settled before continuing.

"Muggles possess nothing of their own creation. Everything that they have is stolen. They are leeches on the land and parasites on the flesh of our Magic. Their debauchery cannot be allowed to continue."

"Burn the bastards!" cried one of the wizards. A shout of approval greeted this idea.

"For the freedom of Magic folk is a consequence of power and the source of power is the combined will of every witch or wizard with the strength to raise a wand, or lift the power of the Elementals. But, will to power must be strengthened by passion. Our strength lies not in the dead weight of numbers but solely in the Elemental Energy we alone can wield. Wizards and Witches! Even the smallest minority, with magic, with a mighty intent, can achieve a mighty result if that result is inspired by a fiery, passionate will to succeed.

But there are those in the wizarding community who try to keep us down. What you have to understand is that labels like 'good' and 'evil' are created by weak wizards who can only use words to protect themselves, because they have no real power. That's what really matters isn't it? What matters is whether or not you are in control of what happens to you, whether or not you have the power to shape events to suit your needs and wants. There are those in the wizarding world who want to deny you that power, but these same wizards cannot face you wizard to wizard with a wand in their hand. They are weak. They would fail. And they know it! So they have devised another way to control you. They call the magic that gives you your freedom to be who you really are –evil or Dark. They call you murderer and try to shame you into their camp. Are you ashamed of who you are?

A murmur went through the crowd.

A wizard with a silver hand thrust it into the air. "We are not ashamed," he cried.

"No," murmured several others. "We are proud."

One day, you will be able to wear your Mark proudly and acknowledge who you really are, but now we have to hold our pride in our hearts. We must proceed with stealth, but it will not always be this way. Never--NEVER let the muggle lovers shame you. You are the elite—the magic of tomorrow.

Today, you see a school destroyed, but schools are not the keepers of knowledge—WE are. We are the witches and wizards of the future. We will build new schools. Schools where true wizards and witches are taught what it means to be one of the Elite. Schools untainted by the blood of vermin." He opened his arms as if to embrace the crowd. "You are the new beginning of Magic," he said. He turned and gestured to the students gathered together. "Here is the new beginning of Magic!"

He paced behind the group from Hogwarts, placing one hand on the shoulder of Ginny Weasley and the other on the shoulder of Gloria Snood. It took everything Ginny had, not to shrink away from his touch. He continued, still speaking with the **Sonorous** spell.

_"Steady, Ginny Love. You've come this far. It can't be much more now," whispered Tom._

"Earlier tonight, you felt the Mark that joins us, calling you to witness and take part in this event. Tonight, one of the youngest witches here, again sent our Mark into the sky, and you all felt the fire of her ardor."

Murmurs went through the crowd, as several nodded.

Ginny gasped. "I just wanted the spell to work," she thought, noticing the curious look she was receiving from the girl with the snake.

_"I know, Ginny Love. Try to relax. You're shaking."_

Voldemort continued: "Once again tonight, you will feel the burning of the Mark."

A slight murmuring of reluctance whispered through some of the Death Eaters, but the reluctance was quickly squelched, as Voldemort continued passionately, as if saddened by their reticience. "Our sacrifice binds us together. Think now, of those of our blood who are entombed in Askaban. To them, this Mark, is not pain. It is the burning of Hope.

Voldemort nodded to Gloria Snood. "Send the Mark, child," he said, and she sent the Dark Mark into the sky with a flourish. **"MorsMordre!"**

Voldemort smiled his strange snake smile, and seemed to gain strength from seeing the phantom Mark wavering in the cold wind. "We are finished here," he said softly. "Carman, do you have the wands?"

"Yes, Master," she murmured bowing low.

"Keep them safe. Our friends in Azkaban will have need of them."

"Yes, Master."

He turned. "Lucius, arrange for the apparition of our new recruits. I want to make them feel like part of the family. We will finish with them tomorrow."

"Master, where are we taking them?" Lucius asked.

"The Snow Castle," said Voldemort.

"And how many wizards will you require to guard them?"

"Oh, none, Lucius. I'm inviting them into my home—well not exactly my home—but it isn't like Rosier needs it anymore, does he?" Voldemort laughed softly.

One of the Drumstrang girls took a single step forward and then stopped and shuffled back into the anonymous group as another pulled her back, saying, "Maura, no." Although her hood was up, Ginny saw the piercing eyes of her snake peeking from under her robe. She was one of the girls Ginny had brought. She held the second Firebolt in her hand.

"I want to--play with them," Voldemort said. "Only the inner circle is invited. So Sorry, Severus, you will have to be late. You have to take the children back to Hogwarts, of course, and report to Dumbledore."

"Yes, Master." Snape was still bowing low.

"Oh, and one other thing, Severus" said Voldemort mildly. "You have failed to see that Virginia understands the meaning of respect."

"I will see that she—" began Snape, but Voldemort interrupted. "Too late," he said softly. **"Crucio!"**

Snape collapsed, grasping at the air around him in agony as if trying to fend off the attack. Little whimpers came through his gritted teeth. 

****

"He didn't," began Ginny, horrified, but somehow Tom's yelling at her seemed to penetrate to her senses and she realized that nothing she would say would make a difference. She froze, helpless to stop the pain inflicted upon her professor. She would never forget the sounds he was making. When it was finished, Snape picked himself heavily from the frozen ground. 

Voldemort took one last look at the crumbled remains of Drumstrang and disapparated.

==

As the group was walking back to Hogwarts from the portkey, they cleaned the Earth Magic from their clothes and hair. Some were spitting dirt from their mouths and blowing it from their noses. All were giddy with the over-flow of magic. Several students were playing games with their wands, laughing and giggling and trying to focus the abundance of Elemental magic still in their system. Incendioing plants, levitating each other and on occasion, getting out of control. Ginny wondered how Dumbledore could turn a blind eye to these little excursions. In fact, he had to know about them. Didn't Voldemort just tell Snape to report to Dumbledore? What if I went to Dumbledore right now? Thought Ginny. Immediately, her Dark Mark began to burn.

She cried out and stumbled, Edward catching her, his hands and fingernails showing dark with Earth magic against her white skin. 

_"Not possible," said Tom._

"What is it?" Edward asked. 

"Nothing," she said, feeling hesitant to trust him after he went off without her at Drumstrang. "I just tripped."

"Ah—Ginny, are you finally learning not to be such an open book?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. Even though Tom could not see it, he understood her amusement.

"Tom?" Ginny questioned, as the pain subsided. "What do you mean not possible'? If Snape is still somewhat faithful to Dumbledore, he must have found a way around the pain."

_"Or he has a higher pain tolerance than you, Ginny Love. Or he is more faithful to his Dark Lord—"_

Ginny shuddered. "Do you think so?"

_"I don't know," Tom said. "I'm not in his head, you know."_

"I caused him to be cruicoed. I feel awful."

_"Not as bad as he feels," said Tom_

"I don't know," said Ginny. "I don't remember feeling this bad since—since—"

_"The Chamber," Tom supplied._

"Yeah.".

A group of the Slytherins, who were candidly blasting bushes, complained that they weren't able to go muggle baiting with their parents and older friends and instead had to return to school.

"What I don't understand," Ginny said to Edward, "is why anyone would want to kill muggles anyway. I know some wizards, like Professor Dumbledore and my father, admire some of their technologies, but even if you hate them, you can avoid them. You never have to come in contact with them. The separation and secrecy acts of 1402—"

"How could you admire their technologies?" asked Ethan, showering sparks and dirt everywhere. 

" It's like admiring the adaptability of cockroaches," said Draco, shoving Ethan and his sparks away from him. "That's exactly what the Dark Lord was talking about. They are dirty little cockroaches that have infested our planet, and their technologies are the most dangerous part of them. They have done nothing good." Draco blasted an unsuspecting plant, and continued meticulously cleaning the dirt from under his finger nails with his wand. "Nothing," he repeated. "Everything magic works within the natural balance of the Elementals—everything but muggles."

"That's true," agreed another of the Slytherins, whose wet head was dripping and encrusted with dirty icicles. "If I choose to gain power through the Elements, I lose something of my self in the process, but balance is maintained. Even Lord Voldemort had to give up his humanity to obtain immortality."

"Muggles," continued Draco, brandishing his wand, "the selfish little paracites that they are, gain power through electricity and nuclear power and chemical and biological weapons and in the process we lose part of the air elemental or the water elemental through their pollution. WE LOSE—not them." 

"Much of the devastation, we can repair," said one of the Slytherins, who was painstakingly cleaning the dirt from his robe with his wand. 

"We shouldn't have to!" spat Draco, setting fire to a rather large tree, and then dousing it with water from his wand. "They should be held accountable for their actions, but they don't care about what they are doing to the magic of the Elements. They wage their petty wars over this piece of Earth or that piece of Earth and in the process scar the land irrevocably. Have you ever seen the land where a nuclear bomb was detonated? I'm not even talking about the places where there were real wars. I'm talking about the places where they practiced detonating the bombs, just to see what would happen." 

"I don't think I know of any—" said Ginny. 

"I'll tell you one," said Edward. "The Island of Askaban."

"Muggles don't know Askaban exists." Argued Ginny.

"That's right," said Draco. "Because over nine thousand years ago, they thought it sank into the sea, a casualty of their stupidity, and for a while the magical community was hopeful that they would see the error of their ways and stop experimenting, but they didn't. We have one of those dead spots right here within walking distance of Hogwarts. You all know of it. And the muggles have done this without any repercussions to themselves. They simply don't care."

"No Dark Lord in history has been so destructive," agreed Edward, drying his wet hair and clothing with his wand. 

"Is that true, Tom?" Ginny wondered.

_"Actually, yes," said Tom. "But then, there are an awful lot of the little--muggles."_

"The muggles are vermin and deserve to be wiped off of the face of the earth," Edward continued.

"Vermin!" said Ethan, bouncing along beside them and singeing Ginny's robe with his sparks.

"They don't understand," said Ginny, at the same time dousing Ethan with the water elemental before he seriously set someone on fire.

Edward laughed, while Ethan sputtered and steamed. 

"Well, he's dangerous," Ginny said referring to Ethan's sparking fire elemental.

"Since when has ignorance made any difference to the outcome of a spell?" asked Millicent, sticking her tongue through the bloody hole where her incisor once stood. She spat another mouthful of blood and looked expectantly at Draco, obviously expecting him to lead the conversation back to the problem of muggles and magic. 

"That was the whole purpose of the Founders establishing Hogwarts--to teach witches and wizards the repercussions of using magic—to protect the wizards and to protect the magic, to protect the balance," added one of the older Slytherins, who seemed to actually have the Earth Elemental magic draining from her fingertips in control.

"Muggles continually upset the balance of the Elements and I say, it's time they had to pay the consequences, instead of us," said Draco. 

"It wasn't the muggles who broke the fabric between the worlds of magic and muggle," said another of the seventh year girls, running a hand through her wind-blown hair. "That was a wizard."

"Wizards," corrected the ferret animagus, who had just turned back into a wizard solely to add to the debate. "Ravenclaws, playing God, Camilla. "Mettling in things they should not have mettled in."

"What about the dementers?" asked Camilla.

"What about them?" asked Ginny. 

"Have you ever read: _The Birth of a Nightmare_?" asked Draco.

_Tom shuddered. "There's some light reading you could share with Hermione," he said._

"It's the story of how the dementers came to be—" added Camilla.

"The story explains—"began Edward.

"Everything," spat Ethan, showering them all with sparks once again. "Did you believe that dementers were created by wizards? Wrong. They were created by muggles."

"What!" shouted Ginny, 

_"He's right, Ginny Love."_

"When a wizard wishes for something, either by wand or wandless magic he puts effort forth until he attains it," said Draco. If he botches the spell, or doesn't complete the transfiguration or splinches the apparation, there are wizards that come to make corrections—not for the sake of the wizard—for the sake of the fabric of magic upon which we all depend. So tell me, what happens when a muggle wishes for something? What if they wish with near wizard capacity? What if they are not muggles? What if they are squibs struggling with their spells with some asinine program like Kwick Spell? What happens when they mess it up? Who comes and fixes the magic they have drawn from?"

"No one," said Ginny, "But they don't really have magic."

_"That's not strictly true," said Tom. "Magic exists in everything."_

"Don't they?" spat Draco, suddenly impassioned by Ginny's reluctance to believe him. "How many muggles are about as good as Trelawney at Divination?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Ginny.

"Why do you think Dumbledore follows the muggle papers?"

Ginny shrugged and backed away from Draco.

"These muggles are the ones writing that ridiculous horoscope stuff in the muggle papers," Draco continued. "Year after year, day after day, it continues. There are others too, not just clairvoyant, but telekenetic, telepathic, all the residual magics. Even those muggles who seem to have hunches, or feel lucky are actually drawing on an elemental—and so they WISH—and they—DREAM—I'm not talking about any dreams. I'm talking about the kind of dreams that consume you, the kind that become someone's life's work."

"There's nothing wrong with dreaming—" said Ginny.

But Draco continued, savagely beating home his point. "No. There's nothing wrong with dreaming, but about this time, the muggle talks to another muggle and they both think how stupid they are trying to do this, because they don't believe in dreams and they don't believe in magic. Can you see what kind of damage they do?" Draco asked.

Ginny just stared at him in horror.

"No? I'll tell you then. When they cease to hold their dream, all of their wanting and dreaming and frustration and pain coalesce into a dark, hungry shadow, and all that creature ever wants, is to fulfil the dream it was born to be! It wants the kind of dedication to a dream that always brings it to fruition. It wants—a soul. And because its maker abandoned it, without fulfilling it—anybody's soul will have to do.

"But taking that soul could not fulfill the dream," said Ginny.

"No. You're right. It does not. Only the soul of its creator will complete it, and let it return to the Elements," Said Draco.

"But matching the soul of the muggle with the dementer is an impossible task." Added Vincent.

"Hard, but not impossible," corrected Snape, as they entered the castle though the secret doorway. "Straight to bed with the lot of you. I expect to see all of you cheering our Quiddich team tomorrow not lying in."

The group groaned. "What time is it?" asked Ethan. 

"5:40," answered Snape.

"Quiddich," groaned Ginny. "I'm going to be useless, tomorrow. Even on a new broom."

_"Today," corrected Tom._

Still noisy and keyed up, Ginny and Edward made their way to Gryffindor Tower. 

"I'm hungry," said Edward, still dripping elemental magic. "Want to stop by the kitchen and see if we can get an early breakfast?"

"No," said Ginny. "I've got to go to bed. I can get about three hours of sleep before I have to play Quiddich."

"Puppy Puffs," said Edward as he reached the portrait hole.

"And what have you been doing out this late?" demanded the Fat Lady. 

"It's not late," said Edward. "It's early morning."

"Oh," said the Fat Lady, confused and she opened the portrait hole for them. They fell into the room together, both dripping magic and giggling. 

Samara had just come down the stairs from the girl's dorm. She stared at them for a moment, running a hand through her loose, tangled hair. "Is it raining outside?" she asked.

"No," they both answered together, and then realizing that they were both muddy and soaking wet with the earth and water elementals, Ginny corrected—"It was—raining—but it stopped." She felt a hot blush coloring her face as she remembered asking Edward that same question on the first day of school.

"I was going to borrow your broom to go to the owlry," said Samara eyeing the broom in Ginny's hand, But you were in the ward—I thought you were, anyway—"

"Here," said Ginny impulsively handing Samara the Nimbus 2001.

Samara took it hesitantly and turned back up towards the dorm. "You should release the rest of the magic before you come up to bed," she said softly, or you'll be sleeping in a swamp. I doubt if anyone else will be through the common room this early." She hurried up the stairs to the dorm window.

"You heard the lady," said Edward, taking Ginny in his arms. "We have to release this magic."

"But what?" began Ginny.

He enfolded her in his arms, and began to release the Elemental magic through her. It was pleasant, rather like a nice warm shower on a cold evening. She sighed, snuggling close to him, but Tom's reaction was quite different.

_"Carman!" he choked. "His magic is exactly like Carman's!"_

==

(A/N: selections of Voldemort's speeches were adapted from copies of Adolf Hitler's speeches—obviously, there were drastic changes made, but some of the ideas were a spring board for Voldemort's speeches)

ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS:

ELE: Thanks for telling me that I am no longer under Ginny/Voldemort, but actually, I can't find Seers' Truth if I search for it with the whole title. The best way to find it is to "find" my name, lady lestrange. I don't know why fanfic doesn't seem to like my stories. My Bellatrix Lestrange story isn't under Bellatrix either. One of the mysteries of the internet I guess. As far as Tom having a dirty mind after 50 years of nothing--and hey--I don't know any sixteen year old boys that don't have a dirty mind. Do you?

Reiven: Glad you're back! About the basilisks and Edward--use your imagination. Edward's not going back just to satisfy your curiosity.

Ennui2: Holy Moly! That was a quick question! If you asked an indepth question, I wouldn't have had room on my puny hard drive! You are so wicked close. If you were playing hot and cold with Tom, you would be burning up. If it was a snake it would have bitten you. But there's one last piece of the puzzle that you need to see before you make your definitive decision.

Sky: Just wondering if you've written anything. I'd like to read it. You have no idea how huge this plot is. It's over running its boundaries.

Crystal Megan: Glad you like my Ginny/Tom. I loved MY ETERNAL CURSE. It's one of my favorite G/T fics.

Trillium: You hope Tom can come out soon? How? Glad you like my bits about Hermione. She's just so busy with Ron this year, I'm having trouble fitting much of her in. They are missing her brains obviously. Samara has loyalty to her friends, Beatrice being one. I guess you might be able to say she has a problem with authority in some instances, but mostly, she just acts first and thinks later.

Hayes1966: Glad you like my Tom Riddle. More of him on the way. Much more.

RAven173: Of course Ginny will fight the Imperio, but I wouldn't count on it all working out nice and neat. Yes. You can add me to your AIM. I'm on often since I'm homeschooled.

Jager: Like the Ginny Imperio? Me too. Lots more Ginny/Tom in the sequel.

ennui2: About McGonagall. Isn't that what Peeves said ages ago? The prophecies are as follows: (dream) Prologue; (vision) Tricks, Treats and Lack of Sleep; (explanation of Trelawney's) Fear Foretold; (partial explanation) Pieces of the Prophecy; (dream) Sisshasss-A-Sissahasss; (vision) The Chamber of Secrets; (dream-Harry) The Chamber of Secrets; (dream) The Chamber, The Wall, The Wand and the Window; (vision) Snape's Secret and Salazar's Treasure; *still to come*(dream) G/S Quiddich; (vision) Knockturn Alley.


	51. CH 50: Veritatis!

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

BY Lady Lestrange

Chapter 50

Veritatis! 

APPOLOGIES: This took so long to update. We've moved and my computer isn't hooked to the Internet properly. I can't sign in to anything. I can't review on fanfic. I can't get my email. I'm going through withdrawal! I'm at my Gram's to send this. Please review. I'm depressed and need the support.

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief. Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers—more awesome Ginny coming—In WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD? Ginny learns that there are many different interpretations of "dark" and in this chapter, Veritatis, we will explore some different meanings of truth.

****

Veritatis! 

Ginny had placed a waking charm on her blankets and they were now trying to rouse her out of bed. She groaned and rolled over, trying to catch just another few minutes of sleep, but the thing about waking charms is, they don't give up until the sleeper is really and truly awake. Ginny's blankets jostled her again, and shouted into her ears—wake up wake up wake up--

__

"Will you just get up, Ginny?" Tom complained. "This damn waking charm is a nuisance."

"I'm too tired to play Quiddich," muttered Ginny.

__

"Get some pepper up, and get moving," said Tom

"Wake up wake up wake up," chanted the blankets, jostling her again.

__

"Hurry up, Ginny. If you don't play Quiddich, the Gryffindors are going to have a million questions," said Tom. "What are you planning on telling them?"

"Tom, you're worse than the stupid blankets," said Ginny.

"Wake up wake up wake up!" came the sounds of the waking charm.

"I'm up," Ginny said sitting upright in her ward, and breaking it.

"About time," said Samara. "I was wondering if you were going to have time for breakfast. Angelina wants us downstairs—" she glanced at her watch—"About five minutes ago—"

"I'm getting there," said Ginny, laying her head back on the pillow.

"Here," said Samara, shoving a peppermint drink under her nose, and pulling her upright.

Ginny grimaced and frowned. "Smells like toothpaste," she muttered.

"It's your brothers' Pink Drink," said Samara. "Come on, drink. You'll feel better—or at least you'll feel awake."

Ginny took it and sipped it. "Yuck," she said. "I don't remember it tasting this bad."

"It doesn't taste bad," said Samara. "You just aren't ready for peppermint candy right now—maybe pumpkin juice or tea--"

"Oh, tea would be great," said Ginny. 

"As soon as you finish the Pink Drink," urged Samara. "If you hurry—we'll go down to the Great Hall. Everyone else is already down there. I'm missing breakfast—Hurry up."

__

"Hurry up," urged Tom.

"You sound just like Samara," she thought. "Nag, nag, nag—" 

Finally Ginny got it all drank, and the familiar hyper feeling came over her. Her eyes felt sandy and filled with sleep a moment ago, and now, they felt awake and she could see with amazing clarity. "I feel better," Ginny announced.

"Remember what I said about the Air Elemental," said Samara. "I suppose it's too much to hope that you and Edward were practicing flying last night?" Samara left the statement up in the air as if she wanted Ginny to fill her in on last night's happenings—happenings she assumed included Edward.

"Flying," said Ginny, thinking about threading her way through the Drumstrang corridor at neck break speed with a group of what—maybe second years—with her. Firing off the Dark Mark. "Yeah," she said. "I did fly a little."

"I meant with a broom," said Samara, laughing.

Ginny grinned at her as she got dressed. "So did I."

"By the way," Samara said. "Where did you get the Nimbus? It's nice."

Ginny mumbled something through the bathroom door. "Where did she get the Nimbus? Everyone was going to want to know that-—she could say it wasn't hers--"

__

"Don't be stupid, Ginny. Of course, it's yours. Its owner's dead, and I don't think we're taking it back. Anyway, we earned it."

Ginny thought of the fear and pain of last night and she almost agreed with Tom. That was a scary thought.

__

"What?" Asked Tom. "Agreeing with me, or the fact that the broom's owner is dead?"

"Both," said Ginny. "But I can't keep this broom—"

__

'Oh—Ginny—" Tom complained.

"I mean it, Tom. I have no money. My brothers know I have no money and if I show up with a broom like this, they'll think it was stolen or something—"

__

"So—"

"They'll probably want me to get two more for them— I have to give it to someone—"

__

"OK. Give me a second. I'll think of something."

There was a brief pause.

"I know. What about that girl whose father is in the hospital wing?" asked Tom.

"What about her?" asked Ginny.

==

Samara stared at Ginny in amazement as she related the twisted tale of how she acquired the broom from Edward, who got it from Vincent, who wanted to give it to Sally Anne, because he felt so badly about her father being hurt, but couldn't just give it to her himself because of the Slytherin prejudice against muggle borns. "Please, Samara, " Ginny finished. "You can't tell anyone. She can't in any way acknowledge that she got the broom from Vincent. It will put her and him both in danger if anyone knows. We'll go over and give her the broom after the Quiddich game, OK?"

Samara continued to stare at Ginny. "Your aura is so screwed up, I can't even tell if you're lying or not," she said.

__

"Why would you lie?" asked Tom.

"Why would I lie," Ginny parroted.

"I don't know," said Samara softly. "Let's go. They're waiting for us in the Great Hall."

Carefully Ginny laid the broom in the corner of her room, and picked up her old Comet 260.

__

"Oh, Ginny Love, if only you could fly it in today's game."

"I can't," thought Ginny. "It's not mine. In her heart, she had already given the broom to Sally Anne.

When they reached the Great Hall, the twins were waiting. Fred was waving her Pink Drink under her nose. 

"Drink up," cried Fred, sipping one of the drinks himself. 

"This is my third," said Christi holding up her glass.

"We need you to be on your best game, Ginny, " said George.

"But I," began Ginny giving Samara a puzzled look. "I thought—Was the one I drank yours, Samara?"

"No. I'm not playing today. I brought it up to the dorm for you," Samara said. 

Hesitantly, Ginny took a second drink, "So it's ok to drink more than one of these things?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, yeah," answered George. "We've been living on them for almost a week."

"Had to get the clown faces done," replied Fred.

"Before the Gryffindor-Slytherin game," added George.

"Skipped dinner," said Fred.

"Skipped sleep," growled George.

Ginny had only drank about half of the drink when it was time to head out to the Quiddich pitch. "So you finished them then?" Ginny asked.

"Oh yes," said Fred.

"Definitely," said George.

__

Lee Jordan cleared his throat and smirked at the growing crowd. Snape had tried to get him replaced as the Quiddich announcer, but Dumbledore liked him. Obviously there was no love between Lee and the Slytherins, and he intended to prove it by announcing the game in his usual unbiased way. After all, as if McGonagall would let him be biased.

"The conditions are cold and windy for this rivalry game between Gryffindor and Slytherin. It's going to be tough to catch the snitch in this wind. May the best team win—and we all know who that is," piped Lee Jordan. "And now, here are the Gryffindors

:

At seeker, the one and only Harry Potter—joined by veteran chaser and team captain, Angelina Johnson. The other chasers are new this year, Christi Prentice and Virginia Weasley. Ginny Weasley joins her two brothers, Fred and George Weasley who play Beaters and now we have added yet another Weasley to the Gryffindor team—Ron Weasley, at Keeper.

Slytherin team is once again an all male team. We start with Draco Malfoy playing seeker,

The chasers are Daemoneon Parkinson, Jarret Warrington and added new this year, Ethan Lestrange. Andre Derrick and Trefor Snood. are back as beaters and a new keeper, second year, Graham Pritchard."

Harry flew in a lazy circle around the Quiddich pitch, and looked out on the spectators.

Well over half of the crowd was cheering for Gryffindor, and it seemed only a small section of green was cheering for Slytherin. Perhaps some of the Slytherins decided to stay in, thought Harry. It certainly was cold enough to keep people from sitting outside, even with warming charms.

"Madam Hooch is checking brooms," said Lee Jordan. "Team members are allowed to place warming spells on their brooms, but no other spell may be used, and now, I believe we are ready to start. Yes! The snitch is up and there goes the quaffle, on this cold and clear October 21stmorning. Slytherin in possession, Lestrange passes to Parkinson. Opps intercepted by Ginny Weasley. Good work Ginny. Passes to Angelina and Gryffindor SCORE!

The score is 10-0 in Gryffindor's favor. Looks like it's going to be a good game!"

Harry took his hands off of his broom to clap, but he never stopped looking for the snitch. A moment later he put his hands back on the broom and edged it to the right of an oncoming bludger. Still no sign of the snitch.

The quaffle is back in play with Gryffindor in possession. Oh no, Christi Prentice veers off course to avoid a bludger and the quaffle is picked up by Parkinson. Come on Beaters. Where are you? Parkinson scores.

Tie score 10-10 Come on Gryffindor!

Slytherin again in possession. Lestrange has to roll over to avoid the bludger. Nice try—Fred or George Weasley. He's lost his momentum and passes to Parkinson. Get him. Get him. And he passes to Warrington and score! Slytherin.

"Bloody hell, Ron," muttered Harry. "Pay attention." But of course Harry knew that Ron was still nervous playing keeper. "Just pretend you're at the burrow!" Harry shouted to him as he flew by.

The Slytherin chasers are right on today! Come on Gryffindor. You can stop them.

Gryffindor in possess—No, the quaffle is stolen by Warrington. Oh no another score!

That's 30-10 in Slytherin's favor. Come on Ron. You can do it.

Christi Prentice drops the quaffle and it is caught by Parkinson. He shoots and Oh, there's a bludger by Weasley. And Madam Hooch calls a foul.

Harry was looking into the pale sunlight to see a sparkle of gold when the foul was called so he didn't see Christi drop the quaffle, but he looked around to see which Slytherin may have bumped her.

Slytherin will get a file shot. That's Daemeon Parkinson up to take the shot.

Block it Ronnie boy. You can do it.

The Sytherins start to chant "Slyth-e-rin"

"No way the Weasel can block Daemeon," said Malfoy as he floated by.

"No way you can catch the snitch," taunted Harry right back. "If you fly any slower you'll be going backwards."

"Yes, I don't believe it! He saved it. Nice job, at keeper, Ron Weasley."

"Must be time for Daddy to buy new brooms," spat Harry. "You guys sure can't win on your skill—" Harry pivoted his broom and shot across the pitch, feeling exhilarated in the freedom of flying.

"Malfoy has sped off toward the Slytherin end, clearly thinking that Harry had seen the snitch.

There's a bludger! Look out Harry!"

Harry swerved instinctively, barely missing the wicked bludger sent by Trefor Snood. As he swerved, he realized he wasn't consciously thinking of flying, he was just reacting. He felt the wind in his hair, its coolness against his burning scar, and he actually closed his eyes for a second to connect with the flying. This was what Samara meant when she said he flew with the wind elemental. He could feel it.

Angelina to Ginny back to Angelina to Ginny and Ginny Weasley scores. Nice one Ginny!

That makes the score 30-20 still in Slytherin's favor and here comes Lestrange barreling down on the Gryffindor goal posts.

And it's through. That's another score for Slytherin. 40-20"

Harry began circling, slowly at first, his eyes searching for the snitch, he was paying no attention whatsoever to his flying. After a few moments, he chose to speed up, and then he just thought where he wanted to go and went there, constantly searching for the snitch, except for those occassional moments when the pain in his scar caused him to close his eyes. Damn it, why did Voldemort seem to spend every Quiddich game torturing someone? Thought Harry.

Christi Prentice with the Quaffle, and heading straight for the Slytherin goalposts, Ginny Weasley coming up with her. Back to Ginny Weasley to Prentice. Oh no. It's blocked by Graham Pritchard, the second year, rookie, playing at Keeper. This is a close game ladies and gentlemen."

Too close, thought Harry. He wished they had about a fifty point lead.

"Back again to the Gryffindor goal, there's Parkinson with the quaffle and it's—oh no, Ron Weasley tapped it, but it went in anyway. Too bad. That's 50-20.

Here comes Angelina, Looking good Angelina. It's up and it's through. The Slytherin Keeper wasn't even close. That brings the score to 50-30"

"Yes!" shouted Harry, punching the air with his fist, and then slowly opening his fingers and feeling the rush of air at his command. "Whoa!" he whispered. He had never realized how much power was at his command when he was in the air. He felt invincible. Now all he had to do was see the snitch and it was his!

"Gryffindor in position. That's Angelina. No Slytherin. Stolen by Parkinson.

Gryffindor back in position Ginny Weasley with the quaffle. Pass to Prentice. She is streaking up the field. The quaffle is stolen by Slytherin, Ethan Lestrange. Lestrange nearly knocks Prentice off of her broom. She's OK. Lestrange passes. That's Parkinson with the quaffle. He lobs it--

Spectacular save by Ron Weasley! Nice going Ron!"

Nearly an hour later, there was still no further score in the game, the plays going back and forth across the Quiddich pitch in a furious teeter totter. Harry was beginning to get anxious to catch the snitch, but it was no where in sight. He wondered if he was enjoying flying too much and not looking hard enough for it. 

"Both teams are holding their own against the Chasers attack, and finally, the Slytherin Chasers having a little conference with Malfoy. Here they come. And Slytherin scores. Again, Parkinson with the Quaffle. Block it Ron. OH too bad. And Slytherin in possession again. That's Parkinson. Then, Lestrange. They score. That's Slytherin scoring three times in quick succession, and without even cheating! I just can't believe these chasers today. What teamwork! That's something you rarely see from Slytherin. It's a nice change. That makes the score 80-30 Slytherin. Come on Harry. Catch the Snitch. It's getting colder out here, and I think everyone is having trouble holding on to the quaffle."

Woosh! One of the bludgers missed Harry narrowly, and he glared at Fred, who winked and mouthed, "No danger." 

"Parkinson's hit. No. He's back on his broom. There's the second bludger. He dodges. There's those Weasley twins. They'll show you teamwork.

There it is—Angelina has the quaffle—She veers to miss Lestrange--nice swerve around Malfoy. Whatcha doing Malfoy? Sleeping out there?

And there's Parkinson also on Malfoy's tail. What are those chasers doing? Maybe the Slytherin Chasers are trying to help him find the snitch. He can't seem to find it on his own," Lee Jordan joked. 

"Of course, no one but the Seeker, may catch the snitch. If another player catches it, it is Snitch Nip, and an automatic loss. Here comes the other Slytherin chaser, Warrington, tailing Malfoy. What are they doing out there? And there's Parkinson out to score, no he passes to Lestrange and Score! The score is 90-30 Slytherin. I've never seen these chasers play so well together—such teamwork--so co-ordinated—"

"So **GIRLS**!" Lee Jordan shouted into crowd.

"And Madam Hooch calls an official time—But, no! Harry Potter is in a dive and Yes! He's caught the snitch! That's it--the end of the game folks, but what have these Slytherin girls done? And where are the real Slytherin chasers? That has to be some sort of foul! These girls aren't the regular Slytherin chasers!" Lee Jordan was beside himself with amazement.

"Madam Hooch calls them down to the ground. It appears that they have used polyjuice potion to impersonate the male chasers. Hey Slytherin! You better let the girls play. That's the closest you've ever come to winning against Gryffindor for a long long time!" laughed Lee Jordan.

"They need a girl to play seeker," called Cho from among her Ravenclaw friends, all sitting in a shivering huddle.

And the girls are: Pansy Parkinson, impersonating her cousin, Daemeon Parkinson. Lauren Avery impersonating Jarrett Warrington and Blaise Zambini impersonating Ethan Lestrange. There you have it folks. The most exciting Quiddich game of the century. Lasting a total of one hour and four minutes. The final score: 180 to 90. Gryffindor wins!

==

Harry looked up into the stands, watching the spectators gathering their blankets and moving shivering toward the exits. He flew in a lightening fast, victory circle. He wasn't cold at all, even though his warming charm had long ago worn off. He caught up with Ginny and slowed to fly side by side with her. "You played a great game, Ginny," said Harry. "Did Edward come to see you play?" He glanced back at the stands.

She shook her head. "No. He said he had work to do. He went to the library." 

__

"I think he should have come to watch us play, Ginny Love."

"Shut up, Tom." Thought Ginny as she talked to Harry. "You played good too," said Ginny. "Beat Malfoy to the snitch."

"Yeah," said Harry, as Samara and Beatrice caught up with them. "Thanks."

Samara reached up and smoothed Harry's hair,. It blew right back into a wild mess. "Great game! You used the air elemental consciously this time," she said. "I could tell, but you need to release the rest of the elemental. You're hair's blowing." She turned to Ginny. "Do you want to take that broom to Hufflepuff now," asked Samara. "We could invite Sally Anne to our after the game party."

"Sure," said Ginny. "I just have to get the broom—"

__

"And a handkerchief," added Tom. 

"Samara told me about the broom," said Beatrice. "That is so sweet—" She sniffed and wiggled her nose.

__

"Make that a package of handkerchiefs," said Tom dully. "On second thought, why don't you just send Samara with it? She seems to like all those Hufflepuffs—"

"I can't do that," thought Ginny.

__

"Why not?"

"It just wouldn't be right."

__

"You know you have the strangest idea of what is right and wrong," said Tom.

"Me!" thought Ginny shocked. "Any way, remember Hufflepuff is the house that I rejected. Maybe we'll learn something about that prophecy from Salazar's book." 

__

"I doubt it. There's nothing a Hufflepuff can teach me."

"That's so arrogant, Tom. How do you know? Have you ever been in Hufflepuff Hall?"

__

"Of course not," said Tom.

Ginny rolled her eyes. No wonder Salazar never found the emerald.

==

"Can you believe the Slytherin girls did that!" exclaimed Harry as he walked with his rowdy celebrating team to Gryffindor Tower. Fred and George had caught up with Harry and patted him on the back, congratulating him on catching the snitch. Both of them had been puppies several times and most of the team was loud and boisterous in their excitement. Puppies ran in and out of everyone's legs.

"Did you hear that?" Asked Harry, his hand going reflexively to his scar.

No one answered. Ron and Hermione were walking ahead, wrapped in each other's arms. Samara and Ginny were now bounding ahead with Beatrice. He looked around listening. He heard it again—a distinctive pop! Like someone apparating. Of course, if he told Hermione, he would hear her once again saying, "No one can apparate into or out of Hogwarts." Maybe it was just his imagination. He glanced up the corridor again, and spotted a shadow on the wall. Someone was definitely there—near Myrtle's bathroom—and ghosts didn't make shadows. He glanced at his teammates now all several yards ahead of him, and he made his decision. He pulled his wand and hurried toward the shadow and the popping.

There were two of them. Harry hesitated, readying himself to face them, two on one. One soft chuckle he recognized—Edward's. Harry stepped out from behind the corner. **"Stupefy!"** he called, but Edward blocked, lightening fast, and the other, a Slytherin Harry was sure, slipped into an animagus form and darted along the floor—a white flash—Harry couldn't use a spell on a person in animagus form. It might injure them permanently. Harry felt the whoosh of a spell and blocked, his attention back on Edward. 

"What are you doing?" Harry demanded. 

"Studying," Edward said softly. His eyes were narrowed and hooded, his fingers stretched like spiders in front of him. Harry waited for him to go for his wand—wanted him to go for his wand.

"You lied to Ginny." Harry moved in a circle, keeping his wand trained on Edward. "Why? What are you doing here?"

"I have never had to answer your questions, Harry Potter." Edward threw a spell—hot and focused. It just missed Harry because he was moving, and Harry realized that whatever it was—it was nasty-- his block wouldn't have held it. A moment later Edward tried **"Expellaramus!" **

"I want the truth!" spat Harry, gripping his wand a little tighter. Harry realized that Edward still had not pulled his wand. What felt like a light breeze had blown into the corridor. Perhaps someone had opened a door—"Why are you here? By this bathroom?" asked Harry. "It's a girls' bathroom."

"I know what it is," said Edward. 

Harry paused just for a moment. He couldn't mean what he thought he did—Then Harry was blocking and moving to avoid Edward's barrage of spells. "Interesting place, the Chamber," said Edward between spells. 

Harry thought Ginny couldn't possibly have let him into the Chamber. Why? She hated the Chamber. What was going on? "What do you know about it?" asked Harry, **"Veritatis!"**

Edward blocked the truth spell, his hooded eyes glittering maliciously "It's private," Edward said, with a wry smile.

****

"Incendio!" shouted Harry. 

"That too," said Edward with a smirk. 

"Liar!" accused Harry. "You'll leave Ginny alone."

"I think that's between me and Ginny," said Edward smugly, throwing another spell.

Harry's anger over flowed. **"Furnunculus! Sectum!"**

Edward snatched at his arm bloodied by the sectum spell. "You drew first blood," said Edward. "Shall we continue?"

Harry started to lower his wand. "If you tell the truth—"

But Edward threw another spell.

Harry blocked wildly with "**Contegere!** **Ulceris!"** said Harry. 

Edward jumped back, turning from the spell and avoiding most of it. "Pretty nasty for Gryffindors," he commented as his left hand broke out in angry yellow and red pustules.

"You are no Gryffindor!"

"Is that supposed to be an insult?"

"Damned right, it is," spat Harry. "I'm sick of your lying. You've lied to everyone. I won't have you lying to Ginny."

"I'm not lying to Ginny," said Edward, circling and throwing another spell. "I'm lying to you."

"**Contegere!** And you're caught," snapped Harry maneuvering Edward against the wall outside of Myrtle's bathroom, and holding his wand on him. "Give it up, liar! Tell the truth. You don't belong in Gryffindor!"

"Your word against mine," said Edward, thrusting his hand, crackling with magic, against Harry's forehead, and for just a second, Harry shut his eyes against the pain in his scar.

"Baron!" shouted Edward and then several things happened at once. Suddenly, there was a huge wind in the corridor, followed by the Bloody Baron, or perhaps the Baron brought the wind, Harry wasn't sure, but Edward was sprinting down the corridor, and Harry couldn't bring himself to curse his back. That moment of hesitation cost him. Edward was gone—turning the corner--out of range of his magic.

Harry leaned against the door, exhausted and shaking with anger. He closed his eyes and saw in his mind's eye, Edward standing in front of him, his hands crackling with magic and his hair blowing with—with the air elemental! 

"It's OK, Harry," said Myrtle as she floated through the wall above him. "You can rest against my bathroom door as long as you want to."

Harry rolled his eyes and pocketed his wand as he turned back to Gryffindor Tower. "Thanks Myrtle," he muttered.

==

When he got back to Gryffindor Tower, the party was in full swing. George was still passing out Puppy Puffs as well as all of their other sweets. Someone had brought a wireless down to the common room and music was playing. Several canaries were dancing with each other in a big circle. Joe, in full clown regalia, was sitting on the sofa with a girl Harry didn't know. He thought she was a Hufflepuff, but he wasn't sure.

"I have a huge collection of clowns," she was saying. "I just love clowns. That's what the wizarding world needs—more laughter."

"Have a butterbear, Harry," said Neville. "Great game by the way. If I were Malfoy, I think I'd just quit—you're so much faster than he is—"

"Thanks Neville."

Two of the canaries, caught Neville's hands and pulled him toward the center of the room. "Come dance with us, Neville," they pleaded. One of them was molting into a flushed Hufflepuff girl. Harry realized when he had seen her before. This was the group of Hufflepuff girls that were with Neville, Lou, Joe and Crabbe and Goyle after the polyjuice class.

"Come on Harry!" another canary called, but Harry raised his glass of butterbeer in salute and looked around the room for his friends. Ron and Hermione were no where in sight. He sighed. They had this knack for disappearing lately. Samara, Ginny and Beatrice were in one corner of the common room talking to another Hufflepuff. This one was sobbing her eyes out, but Ginny was pulling what seemed like an endless stream of handkerchiefs out of her robe pocket for the girl.

Edward was no where in sight. Harry decided to go up to his room and try to see where Edward went to by using the Maurader's Map. He threaded his way through the crowd, avoiding several well-wishers and people who wanted to talk about the recent game. 

Harry tried to get past the butterbeer, but this part of the room and part of the stairway was crowded with party-goers. Couples lounged on the steps.

"Pardon me," said Harry, and Fred moved closer to Angelina to let him through.

"And it's the most we've ever been paid for a prank," Fred told Angelina. "The more we hesitated the more money he kept pulling out of his pocket. It was as if he had an endless supply."

"So. I don't understand. What's the problem?" asked Angelina. "I mean aside from the fact that he's a Slytherin?"

"Well, puppies are cute and harmless," said Fred. "Rottweilers aren't exactly cuddly."

"They can be," argued Angelina.

"He said he wanted it to impress a girl," said Fred. "So why does he need the spell to last longer?"

"Well, if you already took Alvin Nott's money, I think it's a moot point," said Angelina. "You have to make the custom puppy puff now."

"I didn't take his money," complained Fred. "George did. I'd just feel awful if someone got hurt."

"Ha!" said Angelina. It's probably a Slytherin girl anyway, Don't worry about it."  
  
==

Harry had reached the landing where the staircase separated for the boys' and girls' dormitories, when he heard someone crying. Once again pulling his wand, he edged his way up the staircase toward the girls' dorm instead of his own room. In the corridor, outside of the Fifth Year dorm, sat Parvati. She was alone and sobbing.

Harry put his wand away and knelt down beside her. "Parvati?" He touched her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I had a dream," she cried. "There's no way to solve it."

"We'll figure it out," encouraged Harry taking a seat beside her on the floor. "We already know a lot about the Prophecy Child. It's just a matter of putting it all together."

"I couldn't betray either of them," she muttered. "I've seen it—the demise of the school—"

"Hogwarts?" said Harry horrified.

"She nodded. "If I go with Salazar, too much will be lost. It is not my influence alone of course," she said " But many tasks will be left undone—"

"Tasks?" thought Harry. Realizing that Parvati was still immersed in her dream, Harry scrambled for parchment, and then he stopped, pulled his wand and turning toward the boys' dorm, called **"Accio Parchment,"** picturing the four feet of parchment he had already measured out for his transfiguration homework. That should be plenty—

"Of course, the tedious tasks that Hufflepuffs loved would not be done by Rowena or Godrick. "Are you awake?" Harry asked, "Who were you in the dream?" Although he was already pretty sure that in the dream she had been Helga Hufflepuff, he wasn't sure if she was still dreaming or in a vision--

"I am death and dying. 

I am failure and fear. 

I am the beginning of lying. 

I am the end with a curse and a tear.

The dream is finished—"

"In the dream," Harry persisted. "Were you Helga?"

"Yes." Parvati nodded. "But I am not important. Some distant Seer will understand.—" 

"Who will understand?" wondered Harry. "Parvati? Trelawney?"

She chanted, while Harry wrote furiously, trying to catch every word.

"There will come, when fifty plus a milliinium pass,

An empath of our blood combined, a lass—

First natural magic in ten generations of none.

Rejoice, the rift is healed, the battle is won.

She will be called a child of the prophecy.

Brave, powerful raven. Both dove and hawk is she—

She stopped, startled to have been caught speaking aloud. She whispered frantically, "Do not tell him."

"Who?" asked Harry, but Parvati didn't answer. She handed Harry a crumpled tear stained paper. He started to open it, but she stopped him. 

"After I am gone," she said cryptically, pressing a finger against her lips. "We mustn't let Salazar know about the empath child. Please--" Tears welled up in her eyes.

Harry nodded, following her as she turned towards her dorm room. 

"My son would not be safe," she whispered. 

Harry walked with her. "Safe? From his own father?" asked Harry, but Helga didn't answer. She was immersed in her own thoughts, muttering, "I must find a way to protect him—old magic--"

"Are you sure you're OK?" asked Harry, hesitant to leave her alone, when she was so sad and wrapped up in the dreams of Helga Hufflepuff. He reached to touch her, but stopped remembering Trelawney's admonition to never touch a seer in the midst of a vision, but this wasn't a vision, was it? Didn't Parvati say she had dreamed this?

"I am only a woman," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I am weak--"

Harry stared at her for a moment, unable to comprehend that women ever acted like this—This was not how he had pictured Helga—"

"I--don't think you're weak," said Harry, torn between trying to understand the prophecy that Helga most certainly could explain and trying to comfort Helga, herself, or Parvati, who was obviously in distress.

"I am weak but not powerless," she said. "In fact, there is no magic as strong as love—Love is timeless."

Still, he hesitated. Then he asked thoughtfully, "Did she really love Salazar?"

"More than life itself," whispered Parvati, "I know what I must do," she said, closing her door, and locking Harry Potter out.

==

Harry stuck the note from Parvati into his pocket and walked to the boys' dorm. He opened the wards on his door, looked into the darkened room and saw eyes shining. He just about jumped to the Astronomy Tower. His wand was out in an instant, dropping the parchment he had written on earlier.

"Harry Potter mustn't hurt Dobby!" cried the house elf. "Dobby loves Harry Potter. Dobby is Harry Potter's friend."

"Dobby," said Harry pocketing the wand in relief. "What are you doing sitting in my room in the dark?"

"Dobby is waiting for Harry Potter. Harry Potter must leave Hogwarts."

"Oh, no. We're not going through that again," said Harry. "I'm staying right here, and you are going to tell me why you are worried about me—without breaking my arm or getting me into trouble." Harry sat on the bed next to the house elf.

"Oh—ooo. There is bad wizards at Hogwarts," said Dobby. Immediately, he jumped up and began pounding his head on the wall.

"Dobby stop. Dobby. Dobby. Dobby stop. That's an order!"

"Oh, Harry Potter is so kind, so good, so—"

"Dobby just tell me what you came to tell me," said Harry exasperated.

"Dobby can't. Dobby can't tell about the evil dark wizards—About what is happening where they live—About Hogwarts--Dobby can't Dobby can't." He twisted his ears as if they were wet cloths that had to be wrung.

"The Malfoys?" Harry guessed, "Or someone else."

"Oh," said Dobby sighing. "Harry Potter knows. Harry already knows so Dobby won't have to tell him that. OH good—That's good—" He began patting Harry's hand, and kissing his robes.

"Dobby quit it," said Harry embarrassed. "Is there anyone else besides the Malfoys? Other wizards that you wanted to tell me about?"

"Oh no. Dobby did not want to tell Harry Potter about other wizards. They is not wizards—"

Dobby began banging his head on the wall again.

"Well, then if they are not wizards, it will be OK," consoled Harry Potter. "If they don't have magic—"

Dobby banged harder, muttering "Dobby promised her. Dobby cannot break his promise. Dobby cannot—"

"What is it?" Harry asked, pulling the house elf away from the wall. "Is it Winky?"

Dobby looked at him with wide eyes, put both hands over his mouth and disapparated.

==

"Hey, Mate," called Ron, from the door. 

Harry jumped again, feeling like this evening was turning into a nightmare. "Don't do that!" said Harry irritibly.

"What are you doing up here, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Talking to Dobby," said Harry, wondering if his friends had come looking for him, or if they were just looking for some privacy.

"Dobby?" said Hermione concerned. "Where is he?"

"Disapparated," said Harry.

"Well, come on then, mate. Come downstairs. The party's waiting."

"I'm coming," said Harry, but he put his hand in his pocket like he always did just to check and be sure his wand was still there, and his fingers brushed against the paper that Parvati had given him. He pulled it out.

"Wait!" called Harry. "I have something Parvati gave me." He pulled the parchment out of his pocket and looked at it. "You need to see this," he told Ron and Hermione. He handed Hermione the paper that Parvati had given him, and went to the threshold where he had dropped the four feet of parchment upon which he had written about Parvati's dream.

"You expected a longer vision?" teased Ron as he looked at the four foot long parchment.

Harry shrugged. "It's just the only parchment I had measured out. I had to **acchio** it—"

"So that's what Fred and Angelina were giggling about," said Hermione, as she opened the other paper and began to read.

Inspiration within dreamed a school for tomorrow.

Ambition without brought the noble plan to sorrow.

The other founders quarrel; I'm not the enemy

So, they ask, if you would give it up, for love of me

I tell them, They cannot truly know you like I do

Yet Salazar, I wonder, did I ever know you? 

I've stirred this potion daily and I think I know the key

But Love, I won't pay the cost of what should never be.

I fear that I will strangle, like in a demon's grip

More than that, My Love, I fear, you'll change with each foul sip.

I've poured it in the garden 'neath the tiny Angel's Snare

Do you see the Devil vines and thorns now growing there?

Angered you have cast me off--though I'll love you till I die.

Devotion never counts the cost, though jeering others wonder why.

Though wand is raised against me, I see loving in your eyes

I would rather die than hurt you. though others say that I'm unwise.

Not for power, nor fame, nor fortune, will I do what brings you pain

Even if you take your love and never speak to me again.

My love, I'll give to you my heart. I'll give to you my soul. 

But do not ask my precious to help you toward this goal.

Now, everyday I worry, and tightness fills my chest.

Should I reveal our secrets? Should I betray the rest?

I ask the gilded serpents that grace your chamber door.

But your creatures do not know, what loyalty is for

They cannot see beyond ambition's cunning eye.

They cannot love my love, nor do they even try.

I cannot even bleed for you. You throw it in the pit.

Nor can I renounce you and brave a path that's split.

I dreamed again of heartache--my visions filled with pain.

I dreamed you lived forever: Lonely, tortured and insane.

So blind, Slytherin, I've taken emerald from the stone.

A house divided lives whose loyalty is shown.

When a child of Slytherin, looks here to friendship find.

Until that day, my Love, Slytherin, will labor blind.

Time moves on till Slytherins paint and dance and sing

When love is in the heart, on your finger is the ring

Tis not a curse I give thee, though you may think it so

I give you all my love. Consider me not your foe.

When at last you read this, my body lies cold and dead

Say Helga's love is timeless. Not Helga's love is dread.

"Hufflepuff's love is his dread," quoted Hermione. "This has to be related to the Prophecy Child, but I just don't see how—" She paused, rubbing her chin for a moment in thought, and then she said, "Let me see the other paper."

"There will come, when fifty plus a milliinium pass,

An empath of our blood combined, a lass—

First natural magic in ten generations of none.

Rejoice, the rift is healed, the battle is won.

She will be called a child of the prophecy.

Brave, powerful raven. Both dove and hawk is she—

Do not tell him.

"Tell who?" asked Hermione. 

"She stopped in the middle," said Harry. "I got the impression that she was going to continue, but she didn't want Salazar to know about this prophecy. She said that her son would be in danger if Salazar knew."

"But of course he would know," said Hermione. "But we have found a few more clues to the Prophecy child—She is of Helga and Salazar's blood and she is also an empath, like Helga was--

"Did we learn that Helga was an empath?" asked Ron. "I don't remember that."

"It was in the books about Helga at the beginning of the year—Oh wait. You did the books on Salazar, didn't you? The girls looked at the Helga books. We'll have to look at it together tomorrow."

"It wasn't in the restricted section, was it?" asked Harry. "Most of the Helga books weren't."

"There were two books about Helga in the restricted section—" said Hermione. "A potions tome, and something explaining her Copulare gifts—purcurare, validiere, and salium—Did Parvati say anything else?"

"Parvati also said something about love being timeless," said Harry. "So I know you're right, Hermione. We have to find that book."

"Hermione," said Harry after a moment. "Do you think Parvati's visions and dreams are getting closer together?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "It can't be good for her."

"She seemed to have trouble coming out of the dream," said Harry. "She was--confused. She thought she was Helga."

Hermione frowned. "Perhaps we should suggest that she go to see Madam Pomfrey tomorrow. Sometimes seers get so caught up in their visions that they cease to be able to differentiate between their dreams and real life. I don't know if there is anything Madam Pomfrey could do, but I think she should know—"

Harry nodded. Relocking the wards and following them down to the party, Harry had forgotten all about the Maurader's Map and checking to see where Edward was, In fact, in no time at all, he was dancing with the canaries and when one of the canaries moulted into Ginny, Edward was forgotten until Ginny herself asked, "Have you seen Edward?"

__

"NO! No! No! Ginny. When you are trying to date two at the same time, you never ever ask the one about the other—"

"I'm not dating anyone, Tom!"

"Why are you worried about where Edward is? He'll use you and hurt you, Ginny Love. Forget him."

"You didn't seem to have that much trouble sharing magic with him last night. 'His magic reminds me so much of Carman' she mimiced.

"Exactly why I know he'll hurt you!" snapped Tom.

Ginny turned her attention back to Harry Potter.

"I saw him earlier," said Harry cooly. "In the corridor. Ginny. He wasn't at the library. He lied to you."

Ginny shrugged. "I just wondered," said Ginny.

"Probably at Slytherin," said Samara, "Teasing his brother about their loss."

That's not all he was doing at Slytherin thought Harry, but he couldn't say anymore. No one believed him anyway. He rubbed his hand over his scar, which had quieted considerably since the Quiddich game.

Just then, Dean came down the step carrying Parvati's limp body. "Someone get Madam Pomfrey," he called. "I think she's been poisoned!"

"Don't we all want to know where Edward was?" muttered Harry Potter.

==

****

ANSWERS TO THE REVEWERS:

****

not telling Glad you are enjoying the fic even if you aren't telling who you are. Please recommend it to your friends..

****

Ilwinterhofal About Hitler's speeches.—I thought Tom would have to be aware of Hitler since he was at the same time period, even though he was not involved in the muggle war.   
  


****

Errisar (CH 28) I had to get up and cheer when the tiger patronus came. I'll continue to read. Glad you are still reading. Hope you review again soon.  


****

Errisar As far as Ron being somewhat irresponsible, I think he's rather sweet that way. Anyway, quite often this occurs when Hermione talks and in comparison with her Ron looks twice as lax in his work ethic—what work ethic? It is the impression I was trying to give, because there are more things in life than school and different kinds of intelligence. Ron will have his moments—promise—they just won't come in class.

****

ennui2 I will try to keep this short, but I'm excited, again!! (I'm glad you're excited and don't really mind your long reviews. They are actually pretty exciting too!)

As far as your working out the prophecy, some you have right, some you don't have all the pieces for so you've misinterpreted. I will say, you hit the wand part right on, and to tell the truth, I sometimes have trouble fitting Harry in too. Silly me. I guess I tend to make him ooc unless I am very careful. But, I love that someone is actually trying to figure it out! And the baby basilisks are hatching as we speak—lol—I just was working on that chapter. FUN!

  


****

Sky Glad you liked when Millicent the people into mice And Tom. And my replying to reviewers. The reason I got the chapter up so soon is that the whole story is written. I just have to fine tune it to get the chapter up. I did that because of the prophecy. I had to change it several times to match what the characters seemed to want me to do so I'm glad I didn't have to go back and change the prophecy after I posted it. I'm sure the people who are trying to figure out who the prophecy child is are glad I didn't confuse them like that! I have them confused enough already!  
  


****

**The Elemental Sorceress** Your comment: "Uh...that was one of the worst things to say at the moment...about Hitler. A jewish holiday, my holiday, was just taking place." Sorry, but what I wrote doesn't mean I AGREE with Hitler. It just means I wanted to show Voldemort as someone intrincitly evil, but still someone that is charasmatic enough to have followers. I don't believe they would follow him if he was just cruel to them all. There has to be a reason. If you want an evil triumphs over good story, read my DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. 

****

Jager Yes to the sequel. And that's CarmAn. Goddess with three sons: Evil, Darkness and Violence. 

. **Crystal Megan** "Yes," said Tom dryly and it's not a memory you would appreciate, Ginny Love. Talk to the nice Slytherins—"So I'm guessing that those memories contain ::coughs:: R rated, and above contents now would they on veelas? (A/N: I don't know. Tom didn't tell me.) And "nice" Slytherins? LMAO! That had me smirking. (Me too)  
~  
How'd you get copies, or selections from Hilter's speeches? I'm just wonderin', I guess you could be able to get that information... (Internet: Go to Google and type in Hitler's speeches. I had to do something useful with my social studies homework—YUCK)  
~

As far as my guys thinking about sex, you have to remember Ginny shares Tom's **thoughts**—These are not necessarily things he says to her—And He's sixteen—He's been 50 years in a diary and 4 years in Ginny's head. Things he may not say aloud, she sees anyway. It's your chance to see into a guy's mind or a girl's mind I guess. Hmmmm. Anyway, it's been my experience that even the 'nice guys' think about sex. I think that's one of the things that JK did wrong with Harry—he's fifteen and we didn't get to see him kiss Cho????   
  
  
** Trillium** I'm not going to be done with Tom for quite some time. "Voldemort chills me. Urgh." GOOD! And Edward's magic is exactly like Carmen's? That's CarmAn. See above comments about the "goddess she was named for"

**Eizoku****.** "Now that I've read the other story you did about Bella, I understood several things in here." Good. I had to write something about Bella/Valeriana before I wrote the Azkaban chapter. That was where the story came from.  
  


**Kemenran** More please. CERTAINLY!

****

**ennui2** The last piece of the puzzle is yet to come. "I just love it when Gin asserts herself, she could definitely be majorly scary if she could just increase her self confidence." Lots more Ginny. 

  
About the marks burning when Gin did Morsmorde – Your question: isn't that proof to Voldie that she definitely still has Tom's magic? When Gloria did the Morsmorde, did their marks burn? You didn't say. (I believe they always feel the Marks when the Dark Mark is placed. Sometimes wizards can also tell who sent the Mark into the sky. Furthermore, in my story, Voldemort has some new powers-since his resurrection by Harry Potter and company-- that can be revealed through the Dark Mark. Those are coming As far as Voldemort knowing that Tom is a part of Ginny, that's why Tom coached Ginny and said "you can do it!" but did not participate in sending the Dark Mark. Ginny had to do it alone, or Voldemort would have known Tom was there.)  
  


**Eizoku** Tom only really cares about Tom mostly. It just so happens that he's living in Ginny's body, so he has to protect her body. If Harry Potter realized that Ginny had the Dark Mark, he would want to know what was going on. I think Tom was just trying to protect Ginny from the aggravation of trying to explain. Plus, anyway available to get rid of a rival would be ok for a Slytherin, wouldn't it?  



	52. CH 51: Nothing Hallowed

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 51

Nothing Hallowed

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

**Disclaimer**: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

**UP TO THIS POINT**: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night.

Nothing Hallowed

By Lady Lestrange

Halloween morning found Harry Potter in the infirmary with Ron and Hermione.

"I told you, Parvati will be fine," said Madam Pomfrey. "Sometimes this sort of thing happens with Seers who try to push themselves too far to fast. She will have no more visions or dreams for at least the next three days. She will be sleeping with dreamless sleep potion much of that time, so there is no point in you hovering around her. Go on—shoo!"

Lavender, determined to stay with her friend, was the only one who braved Madam Pomfrey's wrath. Even Dean decided that it was better to avoid Madam Pomfrey right now.

Harry suffered through class, trying to concentrate, but with Parvati in the hospital wing and all of the other goings on, he was hard put to study. When Trelawney started to tell them how she _Knew_ that Parvati would be taken ill, Harry got up and walked out of class.

"What do you think you are doing, Mr. Potter?" Trelawney scolded him.

"Don't you know," he said. "I've taken ill."

Harry spent the rest of divination class in the library trying to discover something about the Prophecy Child's powers. One of the things Parvati had said was that the Prophecy child was "__"From what he found out, the prophecy child was empathetic towards others. The books in the regular section of the library were rather vague on exactly what an empath could do, but from what Harry read, he discerned that they were in some respects very powerful, but in other respects very vulnerable. They could be used and manipulated because they reacted to the emotions and feelings of those around them. 

Another fact that he had learned from Parvati about the prophecy child was that she was of Slytherin and Hufflepuff blood. Although both he and Ron thought that fact was exceedingly strange, Hermione was not surprised. She had quoted several lines from the book, _Helga Hufflepuff: Gifted or Cursed_ which described Helga's gift of empathy, explaining that she had already looked at the volume herself.

When Harry asked Hermione why she didn't bring the book out of the library, she said she didn't think it would help them much anyway.

A little annoyed, Harry had said they used to decide this sort of thing together.

"It's so much easier though now that Hermione is a prefect," said Ron. "She can get anything we need out of the restricted section and we don't have to go sneaking under the Invisibility cloak and risk getting detention."

Harry frowned, thinking that never bothered Ron before--

Another quality of the Prophecy child of which they had been aware since the beginning was that she was a mixture of all four houses. It made sense to Harry that the Prophecy Child was a mixture of all the houses, but it seemed that the effect wasn't necessarily a quarter to each house as they had assumed. Instead, the prophecy child would be totally compatible with the house that he or she was in while in it. He wondered if the book in the restricted section entitled _Helga Hufflepuff: Gifted or Cursed, _really had nothing more to add to hisstudy. It certainly sounded like it would go into more depth about the gift of empathy. Perhaps he would try to look at it tonight, even though Hermione thought it was useless.

Once the great feast was over, Harry returned to the common room. He mentioned going to the restricted section of the library later tonight, but neither Ron nor Hermione volunteered to go with him. Hermione stating once again that the book was not that helpful. However, Hermione finally dragged Ron off to the library to pick up _just one book_, making Harry wonder if Parvati's comment that the Dark Lord had released him, made Ron and Hermione distrust him. He remembered how much they had distrusted him when they first learned he could speak parseltongue, but seriously, he thought they had all grown up a little in the succeeding years. Surely, they didn't believe he had anything to do with anything dark. He hated Voldemort. Harry rubbed his scar self-consciously and tried to hash out just what clues they had about the prophecy child. Honestly, this was so much easier when you could share it with someone—with Ron and Hermione. But Hermione and Ron had not come back from the library yet, so Harry was sitting alone. 

The Common room was surprisingly empty. Ginny was studying in the corner. The Weasley twins had another portion of the room. Perhaps it was because there were rumors that Voldemort had big plans for Halloweeen that the Common room was emptying out so early. Truthfully, when Harry thought of it, Halloween was the time when a number of unexpected events had occurred: The troll was loosed in the Dungeon, The Chamber of Secrets was opened, Sirius broke into Hogwarts and The whole Tri Wizard Tournament fiasco started.

Harry watched as a group of first years—he didn't think there were that many first years--came into the common room dressed as fairies, angels, and a superhero. Harry had to smile. It reminded him of muggle trick or treat night. Of course, he never got to go. He had to stay home and hand out the candy, when the Dursleys even bought any. Most of the time, he had to hide in the dark cupboard and pretend he wasn't home, while the Dursley's took Dudley out to collect his candy. Still, it was fun when they left him out of his cupboard to sneak peeks out of the window. That was before he knew he was a wizard. He remembered seeing the muggle children dressed up like witches and goblins and wizards. They had never had trick or treat night at Hogwarts, probably because the fall equinox, meant different things to different witches and wizards here, but Harry thought it was a fun idea and they really needed some fun lately. 

Edward came into the common room and nearly bumped into the children. One of them, smiled brightly at Edward, but he scowled at them and walked around them to join Ginny in the opposite corner.

The first years stood uncertainly in the common room. Harry looked at them appraisingly. Maybe some of them were second years. They were well disguised. He couldn't recognize any of them. Harry made his decision. "Come here," he said. 

They came to him, a little hesitantly. Digging in his bag to find several packages of Bertie Bott's Everyflavor beans. He opened the beans and gave a few beans to each child.

"What's that for?" asked the superhero.

"Well, it's trick or treat. A muggle custom of giving out candy." Said Harry.

The Weasley twins decided to get into the act. "I've read about that," said George. "The muggles dress up like witches and wizards—"

"Or angels and fairies" said Fred, looking at the children.

"Then they go door to door "said George

"In their neighborhood to collect candy." completed Fred

"You should go to Dumbledore's office," said George. 

"He has the best candy," agreed Fred.

"I--we don't know where it is," said an angel.

Fred and George exchanged glances and seemed to take this on as their personal mission. 

"Well, being an angel," said Fred "That's understandable."

"You wouldn't have had to um-visit there." Said George.

"Like some of us little devils," said Fred.

"I'm not an angel; I'm a sprite," corrected the child.

Harry went back to reading, with a smile on his face, as the twins explained the finer points of trick or treat. As Fred talked, Harry got the distinct feeling that the twins had participated in this muggle custom. George returned from the dorm with pillowcases that he had apparently taken from off of several of his roommates beds, and passed them out to the children. 

"Remember," said Fred as he placed several Puppy Puffs, Canary Creams and Ton Tongue toffees in each bag, these are for those annoying prefects."

The group of children nodded seriously. 

Laughing and talking, Fred and George led the children out of the Common room, apparently to collect candy from unsuspecting wizards and witches.

==

Finally, there was only Edward and Ginny in the common room with him. They were sitting on one side of the room and Harry was on the other. Ginny had just gone up to bed, after kissing Edward goodnight. How did that happen? Harry wondered for the thousandth time. Somehow, he had always thought Ginny would be there, waiting for him. He even thought they were closer this year. He sighed. What did he do wrong? Hadn't she just told him that she and Edward were just friends? So what had happened in the last two weeks? And Samara was no where in sight, again. He didn't' know if she was asleep, or with Draco somewhere. Her too, he had waited too long to approach. Why was it, he could jump right into dangers like the Chamber of Secrets or the Sorcerer's Stone, but with girls he couldn't. How did Edward get that easy attitude around them? Of course, Harry had always been able to talk to Hermione—Well, until lately he sighed. Now that she was Ron's girlfriend even that was a little awkward. When he tried to get her to tell him what she found out about the Prophecy Child's powers, she said she didn't know anything helpful. 

"It's nothing that's really going to help us to identify the child. If it's what I think it is, it's not something we could see, Harry."

"Well, what do you think it is?" asked Harry.

But before Hermione could answer, Ron burst into the Common room, yelling, "Come quick, Hermione, Harry. I think Snape's gonna kill a couple of Slytherins! They were puppies--"

The trio had skidded into the corridor and peered around a pillar in time to see Snape, growling at four little Slytherins in a low tone. "No, I'm not taking house points from the rest of the Slytherins," he said. "I'm going to see my quarters cleaned and my robes cleaned and my shoes cleaned, and if I smell one drop of dog piss in that room, I'm going to rub your noses in it, turn you into dogs permanently and send you to the Muggle dog pound! I would have expected this of a Gryffindor--"

"B-but," one of the little Slytherins, interrupted. 

The other one, bouncing on the balls of his feet, blurted, "McGonagall said, teachers aren't aloud to use transfiguration to punish students."

Ron gasped and clapped his hand over his mouth. 

Harry thought, you could almost feel sorry for the little guy—even if he was a Slytherin.

Snape's scowl became murderous. "I don't recall mentioning transfiguration," growled Snape, "and anyway, McGonagall is not your head of house," Snape roared. "I am! Move!"

"Does Snape seem a little more testy than usual," asked Hermione.

Ron shrugged. "He was always a bloody git."

The two of them walked off together arm in arm, leaving Harry feeling awkward. He went back to the Common Room. 

Harry decided that he had put off following up about the Prophecy Child's powers long enough. It was a great night for a midnight excursion to the library. Everyone was tired from the feast and would be in bed. Filch would have his hands full with Halloween pranksters and wouldn't even check the Restricted section of the library. Harry got his invisibility cloak, his Maurader's map arranged pillows on his bed and headed out. 

He couldn't find the book that Hermione had mentioned. He looked for over an hour before Peeves began flying around the library, chanting, "Students out of bed. Students out of bed."

Of course there were students out of bed, thought Harry. Even though it was late, it was Halloween. He rubbed his eyes and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. He expected most of the Gryffindors to be in bed by now. He didn't expect to see anyone in the common room.

When he returned to the common room, he had the shock of his life. There was a Halloween party in full swing, and all the Gryffindors were dressed in costumes, but costumes of Slytherins. It took Harry a full minute to realize that these people were not Gryffindors, they WERE Slytherins—in the Gryffindor common room. How did they get in? With a sinking feeling, Harry noted the little group of giggling angels, only they weren't dressed as angels now. They were in Slytherin robes and talking excitedly about trick AND treat night. Crookshanks was meowing loudly and rubbing up against them in his most welcoming manner. Bloody traitor thought Harry.

As Harry stood transfixed in front of the portrait hole, Edward came down the stairs from the dorm. "All asleep," he said, slipping his wand into his robe pocket, which now carried a Slytherin crest. Confused, Harry glanced across the room at Ethan to just to be sure there were really two of them. Edward crossed the room to his brother who was complaining about the décor.

Draco was sitting comfortably in the center of an overstuffed chair by the fireplace, and a roaring fire was lit. "Where's Ginny?" Draco asked Edward. Draco was absently petting Crookshanks who had jumped up on the top of the chair and was now sitting near Draco's head. He batted a soft paw through Draco's hair and then rubbed himself against his ear.

"Warded in a bomb shelter," said Edward. "Elementals."

**"**Why would Ginny be so concerned that she used wards to sleep at night," thought Harry, and then another more disturbing thought entered his mind. "How did Edward, a pure blood wizard know anything about bombs? Unless he was involved in setting one—Images of Euro-Disney and the muggle bombs set by use of a portkey, flashed through his mind. No doubt McGonagall and even Ron and Hermione would say he was over reacting, but he couldn't get the thought out of his mind.

"So you couldn't break it?" asked Draco, picking up Crookshanks and putting him on his lap. He continued petting the cat., who kneaded Draco's lap and laid down.

"I didn't try. She said she wanted to sleep," said Edward.

Harry was numb. He couldn't believe this was happening. Once he would have just started cursing the nearest Slytherin, but he had matured a little in his years at Hogwarts. He needed a plan.

"Way too much red," Ethan said, and with a wave of his wand he changed the sofa to a pale green color. 

"No!" said Edward, changing it back to marroon. "Ethan, we can't change the colors. We want the Gryffindors to get in trouble. If we change it Dumbledore will know it was us.

"Is this carpet supposed to represent the blood shed by some brave, dying Gryffindors or is it just your typical whorehouse red?" said Ethan. "It's giving me a headache." 

Try studying in this colored room," moaned Edward.

"Too bad, you're stuck with it. You lost the duel," said Ethan.

"You cheated."

"So. We agreed on first hit," sneered Ethan.

"I should have said duel to unconsciousness."

"Only because you punched me like some damned mudblood—I think you _belong_ in Gryfffindor."

Edward launched himself at Ethan, and the Slytherins moved out of the way of the fight. A table got overturned and a lamp shattered on the floor as the boys wrestled. Crookshanks darted across the room and out of the melee. 

Harry stood open mouthed. It was a good thing the Invisibility cloak hid him from sight. Why couldn't McGonagall walk in and see this?

Some of the Slytherins started to take bets and in moments, sickles and knuts were flying as well as fists.

"Ethan will use his wand first," said one of the former angels.

"Edward will." Said the sprite.

"Ethan doesn't need a wand."

"Edward's been in Gryffindor too long," said the superhero. "He's cool, but he's lost the touch. He hasn't even been able to locate the prophecy child."

"That's just Draco's opinion," said another Slytherin.

"So that was Edward's plan?—speaking of plan," thought Harry. "What was his plan for getting the Slytherins out of here? Maybe he should just go for Dumbledore." 

The momentum of the wrestling knocked Crabbe into Harry. "Without looking behind him," Crabbe murmured "Sorry." And went back to cheering the combatants.

Harry realized that he had just barely avoided being discovered, and Crabbe was now standing directly in front of the doorway that led out of the common room. He would have to wait until Crabbe moved before he could go to summon McGonagall or Dumbledore. This was a nightmare. Another lamp and a décorative lion statue broke and a wand clattered across the floor before one of the twins set one of the sofas on fire.

Crookshanks scampered after the wand like it was a plaything.

Immediately the sofa was drenched with water from the other twin. 

"You stupid prat. What did you do that for, now the sofa's all wet!"

"You were the idiot that set it on fire!"

"Well you took my wand, what did you expect?"

There was a flash of light and one twin stood triumphantly with his wand in his hand and his brother stunned on the floor. He was dusting off his Slytherin robes. Harry realized he didn't know which twin was the winner: Edward or Ethan. 

Wand drawn, Harry crouched behind the smoking sofa and leaned his head against it. He needed to get these Slytherins out of his common room. But there were too many of them. Ironically, Snape's words came to mind. "That's the problem with you Griffindors—more bravado than brains. A dead hero is still dead." 

A soft sandpapery tongue touched his wand hand, and Crookshanks began to meow at him.

"Sh-h-h. Get out of here, Crookshanks," whispered Harry pushing the cat away. 

"Told you Edward would win," said the sprite to the superhero. "Pay up."

What would Hermione do? Make a plan, Harry thought.

He didn't have a plan. 

Money began to exchange hands.

What would Ron do? Take out as many as possible before going down.

Edward spoke **"medicor," **and reached down to help his brother to his feet. Laughing, and healing each others bruises, they leaned on each other. "At least I can sleep at night," Edward said. "It's awesome. No wards. None at all."

Some of the Slytherins started to pair off and seek the shadows. Edward called after one couple, "Millicent and Greg, check the forth and fifth year girls if you are going upstairs."

"I don't know where they are." Millicent replied obviously unconcerned. 

"Never mind," said Edward. "I'll check them myself."

Crookshanks was wrapping himself around Millicent's leg. She hissed at him and pushed him away with the toe of her boot. "Put him in a room somewhere, too," she said to Edward. "He's annoying."

Edward picked up Crookshanks and turned toward the stairs.

"The rigors of being the host," Draco drawled. "It's such a bore. Why do we have to check the Forth and Fifth years anyway, don't you know how to set a sleeping net?"

"I do," said Edward, "But you forget who sleeps there."

"Oh yes," said Draco. "The mudblood prefect."

"She's not the problem. She and the bunny sleep like logs." said Edward. "It's Ginny. She has nightmares and sometimes wakes up right through the wards. If she's awake, she can join the party."

"She still has nightmares? You never told us that. There would be Parvati too. A vision might interfere with the ward."

"No," said Edward. "Parvati's sleeping over with Trelawney these days, and her friend Lavender, well she just sleeps over. I don't think she'll be back tonight. And then there's Samara. Unless you want to wake Samara?" 

Edward headed up the stairs to check on the rooms. Crookshanks was meowing on his arm.

"No," interrupted Alvin Nott. "I'm still the senior prefect here, and I say no Gryffindors."

"OO-oh," intoned Draco to Alvin in his laziest drawl. "Looks like the prefect has left his house get a little out of hand—or maybe out of Hall," laughed Draco.

"Anyone up for a game of Truth or Dare?" asked Ethan. Some of the Slytherins started to gather around him.

"We've got a problem!" yelled Edward, as he sprinted back down the stairs, carrying one of Harry's pillows. "Harry Potter isn't in his bed."

"We should leave," said Alvin. "He could have gone to get Dumbledore."

Draco glanced at Crabbe who was still leaning against the portrait hole. "No," said Draco. "Crabbe's been watching the door. My bet is that Potter is standing right here, under his invisibility cloak, listening to every word we've said." Draco smirked and motioned the Truth or Dare, group a little closer to the portrait hole to block the entrance better. They scooted over obediently although Ethan grumbled. "Now, about that game," said Draco. "Won't you join us, Potter? What happened to all that Gryffindor bravery? A few Slytherins and you have to hide under your invisibility cloak? For shame. Now, if you and your friends were in my common room, I'm sure I'd confront you. I certainly wouldn't slink around invisible." 

Only because you don't have an Invisibility Cloak, thought Harry.

"We can't play truth or dare," moaned one of the angels. "We don't have any veritaserum."

Harry caught his breath. Surely they heard him gasp, but they seemed not to—"

"Gloria, I thought angels always told the truth," said one of the other first years with a snigger.

"Shut up, Graham, or I'll curse you," said Gloria. "It's not my fault that the stupid Weasley's don't know the difference between an angel and a sprite."

Draco reached into an inner robe pocket and drew out a small vial about the size of Harry's thumb. "Always be prepared," he said.

Harry noticed that two other Slytherins also had vials out of their pockets: Ethan and Blaise Zambini

"You're a prefect," Alvin scolded Blaise. "You can't get caught with that"

"So, I won't get caught," purred Blaise. She tossed her vial to the angel. "Careful, she hissed. "That stuff is expensive."

Draco shrugged. "I'm going to go wake Samara." He said. "I think she'll want to play."

"Draco," Alvin Nott said moving in front of him. "Let Samara sleep. She'll need to be asleep—tonight."

Draco raised an eyebrow, and started past Nott.

"I really have to draw the line." Nott continued angrily. She's a Gryffindor. She needs to stay asleep tonight of all nights."

"First of all," drawled Draco. "You don't make the rules here. Secondly, she's not a Gryffindor. The only reason she's in Gryffindor at all is because Weasley stood up for her, and not just any Weasley—Virginia Weasley. And who knows how much of HER is still Virginia—" Draco pushed Alvin away against the wall. 

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying Alvin, you close your eyes to Dark Lord's power, You're afraid of it: afraid of the power, afraid of the power of his artifacts, afraid of the power of those he chooses, and the power of how he communicates with those chosen. You are a pitiful excuse for a Slytherin." Draco's voice was low and vicious. "You were left behind before and you'll be left behind again, maybe permanently. Now, get out of my way." Draco pushed past Alvin and went up to the girls' dorm. 

"I'll go first," said Edward. "Greg, I dare you to put—um five large tarantulas in Ron Weasley's bed."

"Done." Said Greg, who sprinted up the stairs faster than Harry had ever seen him move.

I've got one," shouted Lauren. "Who's taking Advanced Charms?"

"Pritch is," said a Slytherin. Harry didn't know, but he recognized Owen Pritchard from his Advanced Charms class.

Harry found himself hoping that Edward's sleep wards were good enough to keep Ron asleep until he could get the spiders out of his friend's bed.

They did another dare, which Harry missed because his eyes were on Samara heading sleepily down the stairs in her night clothes. Draco had a possessive arm around her. As she realized the room was filled with Slytherins, her mouth dropped open. "Oh my Gawd." She looked around in amazement. 

"I don't think I've ever seen you speechless," said Draco in a lazy drawl. "I like it."

Unlike Harry, Samara didn't seem overly concerned. "Did you do this, Draco? This is incredible," she said softly.

"I'm incredible," Draco corrected. "Give the lady a butterbeer."

"So where am I putting this?" asked Owen Pritchard.

"Fifth year Girl's dorm," said Lauren. "Between say—8 and 9."

"What?" Samara asked. "What did you do, Lauren?"

"Don't worry about it," Draco said, "You get up early."

They moved over to the game. "Won't Professor Snape miss you?" Samara asked. "It looks like the whole house is here."

"Well, we're missing a few dogs—"Draco smirked knowingly.

"And some of the sixth and seventh years," said Edward. "They are out to do their duty for the light."

"Some of them are light," said Lauren Avery softly.

"Snape?" asked Samara.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I took care of Snape."

"What did you do to him?" asked Samara.

"Nothing, my blood thirsty little _Gryffindor._ I just told him that some of us wanted to turn in early to be well rested for tomorrow. Truthfully, he was so thankful that Nott and I were taking care of things. He looked like he was desperately in need of some sleep. Of course the puppies were helpful--"

"What's tomorrow?"

Draco's expression closed her out. "Let's just play the game," he said. "It's your turn."

"What's tomorrow?" thought Harry Potter.

"Samara," said Ethan. "Truth or Dare?"

"Have you played this game before?" asked Draco.

"Oh yeah." Said Samara. "Truth."

"Not with veritaserium," thought Harry. He had to find a way to get the Slytherins out of the common room. He glanced at the fireplace. It was blazing brightly—figures--If only McGonagall would decide to use the fireplace for a message tonight**, **but now that the floo was fixed she'd probably just use her own fireplace.

"How many dark wizards are in your family?" asked Ethan.

The crowd moaned. "No," said Pansy. "Last time you asked that question we were counting for hours."

"It's a waste of veritaserium," said Edward.

"You have to limit it," agreed one of the angels.

"Good idea, Gloria. We could count light wizards instead," suggested Lauren.

"Last four generations," agreed Ethan.

Draco handed Samara the little vial. 

"What's this?" she asked. 

"Veritaserium." Said Draco. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh," said Samara. "I've never seen veritaserium. I've heard it's very strong. Doesn't look like much does it?"

"Quit stalling," complained Ethan nastily.

Without looking up, Samara flicked her wand and removed Ethan's mouth. 

Ethan's eyes widened in horror, and then narrowed in fury.

Several Slytherins, including Draco, burst into laughter.

Harry wondered where on earth she had learned that spell—probably Slytherin.

"I'm not stalling," said Samara. "I'm just trying to remember where I saw a recipe for this stuff—in Ravenclaw, I think." She began reciting ingredients, counting on her fingers—licorice, dragon tongue, fluxweed, unicorn milk,

Pansy chuckled. "Oh, she can cook!" 

"Draco doesn't care if you can cook," mocked one of the Slytherins that Harry didn't know.

Draco glared at him. "Like this," he said to Samara, and then he stopped as he remembered Ethan's predicament. "Ethan will need his mouth back," he said.

"Oh, right," she said returning Ethan's mouth with a wave of her wand.

Draco put her finger on the opening of the veritaserium bottle and holding her hand, turned it over once. "It's strong stuff," he said, now holding her wet finger to her mouth. "You only need a drop to answer truthfully. Lick."

Samara licked her finger, which was wet with the veritaserium. "It tastes like water," she said. "You guys are joshing me, right?"

The group began to laugh.

"It was you!" Ethan blurted, flames in his hand. "You cursed me! I damned near died!"

"When?" Harry wondered. "When had Samara cursed Ethan, not that he didn't probably deserve it."

"Hurry up and ask your question, Ethan," said one of the Slytherins. "You just lost your voice, not your life!"

"It wasn't the loss of his voice that bothered him," said one of the sprites. "It was the loss of his lips." She smacked her own lips together in a loud kiss.

And the group laughed. "You should know, Gloria," said one of them.

**"Cr—"** began Ethan, but Samara was quicker. **"Testudo!" **she pronounced and a shimmering shield of power appeared behind the wave of her hand, and she pushed it toward Ethan. Immediately, his unsaid curse was reflected back upon him, and he collapsed on the floor—his mouth opened, and Draco pronouned **"Mutus!"**

His face contorted in agony and his silent scream was more than Harry could take. He strode forward several steps before he realized he couldn't do anything, even if he revealed himself, but Samara was already moving, pronouncing **"Finite Incantum!"** and ending the spell. She rushed to Ethan's side.

"Are you alright?" she asked Ethan.

"What happened?" asked Pansy.

"Samara blocked one of Ethan's nastier curses—" answered Lauren. "Apparently she threw one back too, but I didn't see what it was."

"He's had worse," said Draco, in a bored drawl.

Worse? Thought Harry. Worse than **crucio**? He looked from Samara to Ethan in confusion. Ethan was the one who was holding the **crucio **spell, and Samara did nothing but block. He knew the only spell she spoke was **Testudo**, but somehow she reflected the spell. **Testudo **shouldn't have held it at all. It certainly shouldn't have reflected it. No one could block, let alone reflect an unforgivable curse like **crucio **with a single word spell. Samara would have had to have done a complicated enchantment, and even then—well, maybe it wasn't** crucio **after all--

"What was your spell?" Pansy asked Samara, but Samara ignored her and Lauren, instead, putting her arm under Ethan and helping him sit up. "I'd say either she's improving," Draco drawled. "or you're improving, Ethan," Draco continued at a whisper. "At least, there was no blood to clean up this time."

"You knew? All this time--" croaked Ethan. "You knew it was her that almost let me bleed to death?"

"Almost," said Draco reminded him softly. "and you're lucky it wasn't me. You'd still be lying there bleeding. I told you before, Ethan. Nothing happens in Slytherin without my knowing about it." Said Draco coldly. More loudly, Draco asked, "Should we skip your turn, Ethan?"

Looking at Draco's face, Harry knew without a doubt that Draco was aware what Samara had done. Worse, he seemed to know what that meant, and he was quite pleased about it.

"No." Ethan took a deep breath and pulled himself to his feet. "I'm fine."

"Damn. For half a minute there, I thought she did **crucio** on him," muttered Pansy. "It looked like the other curse—"

Draco silenced Pansy with a glance and turned back to Samara, his lips curling into an ear to ear smirk.

"It wasn't me," began Samara, but Draco hushed her, and handed her the bottle of veritaserium. and again Samara put her finger on the opening of the veritaserium bottle and turned it over once. She licked her finger and nodded.

"How did you—" seeing Draco's scowl, Ethan hesitated, and rephrased his question, choosing to go back to his original one. "How many dark wizards are in your family back four generations," repeated Ethan quickly.

"One," Samara answered unhesitatingly. The effects of the veritaserium immediately started to wear off.

"One! What kind of answer was that?" said Crabbe.

"I'm a Gryffindor, remember," said Samara. 

"And so is Edward," muttered Owen Pritchard with a snigger. "Is that veritaserium expired, Blaise?"

Blaise just rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, not truth or dare, or anything, Ethan," continued Samara. "but would you mind, just for curiosity's sake, how many dark wizards are in your family?"

Harry listened carefully. This was not only Ethan's; it was also Edwards. Maybe he'd hear something he could tell McGonagall.

"You don't have to answer," Samara said.

"30" said Ethan "to four generations."

"And you would think one of them could have taught you—"Began one of the Slytherins, but Harry missed the comment. He was counting on his fingers. Parents, Grandparents, That's probably every single one of them, he thought.

Alvin Nott suddenly turned into a large canary—a very angry canary who was glaring at one of the angels. 

"It's not my fault," said the little girl. "The red haired Gryfffindors said they were especially for stuffy prefects."

Draco burst into laughter. "Oh, Gloria! That's perfect," he said. "Who can argue that this was a Griffindor party when there's yellow feathers all over the place. How many do you have?"

Draco dug through the children's candy bag and passed out Canary Creams and Puppy Puffs Without another thought, he popped one into his mouth and turned into a canary. "Eat them," he ordered and soon the Common room floor was littered with Dog hair and Canary feathers as well as spilled butterbeer, glass, and food. 

"We should bring down some Gryffindors to make the party look complete," suggested Goyle. "Someone always passes out in the Common room at our parties."

"Gryffindors don't play Quit," said Samara.

"How about Hermione?" suggested Vincent.

"It has to look real," said Draco. "Weasley?"

"But then, I'll have to move the spiders," Greg Goyle complained.

"OK, Neville then, and maybe one of the first years—"

Edward shook his head. "Neville has a ward."

Draco guffawed. "I can get Neville's ward down. What's wrong with you, Edward? Living with the Gryffindors too long?" 

Edward and Draco started to do that task while Alvin Nott continued the game.

"Pansy. Truth or Dare."

"Dare."

After a few minutes, Draco called down the stairs, "Lauren, come up here." She went up, but a few minutes later, all three came back down.

"I can get Neville's ward down," mocked Edward in a falsetto as they walked down the stairs.

"OK Edward," said Draco. "But I could have gotten it down if I could have figured out what it was—"

"Banish that bloody Keisel," said Alvin Nott.

"With pleasure," replied Pansy.

"To the forbidden forest—" someone yelled, but Pansy didn't answer.

"Who was a kiesel? Thought Harry. "Was it a slang term like mudblood?"

"Vincent," said Millicent Bulstrode.

"Dare."

"Throw the bunny out the window."

Silence greeted the request. 

"No," cried Samara. "We're in a tower. You can't throw someone out a window."

"There's a ledge, isn't there," said Millicent. "Put her on the ledge."

"Why don't you pick something else," Vincent said miserably. "Beatrice has always been nice to me."

"And she's Sally Anne's friend," said someone else.

Vincent shuffled in his chair. "Can I change to truth?"

"No."

"You know the rules," said Pansy

"Oh this is ridiculous, said Ethan. **"Imperio!"**

Harry couldn't have heard right. First veritaserium, two unforgivable curses—and one by Samara--in a game!

He looked around at the Slytherins. No one had even blinked at Ethan's curse—except for Samara.

"Draco," Samara said wide eyed. "You can't let them do that. Draco!"

Draco shrugged, unconcerned. "You did one."

"What!" cried Samara grabbing the lapels of Draco's robe. "You didn't speak to me for a bloody week because of that **Imperio** and now they're using it in a game?" Her voice rose an octave. "And that's fine with you?"

**"Mutus,"** said Draco.

"She imperioed you?" questioned Ethan.

Samara had pulled her wand.

"Uh-Oh—trouble for the love birds," said Millicent. Her eyes sparkled with mirth. "I'll help you to turn him into a mouse—if you'll let me play--"

Draco ignored her and pulled Samara into a corner and whispered furiously to her.

"Hey, Ethan," Millicent, said. "I get to do the **Imperious** curse."

Vincent stood hesitantly and headed up the stairs. Harry sprinted after him.

The sprites were whispering. "I'll bet Samara could **Imperio** him—"

"No way—"

"5 knuts—"

In the fourth and fifth years girls dorm, Hermione and Beatrice were sleeping peacefully. Hermione, in her prefect's room blissfully unaware of the turmoil in her common room. Beatrice lay curled on her bed in a tiny fur ball in her animagi form. Ginny was tossing restlessly on the bed and mumbling to herself. 

Vincent hesitated, obviously fighting the imperious curse. "Fight it," Harry whispered, wondering if there was any possibility of wrestling Vincent to the ground. "Fight it, Vincent. You will go to Azkaban if she dies. You have to fight it."

Vincent put his hand on Beatrice, but she didn't wake because of the sleeping ward. 

"OK, OK," muttered Harry. "Just put her on the ledge." I could get her off. **Accio Firebolt**, thought Harry. "No, just **accio bunny**."

"Stop," said Ginny very plainly in her sleep. Vincent hesitated and looked at Ginny, but the **imperious** curse would not let him leave the bunny. He picked the little brown animagus gently into his arms.

"She's my friend," Ginny muttered, pleading. "I won't hurt her. I can't. Don't make me--" Tears were coursing down her cheeks as she whined in a pitiful eleven year old voice. "Please I won't—You said you wouldn't hurt me. You said!"

Her voice suddenly deepened into a rough, desperate and powerful anger, as she sat up in bed, lifted her chin defiantly and shouted.

"I said, Get OUT!** Pervigilo Armaro**" Her eyes were wide, but unseeing. Her hands stretched out to him. Magic crackled like a golden rain all over the inside of her ward, even though she didn't have a wand.

Vincent dropped Bunny back on the bed with a thump as the **Imperious** curse was broken. Harry got the feeling that Ginny had also thrust the Memory from her with the full force of her will. The magic glistening around her made her freckles look like some one had sprinkled her skin with liquid gold dust, and for just a moment, her hair was caught in the storm of her magic. She looked beautiful.

Downstairs, Harry heard cheering. "You did it Vincent. You broke free!"

Vincent, stumbled back down the stairs to the cheers of his Slytherin gang.

"Bloody hell," Greg congratulated him. "That was wonderful."

"He's never gotten out of my **impervious** curse," drawled Draco. "You must be out of practice, Ethan."

"I could practice on you," Ethan said in a low voice.

"I doubt it."

"Let Samara do it," said one of the sprites.

Harry sat on the bed and put his head down, trying to keep from being sick. Samara, thought Harry. A Gryffindor, using an unforgivable curse. Was she really a Gryffindor? He took a couple of deep breaths trying to calm himself.

Bunny wriggled her nose and snuggled under the covers.

Ginny was still crying, but seemed somehow, more relaxed. "Harry—oh, Harry--" she muttered. "I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say in front of Percy." 

Harry listened to the exact same words he had heard her say second year. He knew where Ginny was—on the cold stone floor of the Chamber, and he was holding her. He could remember every detail from her tears, to his shaking and his sticky, blood-soaked robes, only now, she wasn't eleven.

"I should go," he thought, heat coursing through him, but he was riveted to the floor, listening—looking. He couldn't leave her now, any more than he could have left her in the chamber.

"--It was me. Harry—but I—I s-swear I didn't mean to—R--Riddle made me, he t-took me over-- 

and--how did you kill that--that thing? Where's Riddle? The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary—

She sighed deeply and muttered into her pillow. The dream was over. Harry had turned to go, when she spoke again, her voice frantic. "Tom? Are you there, Tom? Did we do it?" She wrapped her arms around her pillow, clutching it close. "I wish you could hold me, Tom. I'm scared. I wish—"Her voice was muffled in the pillow. Harry tore out of the room.

He stopped at the top of the stairs. He sighed as he noticed Samara was back in Draco's lap. Well, he didn't have a plan, but perhaps Ron's way was better. Take as many as possible with you. "**Somnus,"** he thought, taking out his wand. One at a time, very quietly, he started with the younger ones. Soon two were asleep, then three, and four. He took a deep breath. No one noticed yet, but there would be too many left at the end for him to succeed. It was a plan, but a doomed one.

The portrait hole to the Common Room squeaked slightly as it opened. "Yes!" thought Harry Potter. "Be McGonagall. Who else could it be at this late hour?"

"Draco, you so set us up," complained one of the little Slytherins at the doorway. They were the four that Snape had been angry with earlier, the puppies. The other three pushed into the Common Room. Harry wasn't sure if he was starting to see auras or was there a sprinkling of flame around one of the Slytherins. "Who trashed Snape's room?" she asked.

"Gryffindors," said Draco. "At least that's what he assumed. He was marching over here to find them. We couldn't have him over here, now could we?"

Suddenly, a ball of fire, flew from one of the Slytherins. Draco blocked it, protecting him and Samara, it splattered like fireworks, burning tiny holes in the carpet.

"We missed the whole bloody party and had to spend the evening cleaning," complained one of the others.

"I'll make it up to you," promised Draco.

"How," demanded the third Slytherin.

Draco thought about it for a moment. "Trip to Knockturn alley?" he asked.

The four young Slytherins looked at each other, and nodded. "Ok, when?"

"Before Christmas break," said Draco.

"Good, now that's settled," said Edward. "Come on, Samara, your turn." 

OK. Ethan—"

"Dare of course," he interrupted.

"Let me think of something good. I know. McGonagall likes to sleep in her cat form, but I think she's lonely."

Sniggers from the Slytherins.

"I think you should give her some company. Yes. I've got it. Put a pit bull in McGonagall's living quarters."

The Slytherins had gotten very quiet.

"You're joking right?" asked Ethan.

"No. That's the Dare. A hungry pit bull."

Harry had stopped his **somnus** spell to listen. It appeared the Slytherins were as terrified as McGonagall as most of the Gryffindors were of Snape. It was something to think about.

"I don't know where McGonagall's living quarters are," said Ethan nervously.

"I'll show you," volunteered Edward. "First floor. It's right behind her office."

"Where's he gonna get a pit bull?" asked Pansy sarcastically.

"We could use one of Nott's custom puppy puffs," snapped Millicent.

"You can't have my rotweiller puffs," said Nott. "Fred and George would tell McGonagall it was me."

"How many more do you have," complained Millicent and Alvin smirked at her.

"I could wake Beatrice and have her transfigure one, if you want me to," said Samara. Her eyes sparkling with mischief. "If none of you can handle that transfiguration."

"I can do it," said Pritch and Millicent together.

Ethan glared at both of them.

Several "so can I's" were heard murmured behind Ethan.

"What about the magical signature," said Ethan. "She'll know it was a Slytherin. I'll get expelled."

"No," said Draco. "You'll just have to practice your little boy innocent' look." 

Ethan looked at the ceiling as Draco continued in a high pitched confused voice. "Professor Snape, I don't know why Professor McGonagall was so upset. I was so proud of the transfiguration. I was hoping for extra credit—"

The Slytherins were howling with laughter by now. "You need it too, Ethan," laughed Millicent.

"I didn't know she sleeps like a cat!" Draco put his hand over his mouth in mock horror. "Oh professor, I never thought of that!"

"Ethan," Edward said. "If you do this right, I don't think she'll stay around the pit bull long enough to get a magical signature."

"You're agreeing with a Gryffindor!" accused Ethan.

"Samara is not a Gryffindor," said Draco.

"It's a good dare," said Lauren.

"Of for goodness sakes," Samara pulled her wand from her hair and twirled it in her hand.. "Draco you may have to help me with this. You know how I tend to over extend—

Vincent choked spewing butterbear all over Gregory and Millicent. "Yeah," Vincent muttered "Fifteen hours is a bit over extended."

"And who knows about the last time she did **Imperio**," muttered Gregory.

Draco glared at them, and then addressed Samara. "Well," he said, taking the wand out of her hand. "First of all, you can't use your wand for an unforgivable if it is avoidable."

"Why?"

"The Ministry checks wands—"

"Only Slytherin wands," Samara smirked.

Draco rolled his eyes.

"I'll do it," growled Ethan.

"Here's your pit bull," said Pansy, hurling a cushion off of the sofa toward Ethan. The cushion, well aimed toward Ethan, bounced off of something about half way there—something invisible—"

"Potter!" yelled Draco, and both Crabbe and Goyle reached forward to grab him. With their hands around his arms, there wasn't much Harry Potter could do to save himself, and there wasn't much point in trying to remain invisible. The Slytherins pushed the hood off of his head, and like in second year, they were treated to the sight of Harry Potter's head suspended about six feet from the floor.

"Well, Potter," Drawled Draco. Starting to unwrap the cloak from Harry's shoulders. "How nice of you to finally join us. Or have you been here sneaking around like a little rat the whole time. May I take your cloak?" Draco sneered. "Very nice cloak, by the way." 

"Draco," said Samara softly. "Please don't do this."

"Shut up, Samara, I've been waiting forever for this day," he said. "The day I can best, the great Harry Potter."

Harry fumbled with the edges of the Invisibility cloak. He knew there was no way he was going to be able to keep it with all these Slytherins around him and he could see that Draco had coveted the robe for too long to let this opportunity slip by. **"Dissolvo reparo,"** Harry muttered, his fingers just barely brushing his wand in his pocket. **"Accio gry."** With relief he felt the tiny scrap of liquid-like material fall into his hand. He closed his fist around it.

Draco turned around and looked at the youngest Slytherins who were somewhat in awe of Potter. "He defeated the Dark Lord," one of them whispered. 

"He must be a very powerful wizard," another said.

Draco sneered at Potter. "Truth or Dare, Potter " he said. "I dare you to not move a muscle until morning. **Petrificus Totalis!"**

"Come here," said Draco to the younger Slytherins. "I want you to see the great Harry Potter, bane of the Dark Lord's existence. Dumbledore has sent Harry after the Dark Lord because he is much too old and much too cowardly to go himself. One wonders how the old coot ever got sorted into Gryffindor."

Harry seethed in the body bind.

"Now, children," Draco said, imitating a classroom professor. "Who knows what this curse is called?"

"A full body bind," said the one Harry recognized as the superhero.

And now, please raise your hand if you could block this curse when you were—five—no four."

All but one of the children raised their hands.

"And you my little Sprite?" asked Draco. "Can't you block this curse?"

"Oh, yes," she replied, "But I could block it when I was 3. I could do it when I was 4." she grinned. 

"Terrance Higgs is my older brother."

"Terrible Terrance," muttered Pritch.

From far away, Harry heard a voice. "Come out, Come out where ever you are—"

"It's Peeves." Said Lauren.

"Where's that slimy Slytherin? 

Do you know the mess your in?

McGonagall's in such rotten shape.

"He did it," said Draco amazed. "Ethan did it."

I'm calling Filch and calling Snape

Get the thumb screws. Get the noose.

Get the dog that's running loose.

"We need to go," said Nott. "Now."

Peeves was still chanting:

Will you beat the Slytherin brat?

If I tell you where he's at?

Will you beat them with a stick?

Will you beat them slow or quick? 

Will you have them in a stew?

Will you have them black and blue?

Some of the smarter Slytherins sprinted right for the Portrait hole, including a black cat and Harry blinked. Several other animals. Could they be animagi? Thought Harry. They weren't registered.

"Good night, kiddies," murmured the Fat Lady sleepily. "Thanks for the rum candies."

Will you tie them in a knot?

Will you leave them out to rot?

Draco turned, pulled Samara tight up against him and kissed her. Harry felt sick. Trapped. Stupid.

Will you drown them in the lake?

Or leave them for the squid to take?

"Draco," she whispered frantically. "Please don't take the cloak. It's not yours. Don't do this. It's wrong. Just go. You're going to be in enough trouble."

Will you see a taffy tongue

Or moulting feathers on the run?

Harry felt rather than saw Draco stiffen. "Don't ever tell me what to do," he said between clenched teeth. "Remember that." He bent his head and kissed her again. 

Doggie hairs upon the floor?

A drunken lady on the door?

Draco took the cloak from Harry's petrified hands and patted him on the head. "Very nice party, Potter. 

Thanks for the hospitality. Oh and the cloak of course."

Snapie's lost his little house

Won't you find that Sythie louse?

The other Slytherins took their cue from Draco and each came up and thanked Harry. Some of them patted his head, others kicked him or picked at his clothing. One of the little ones spat a lemon drop on his head. "I don't like lemon drops," Graham Pritchard said. "Tricks And Treats."

Draco turned at the door. "Crabbe! Goyle! You can leave Potter go now."

"Oh," they said together and dropped Harry unceremoniously on the ground.

"Draco," said Alvin as he tried to awaken one of the sleeping Slytherins. "I think they've been cursed."

"Nice try, Potter," said Draco. "But not good enough." He and Nott pointed their wands at the students one at a time. **"Enervate!"** he pronounced, and with Nott, Crabbe and Goyle urging them forward, they all stumbled from the Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry could still hear Peeves singing. He had switched songs:

Tom, Tom, the muggle's son.

Tomorrow's kiss will make em run.

When the Slyths come out to play

Askaban will have its day.

Peeves was laughing uproarously at his joke as Samara came over and knelt beside Harry. "I'm so sorry Harry," she said.

When she released him from the body bind, Harry just looked at her, his eyes puzzled. "Why?" he muttered.

"I—didn't do this—" she whispered.

"And the **Imperio**? The **crucio**?"

"It's complicated."

Harry said nothing. He just looked at her. One part of him wanted to say this wasn't his business, but another part of him said, It was everyone's business to uphold the law. He remembered he and Neville coming back from Snapes' room, and wondering themselves whether or not they could do the unforgivables. How far of a step was it from wondering, to doing them? Harry thought, it wasn't that far. And if a friend did do an unforgivable curse, shouldn't he try to understand what drove them to that? Wasn't that understanding what friends were for? 

He tried to be understanding, but deep inside of him a spark of pure anger burned. Draco had just walked out of his Common Room with his Invisibility Cloak—never mind that he managed to render it useless. It was still his Dad's cloak, and he wanted it back.

"We should clean up this mess," suggested Samara.

"Yeah, we should," agreed Harry.

They worked for a few minutes in silence, doing **reparo** on the broken lion and lamp, before Samara spoke. "I didn't plan to do an unforgivable curse, you know."

"But you did."

"It wasn't that bad—"

"That bad!" snapped Harry turning to face her. "Have you ever felt **crucio**!" he shouted at her. 

"No—but that curse wasn't mine—It was--" 

"Samara," Harry interrupted. "I was right here. I saw—"

"If you saw, then you know it wasn't mine!" said Samara angrily turning away from him.

They continued to clean silently for a while, until Samara said, "You know, I was just thinking, we should get the curses off first. What if someone wakes up--

"You're right," said Harry tightly. Then he paused. "About Draco, why did you—" He shook his head. "Never mind." He was still and silent another moment, and Samara urged, "Are you going upstairs to find the curses?"

"Yes." Harry didn't move.

"Well?" Samara stood looking at him, her face creasing into a smile. 

"What is it?" asked Harry self consciously.

"You have a lemon drop, right here," she said attempting to manually take the thing from his hair. "Yuck," she said and pulled her wand. "**Pulvereus. Pergo**." she said smashing the lemon drop to dust and cleaning the stickiness.

"I was thinking about your putting Draco under **Imperious**? Did you really do that?"

"It wasn't what you think—"

Harry gaped at her. "It's a wonder he didn't kill you."

"We were just talking," Samara said, "and then there was--this thing that Draco didn't want to tell me, so—_Don't look at me like that!_ I quit anyway. I didn't finish it.

"So you didn't find out what you wanted to know?"

Actually, he told me later," said Samara.

"So if you had a little patience you wouldn't have needed an unforgivable curse." 

"Patience isn't my strong suit," said Samara.

"I've noticed." 

They worked silently for a while, Harry was searching Ron's bed for the spiders. Samara was trying to locate the one that had scurried under the chest. 

"Mine either," Harry said after a while.

"What?"

"I'm not very patient either," Harry said. "But," he turned to her earnestly. "Samara, you're a Gryffindor. Why were you with these people?"

Samara shrugged. 

Harry's voice was soft and sincere. "Unforgivable curses—veritaserium—invading someone else's common room—stealing my cloak-- Samara, can't you see that they're all just one step from Azkaban?"

"When you put it like that," said Samara. "I guess maybe you're right."

"So why? Why do you keep going back over there? Is it Draco?"

Samara looked at Harry's aura. She had never seen it like this—so physical—vivid streaks of red through the soft turquoise and healer's green.

"Is it the risk?"

She didn't answer. She wasn't sure she knew.

I understand that," he continued, his aura becoming even more vivid as he spoke. "Some people have said that I'm too full of myself—running off to save the world like some sort of hero—but sometimes I feel like that's the only time when I'm really alive—when I'm risking something dreadful. Everything else is just marking time until I'm faced with the next big move."

"Yes," said Samara. "It is the risk, I guess. At least, that's part of it."

"And Draco," added Harry.

Samara shrugged. "He's always so sure of himself—"

"Even when he's dead wrong," spat Harry.

"Maybe," said Samara. "But you understand what I mean, don't you? You're a leader, Harry. I always seem to find myself in the middle of the crowd, and even if I want to go a different direction, I can't. I just freeze. Like tonight," she whispered. " I'm scared. You have faced Voldemort. I would have been so afraid, especially alone. I couldn't have done it."

"Ha! I wasn't afraid?" He shook his head. "I was terrified, every time. I remember sitting behind the gravestone. If I could have dug myself into the grave fast enough, I would have hidden there until it was all over. I knew I was going to die. I knew with every fiber of my being. I had no control over that. The only thing I had control over is how I would die—would it be cringing by the headstone or standing with my wand in my hand and once I realized what the choices were, it was easy. You would have done the same thing Samara."

"I don't know."

"I do. You were sorted into Gryffindor, weren't you?"

"Not with the Sorting Hat."

"Samara," He turned and grasped her by the shoulders. His green eyes intense. "Do you want to be in another house?" he asked.

"I want to be—just where I am." 

==

(A/N: I believe my computer problems are fixed--sort of-- We normally have five computers networked to allow me and my brother and sister to do school work on the Internet. We moved and at the moment have one computer on the Internet, but it does work. Yeah!)

**smiles**: You are number 10 reviewer, so here's the chapter as promised.

**ennui2**: Wow! Is that yahoo group awesome. I'm impressed. And very grateful. I was going to make a group when you suggested it, but you

are much better at it than I would be--Everyone please go visit this group at Yahoo. **The_Seers_Truth**

I know it's not a link. ennui put in her review of last chapter and it is messing up the html after it. I don't know why. Surprizingly, most of the people on the group are not the people who have reviewed. 

Parvati didn't poison herself as you see by the chapter you just read, but you were pretty close. I guess she's going as crazy as Ginny.lol 

**Silverfox1** I understand. Thanks for reading.

**Just Kidding Rowling:** Glad you are enjoying

**Trillium **Sorry for getting the name (Carman) wrong. Which myths are these? If I give you a link or even part of a link it messes up the HTML of the rest of this document, so just search google under Celtic goddess Carman.

You were wondering if I've read "Lord of the Flies"? No. Should I?

**Sky** Yes, I have the whole story written and some ideas for the sequel and who knows, maybe a third book. When you're dealing with prophesies you have to plan ahead. More Ginny/Ed coming. 

**The Elemental sorceress:** Glad you're happy--hope reading this made you happy today too.

**ennui2:** I don't think I can even begin to answer all of your questions. Why don't you putsome of them on the yahoo group and some of the other readers can consider them--If I answer them I'll give away too much of the story. Let's see, "Love" yes. "elixir" yes. "cunning eye" yes. Can't tell you what they are for yet. That's major in the next book. 

**Raven173** Itallics. It was a mistake. I didn't want to have to go back home to fix it, and make everyone wait for the update, but now that my computer is on the net again –(Well, not mine, my Dad's and it's much harder to get HTML) I'll re-post the chapter. Ahh--didn't think that much about the mice. You did realize they were people, right? Millicent just likes playing with them. That's something Voldemort can appreciate. If you have a cat, you'd understand. Anyone who wishes to add me to AIM let me know and I'll add you to my AOL or Yahoo. My buddy list is so short it's embarrassing. AIM and YM carman doogle

**Kemenran **You think Harry's going to solve this? Well OK, maybe—

THINGS TO DO:

1. Review Seers' Truth

2. Go visit this site. on yahoo groups The_Seers_Truth  
I'm carman doogle on the site. Lady Lestrange was already taken at yahoo.

3. Email all of your friends and tell them to check out the yahoo site because ennui worked very hard making this site and of course such loyalty should be rewarded--If only you knew how Valeriana Lestrange's loyalty was rewarded by Voldemort--coming soon--You would NOT delay.

--Lady Lestrange


	53. CH: 52 The Birth of a Nightmare

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS TRUTH

BY LADY LESTRANGE

Chapter 52

The Birth of a Nightmare

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE.

****

Birth of a Nightmare

By Lady Lestrange

When Ginny opened her eyes it was still dark, but the blankets were quietly jostling her awake. She started to creep downstairs, when she heard voices. There was a clink of glasses and the shuffle of furniture being rearranged. As she peered into the common room, she saw Samara attempting to clean up a completely trashed common room. Harry was talking to her. "OK," he said. "We got the spiders, and put Seemus back to bed and---------

What are we missing?"

"The keisel," said Samara.

"What the heck is a keisel?" asked Harry.

"Donno," said Samara, attempting to remove a stain from the sofa.

"I wonder what happened," thought Ginny. "The mess in the common room didn't look like it could be made by two people, especially two people like Samara and Harry. More importantly, how on Earth was she going to get through the Gryffindor Common Room to Slytherin before her Dark Mark started to burn? She didn't want to consider being trapped here with that thing on her arm. She felt her heartbeat increase just thinking about it."

Ginny heard a squeak on the boys' side steps, and glanced up to see Edward frowning into the Common Room too.

__

"Why haven't they called the house elves?" wondered Tom.

"House elves! That's it," thought Ginny. She and Edward would just need them a little sooner than the other students. Ginny motioned for Edward to go back up the stairs. He shook his head, no. Ginny shrugged and yawning she walked right out into the Common Room.

"What happened?" she asked looking around at the mess.

"Slytherins happened," said Harry shortly.

"You're never going to get this cleaned up. Why haven't you called the house elves?"

Samara and Harry looked at each other. "Didn't think of it," said Harry sheepishly.

"Well, let me borrow your Invisibility cloak and I'll go get some. There are always a few awake in the kitchen."

"I—ah—" began Harry.

"Draco has it," said Samara.

"Has what?" asked Ginny.

"Harry's invisibility cloak."

"Ohmygosh," breathed Ginny.

"but he can't use it," said Harry pulling the ripped piece of fabric from his robe pocket, and showing it to Ginny. "The spell has been broken."

"You destroyed it rather than letting Draco have it?" questioned Ginny.

"Oh no, said Harry. "I ripped this before. Actually a book in the restricted section took a bite out of it, but it will repairo."

Ginny nodded. "OK. I'll take the tunnel down to the kitchen."

"You hate the tunnel," said Harry and Samara together.

"I'll go," said Harry.

Shit. Now what was she going to do, thought Ginny.

__

"You're a Gryffindor," coached Tom. "Shouldn't you conquer your fears or something?"

"No, I—I want to," said Ginny. "I'm a Gryffindor. I need to learn to face my fears."

==

When Ginny got to the kitchen it was completely silent. She looked around, hoping upon hope that they hadn't all already left. "Tully? Winky? Dobby? I need your help," she whispered.

Snape strode out of an alcove as if he had just appeared from thin air and the kitchen was suddenly bustling with house elves. She looked around for a familiar face, but they looked so much alike—

"Dobby and Dobby's friends is not making trouble tonight," said one of the house elves.

"What are you doing here, Miss Weasley," said Snape coldly. "You were to meet the others in Slytherin Common Room. We just got your wretched brothers out of here."

"We thought they's was coming back," interrupted another of the house elves. "We was hiding."

Snape scowled at it. 

"Yes, Sir," said Ginny. "I understand, Sir, but there was a party in Gryffindor Common Room—"

If possible, his face grew even colder.

"Ah-- Samara and Harry are still cleaning the room. We can't get through without being seen. I need a few house elves to clean—"

"There are none available," said Snape, turning away. "And we are already late. He will be calling any moment—"

"But Edward—"

"Edward is resourceful. He will find a way—"

"But, Sir," Ginny interrupted, "I've already figured a way—"

"Fine," snapped Snape. "Do it. But hurry. Maximus!

An elderly elf popped in front of her. "Yes, Master."

"You know tonight's plan?"

"Yes, Master."

Snape nodded toward Ginny. "Do whatever she says." 

"Yes, Master."

"Obey immediately as if it were me speaking."

"Yes, Master."

"And if you feel the need to punish yourself, forestall that action until after tonight's events."

"Yes, Master."

"I don't have time for any foolishness. Use what little wit you have." Snape strode away in a flurry of robes.

"Mistress," said the house elf, wide-eyed. "Please hurry."

"I need--maybe five house-elves—"

Pop. Pop. The house elf had disappeared and re-appeared almost instantaneously with four other house elves. 

"How did you--" began Ginny.

"Mistress—" He covered his mouth with both hands, and then took them down and spoke again. "Maximus must not interrupt--but please hurry."

"OK. I need you to—no wait. Don't do anything until I finish telling you exactly what I need."

"Yes, Mistress."

The house elf shuffled impatiently as Ginny explained that she needed them to Pop her back to Gryffindor Common Room. She would then speak to Harry and Samara and pretend to go to bed. Then she needed—"Will you please stand still?" said Ginny and the house elf froze like a statue.

"Yes Mistress."

"I didn't mean to snap at you," said Ginny.

"Please continue, Mistress," urged the house elf. 

"OK, Then I need you and the others to Pop me and Edward to Slytherin Common Room while taking the mess out of Gryffindor Common Room. Don't worry about finishing cleaning Gryffindor Common Room now," she explained. "You can come back and do it later, after Samara and Harry go to bed, but Harry and Samara must not know—"

"Yes, Mistress," said Maximus. "Maximus understands about stealth. Permission to touch, Mistress, please?"

"Of course, I—"

Pop!

Ginny arrived back in Gryffindor Common Room in a flash that reminded her of Colin Creevy's camera. She covered her eyes for a moment, seeing spots, and when she looked up, the room was alive with house elves popping in and out of the Common Room, cleaning frantically—surely there were more than five. 

"Well," Ginny told Harry and Samara. "It looks like Gryffindor Common Room will be cleaned in no time. I'm going back to bed. You should too."

Yawning, Samara headed up the stairs.

Ginny saw Edward Pop from the stair well just before Harry Potter turned to go up it.

"I hope we got everything," muttered Harry. "I can't believe those Slytherins! Do you know what they did? Ginny was treated to a vivid explanation that was taking entirely too long. Snape had said to hurry. The house elves practically had the common room cleaned, and she was standing on the landing that separated the boys' dorm from the girls' dorm with Harry Potter.

__

"Kiss him goodnight already," said Tom, "and let's go!" 

Ginny felt her face growing warm with a blush. Harry would wonder what she was thinking of that made her blush—And she blushed even more.

__

Tom chuckled.

She decided Tom was right. It was going to take Harry forever to kiss her, and that was obviously what he wanted to do. She leaned close to him, and he stopped talking about the Slytherins long enough to notice how near she was. He touched her cheek and then let his hand slip under her hair, as he pulled her in close to him. His lips touched hers, gently at first, and then he wrapped his arms completely around her, molding his body to hers and--.

The sudden fiery pain stabbed through her left arm, and she tightened her grip on him, nearly crying out with the pain of the Dark Mark, but Harry didn't seem to notice. He had pulled away from her, clutching his scar.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, holding his head. "Damn Voldemort!"

Ginny didn't trust herself to speak. If she took her gritted teeth apart, she was quite certain, that she would scream. She wanted to run—somewhere—She prayed the house elf had waited for her in her room. She squeezed Harry's hand sympathetically and then turned and sprinted for her room.

__

"Go!" urged Tom.

As she entered her room, she saw the elderly house elf tucking a sleeping Samara into bed. Whimpering, she reached immediately for the house elf, but he side stepped her, picking up her winter cloak which she had forgotten, and draping it over Ginny's shoulders. 

He held out his hand, and as soon as Ginny's fingers touched his, she disapparated. The apparation felt different. It felt open and empty, like a vast precipice was stretching before her. When the apparition ended, the feeling of the void did not go away. She was not in Slytherin Common Room. She was on an endless barren rock—and on another island further out to sea stood a great and menacing castle--Azkaban.

The house elf beside her was shaking from head to foot.

"What's wrong?" Ginny wondered aloud**. **"Maximus?"

"Hogwart's wards," said Snape. "It disrupts even house elf magic, and the place we are going will not allow renewal. Go! Snape told the house elf. Restore your magic and come back to us here—We will be no longer than an hour.

"Thank you, Master," said the house elf, attempting to bow in a dignified manner.

"Go!" Snape said again, and with a Pop, the house elf was gone.

As Ginny absently rubbed her still stinging Dark Mark she noticed that not all of the wizards were allowing their house elves to disapparate, but most of them were. She assumed that it was more because the wizards wanted the house elf magic intact before they tried to apparate them off of the island, not for any care of the house elf.

Edward caught her hands. "I was worried—" he said. "When you didn't come to the Slytherin Common Room—Professor Snape has a lot of confidence in that house elf—"

"Apparently, it's well placed," Ginny said looking around. The island they were on was not far from Askaban. A low gray mist hung over the water and the biting wind blew the sea into white caps. It was cold. Ginny wrapped her heavy cloak tighter around herself, and was glad Maximus had remembered it for her. Boats were lined up along the shoreline, but no one was getting into them yet. They were milling around the island waiting—waiting Ginny realized for Voldemort's order.

She saw him talking to two other Death Eaters. One she was sure was Lucius. She could tell by the way he moved, like a pale, sleek cat. The other, she wasn't sure—

It seemed that he could feel her eyes on him, because as he turned and looked across the crowd to her. She felt her Mark tingle warmly, at their contact. He spoke softly to one of the Death Eaters with him, and then turned away. Ginny couldn't help thinking that his shoulder looked strangely empty without the massive snake, Nagini draped over it.

"Grandmother!" Edward saw her first and clasped her hand in his, kissing it.

"Good evening, Edward. Ethan. Virginia. Severus. The Lord Voldemort requests that families stay together to retrieve those who have been lost to us," said Carman. "Come. We will join Narcissa and Lucius and Draco." She turned and expecting them to follow, had already started to walk back to the Malfoys 

__

"Go with them, Ginny Love," urged Tom.

Ginny hesitated confused. "She wasn't part of their family." 

Carman turned. "Come, child," she ordered. "You will stay with us. Severus has enough work to do."

Ginny looked helplessly at Snape, but with a swirl of robes, he was already gone, striding to the front of the group and Voldemort. 

Voldemort raised his hands for quiet and there was no longer any time to talk. 

Using the **Sonorus** Spell, he addressed the crowd. "Our numbers are swelling. Witches and wizards are swarming to our cause anxious to save the world they know, but some cannot come. They are imprisoned. Unjustly imprisoned because they dared to try to right a wrong that was made fifteen hundred years ago. They are waiting. They have been waiting for a long time. I know that you ache to pay homage to me, to come to me, to touch my robes, because you are mine, but I will allow them to wait no longer. They shall not wait for petty rituals that can be accomplished without the wait. Are we united in the Mark?"

A cheer went up from the crowd.

Today, you will learn a new power of your Mark—the power of our Unity. Open yourselves up to me like each of you have done when you knelt and kissed my robe. Acknowledge that you no longer belong to yourself-- You belong—to the cause—to a greater good for the wizarding community--to me. And for that cause, allow a handful, only a handful of your power to pour through the Mark to me.

A great hush fell over the crowd and Ginny could feel the transfer of magic happening all around her. Little murmurs of amazement filled the air, and Ginny could sense some of the crowd's excitement, but what was happening frightened her. She wasn't sure why—She frowned.

__

"Remind you of the diary?" Tom wondered.

"Yes!" said Ginny. "It's like he's pulling away a part of them—"

__

"It's not **like** anything, Ginny Love. That's exactly what he is doing."

She closed herself off, sucking her magic close to her. She resisted the urge to put up a ward.

"But some of you resist," Voldemort continued blandly. "I know who you are." 

Ginny had the feeling that she had just been kicked hard in the stomach. All of the air blew out of her lungs and she clutched her middle. When she looked up, she realized she hadn't been the only one to get this magical chastisement. Her eyes met Draco Malfoy's across the expanse. He too was clutching his stomach, and Alvin Nott. She counted one, two, seven, ten, maybe twelve other Death Eaters she didn't know—were clutching their stomachs. Twelve out of sixty or seventy Death Eaters.

__

Hard to tell for sure who they are, in their identical robes, thought Tom.

And then, Draco looked away. His mother had gripped his shoulder, and was whispering furiously to him. He shrugged her off.

Voldemort's voice rose again with the **sonorus** charm. Today, you will see and feel exactly what we are fighting to prevent. Once this island was a thriving magical community. Today it is dead. It is a vortex that sucks the magic out of the very rocks of the Earth! This is what muggles have done to our world. This is why muggles must die. I wouldn't send any of you in there alone, and yet our friends and family have lived—no existed in this hell for years—some of them have suffered for fourteen years." His voice dropped out of the **sonorus** charm, and yet it was so quiet, the crowd was so attentive, they heard him still, "It's time to bring them home." He turned and searched the faces of his Death Eaters. "Severus!" he said.

"Here, my Lord," replied Snape. As he came forward., Voldemort reached down and grasped his arm. He held their clasped arms high, and spoke with **Sonorus**. "Choose someone that you would walk into hell with—because that is where we are going!" He turned and stepped into one of the boats.

The Death Eaters came in pairs or threesomes. Edward took Ginny's hand, but Carman interrupted. "No," she said, stepping into the boat with her, and pushing off from the rock. "Go with Ethan."

"Yes, Grandmother," said Edward releasing her to Carman.

"Oh, no. No. No. No. This wasn't what I wanted to do—" thought Ginny, but the force of the current immediately began to suck the boat toward Azkaban. It was easy to see how they would get there, but not as easy to see how they would get back.

__

"You know there is no magic on Azkaban, Ginny Love. The only magic we will be able to feel is hers. That is why He said to go in pairs—"

"I don't want to feel her magic," thought Ginny.

__

"Maybe she wants to feel ours."

"That's your fault, Tom."

__

"Probably. I take full responsibility."

"What good does that do?"

__

"None, but I thought you'd like it—it sounded so-o Gryffindor."

"Go away, Tom."

__

"No. Absolutely not." Ginny could feel Tom's excitement as well as some trepidation. 

"Are you the Prophecy child?" asked Carman, taking Ginny's hand in her own. 

Ginny could feel the soft crackling of the magic between them. She resisted the urge to touch it. It was a dark thing—with a strange attraction—like picking a scab.

"No—I don't know—I don't think so," replied Ginny.

Carman laughed. "Just the answer I expected from a Weasley," she said. "My Edward thinks that you are—why is that?"

"You should ask Edward." Said Ginny.

Carman's tone grew hard, the magic in her hand sharp as a razor, cutting straight through Ginny's hand—through bone and muscle and tendons." Ginny sucked in her breath with a little cry of pain and tried to pull her hand away, but Carman held her in an iron grip. "I asked you," she said with a smile on her lips. 

Ginny looked down at her hand.

"Oh there's no blood, dear. Blood would be so messy—don't you think? I tried to teach Ethan that, but he's never had the perseverance to master it. Edward, on the other hand—well, you know Edward. You have shared magic with him."

Ginny felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. "Tom? How does she know that?" 

__

"I don't think she does," Tom replied. "I think she's guessing. I could be wrong—"

"Now, my question. Why does Edward think you are the prophecy child?"

__

"Go ahead," Tom thought. "Tell her what you want to, but don't let her think I'm still with you. She'll tell Voldemort."

"I had a diary—" began Ginny.

"I know of it," said Carman.

"I don't have much left of what he was," said Ginny, "Except, the parseltongue." Ginny licked her lips and tasted the salt of the sea on them--salt and magic. It had a comforting familiarity and gave her courage. "I was sorted into Gryffindor, but what remains of Him in me might make it hard for me to be sorted now if I had to."

"Ahh—Fate put Ravenclaw brains in your head and Gryffindor bravery in your heart-

Slytherin ambition, cunning and guile, yet Hufflepuff love is his dread. Tell me, do you love Edward?"

"I—no," said Ginny, realizing that Carman was searching for dangers to her and her family—dangers which might be inherint if she was truly the prophecy child. More than once she had gone over these facts herself. How could she be the prophecy child? She came to Hogwarts in the wrong year. She wasn't muggle born. And yet if it wasn't her, who was it?

"Do you love—anyone?" Carman asked.

Ginny thought it an exceeding personal question for someone she had just met to ask her, but if she had any reservations, she kept her mouth shut. The throbbing still aching in her hand reminded her, this was not a woman to be triffled with.

The first thought into her mind, was Tom—his sardonic humor, his advice. She ached for him. She wanted so badly to fulfill the promise she had made in first year, a promise to restore him to life—escape the diary. She would give her life for him. In a way, she already had--

__

Tom, himself, broke into her thoughts, "Me?: 

__

For just a moment she realized that he was shaken to the core of his being, and then the notion was gone. "You know this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to escape the diary." Tom quipped.

But she loved others too—her parents, her brothers, she would give her life for them too. Hermione. And, of course, Harry. Her long ago crush invaded her thoughts. He had the same soft black hair and ready smile which still sent a rush of heat though her, Yes. She loved him too.

__

"Don't even attempt to explain this line of reasoning to Carman," said Tom dryly. "There is no point in both of us being sick."

A smile brushed her lips.

"I see you are thinking of someone," said Carman, Her eyes narrowed, trying to discern what the threat would be. "Harry Potter?" she guessed.

Ginny nodded, keeping Tom's council of not going into details with Carman.

Carman glanced at the rapidly approaching shoreline, and gripped Ginny's hands tighter, her eyes glittering under the heavy lids. "I would tell you to be ready," she said softly, "But nothing will prepare you for Azkaban." Abruptly, Carman began to pour her magic through her.

The boat touched the rock at the base of Azkaban and conversation ceased. Even insulated by Carman's magic, a huge cloud of emptiness engulfed her, swallowed her whole, and she sank into the darkness like a stone. When she awoke, Carman was holding her in her arms and dripping handfuls of the sea water onto her face. She was still covered with Carman's magic. Both Ethan and Edward were still passed out in their boat. They weren't the only ones. At least half of the Death Eaters were totally incapacitated by the lack of magic.

"It's awful," Ginny muttered. "How do people live here?"

"They don't," said Carman, pulling Ginny to her feet. "Let's see if we can rouse my grandsons. They won't want to miss all the fun."

"What should I do?"

"You'll think of something," said Carman with a wink.

"Tom? Ginny couldn't quite get over that this woman was Edward's grandmother. She didn't act like a grandmother. What should I do, Tom?" 

__

"As the lady said, you'll think of something—" 

Carman shook Ethan gently and then with more vigor. Finally she stepped into the fridgid seawater and she drew her wand With obvious concentration she said, ____tickling spell" It seemed to take a moment to work, but after a few seconds, Ethan was batting away imaginary hands, and soon he was awake.

Edward, Ginny decided to tickle the muggle way. It was easier than trying to draw a spell through a wand.

Once most of the Death Eaters were awake, the group began the climb to the castle. Voldemort expected that when they arrived the gates would be opened welcomingly, by Rookwood, keeper of the dementers. The gates were closed, and locked.

"Marshall!" called Voldemort. "Remove this impediment."

Marshall Avery hurried forward, an assortment of locks and keys and enchantments in his hand. Some of the objects were decidedly muggle; others were glowing with strange magics that Ginny had never seen before. Some were combinations of the two. It took only a few minutes to find the key, and Voldemort threw open the door. The room was swarming with dementers.

****

"Expecto Patronus!" shouted Avery, backing up as the spell failed to work in the Azkaban atmosphere, but Rookwood had already begun the binding charm that secured them in Pandora's box.

Evil and shadows return from whence you came

Pandora's box your darkness does claim

Return to your prison and there be held

Only to be released by Chaos' child

A Child born of hatred to set you free

To chase the souls of dreams that will never be

"Why was this binding not done?" shouted Voldemort.

"Perhaps you're not giving the orders here," said a sugary sweet voice. It belonged to an auror.

Standing inside of the vestibule were three aurors, they had been discussing security with Rookwood, a part of which was the release of dementers on regular intervals. All three turned, wands drawn, but by the time the spells decided to launch themselves, in the oppressive Azkaban air, the Death Eaters were already upon them. 

"Avada—"began Voldemort, but Avery launched himself at the auror. He was followed by a dozen other Death Eaters.

With sheer strength of numbers, the aurors were defeated. Just before the last one died , Voldemort reached for him. He held the dying man for just a moment, and then dropped him unceremoniously on the stony entrance hall.

"They were warned," Voldemort announced. "They didn't believe it, but they were warned."

"Tom?" wondered Ginny. "Did he just read that man's mind?"

__

"Occlumency," said Tom. "Mind reading is such a muggle term."

"That's like what Pansy does," said Ginny.

__

"No," said Tom. "Telepathy presupposes that both parties agree to the communication. Occlumency does not."

Ginny shivered.

All of the dementers had been rounded up and put into Pandora's box . Rookwood stood at the doorway. Fawning and bowing, he assured Voldemort that no one could have warned the aurors. He swore that no one from his office even knew about this little night time visit. The aurors had been a last minute surprise trip, Rookwood told them.

"You are lying," said Voldemort coldly.

"OK, OK, you're right," blurted Rookwood, sweat beading on his brow, "But I thought they would come earlier. I thought I'd be rid of them before you arrived, and no harm done. Well," he laughed hesitantly. "No harm done anyway, is there?"

"Only to them," Voldemort said gesturing to the aurors. "So far—" Voldemort's nostrils flared "We have a spy," he said softy. "These aurors were warned., and even if the leakage of our plans caused no harm, the spy must be found and punished.

He surveyed the Death Eaters with narrowed eyes. His gaze resting on several of them a little longer than others. His nostrils were flared as if he could smell the scent of guilt.

"Mcnair!"

"Yes, Master."

"Find three Death Eaters who knew these blokes enough to be able to impersonate them." Voldemort gave one of the dead aurors a kick, turning her over and revealing a woman's face. "A stroke of luck," Voldemort said, "the Scimgoeur's. They were a husband and wife team I believe. Prepare the bodies to be used for polyjuice."

Mcnair blanched. "But they're wizarding folk—we're not—creamating them?"

"They have a more pressing use," said Voldemort. He didn't take his eyes from Mcnair. "They are not so different than magical creatures, Walden," Voldemort said gently. "They do not deserve to rest just yet." Voldemort reached forward and squeezed Walden Mcnair's shoulder. "Perhaps you should take the place of the other auror," suggested Voldemort.

"I have commitments! I would be missed, sir at Magical Creatures."

"Of course you would," said Voldemort blandly. "That's because you do your job so well. I would miss you too if you ceased to do your job well—"

"Yes, Master." 

"I'll attend to it right away, Master."

"Perhaps Mulciber if he still has his finisse with the imperio curse—and someone else from this wretched place. They will not have to account for their whereabouts to anyone."

"Yes, Master. Right away, Master."

"Good. Let's go," he said marching boldly into the heart of the castle. They traveled in small groups, looking for their own relatives and unlocking the doors as they went.

"NO, that's not it," said Marshall, explaining once again how to open the door with the hand held device that released it. "It's a puzzle, see?" said Marshall. "It's scrambled. If you put it back together correctly, you will release the lock."

"Just like the Ravenclaw puzzles," commented Edward. "The Ravenclaws say nobody plays with them after first and second year

"OH, I know what those are, " said Ginny. "Samara went on and on about them when she visited Ravenclaw. She loved them. She said she never saw objects with auras. She wondered how they were made. Every piece looks exactly the same, right?"

"Yes," said Edward. "You have to feel the magic of the pieces to put them in the correct place. Here, where there is no magic, I wonder how that would work."

"Oh there could be magic contained in the pieces," said Carman. "It's in such a tiny amount, I doubt it would make a difference, Edward."

"So Samara played with those silly Ravenclaw puzzles?" wondered Edward.

"Yes," said Ginny. "She said they were fascinating.."

Really? Drawled a bored voice.

"Hey Draco! Did you have a nice sleep?" asked Edward. 

"I did not faint," said Draco.

Ethan smirked at him. 

Draco glanced behind him at Vincent and Gregory who stepped up next to them.

"Boys," said Carman softly, and the tension immediately went out of the situation.

They reached the cells—they were dark dank places of horror. House elves were busily cleaning up supper dishes, popping in and out of the cells. They did not, however, clean the cells. It was supposed to be a place of punishment, and house elves knew intimately what punishments should look like. The house elves themselves belonged to the Ministy and were answerable to the Ministry. They wore the Ministry crest on the towel-like layers of cloth that covered them. 

Like in Hogwarts, House elf apparation within the wards was no problem, but apparating through it was a different thing. Even for the house elves. It was difficult, but not impossible, and of course, no one cared if a few of the house elves died trying to apparate through it. Voldemort had actually lost six of his own trying to get the apparation just right before sending any of his Death Eaters through to Azkaban with the house elves. They understood what was required of them now. They only had to get the Death Eaters off of the island. One trip through the wards was not usually too much for them.

"Valeriana!" whispered Narcissa. "Sister!" and the little group became silent. Lucius moved back a step with Draco, allowing Carman to step closer to the cell. Narcissa gripped her sister's hand through the bars as Marshall struggled to open her cell.

"This one's a bit more complecated," he said. "You must have given them more trouble than most—Valeriana."

"Of course," Valeriana said, her voice low and rasping.

Ginny couldn't take her eyes off of the woman. She was so different from Carman and yet so much the same. Ginny could see the resemblance in the facial features, especially her dark, heavy lidded eyes, but everything else was different. Narcissa and Carman were both slender, fragile looking women, although their power as witches belayed that information. Valeriana on the other hand, must have taken after her father. She was tall and more powerfully built. She was thin to the point of gauntness and yet there was a preditor air about her—hungry—in more ways than one. She looked like a sleek panther, pacing her cage until she took Narcissa's hand,then she softened, but only slightly, as if she expected something to dive out of the shadows and drive hope away—dementers!" thought Ginny. "That's what gave her that haunted look. 

Her fingers played over Narcissa's for several moments while Marshall struggled with the lock. Then she reached her other hand through the bars to Carman. Ginny realized that she was seeking the residual magic that was in her mother's and sister's hands. At last, the lock clicked open and for just a moment, pure glee shown on Valeriana's face, and then she recovered herself, reached forward pushed the door open and walked sedately out into the group of Death Eaters. Although her eyes glittered with a mad light, she looked more sane than any of the other released prisoners. Her hands were filthy, but relatively clean, in comparision with the other prisoners. And although the rest of her body was dirty, and her hair was combed—or at least pulled back in a crooked plait. She surveyed the group, her eyes resting on Ginny for more than a moment. Her eyes darted to Narcissa and Lucius and Draco and then back to Ginny again, her face a mass of confusion. "She's not—yours—sister?"

Draco choked and Lucius sucked in his breath. "No!" shouted Narcissa, and then more sedately she added, "our girl child—is no more."

"Girl child?" thought Ginny. "Draco had a sister? Girl child? What did that mean? Why had Narcissa not called the little witch by her name." 

__

"Because," Tom's thought was hesitant. "She was a squib. Slytherins don't say it—"

"But—" began Ginny amazed.

"Watch Valeriana," Tom ordered, drawing back from her.

Valeriana's eyes had found the twins. Here she at last loosed the tight hold that she had on her dignity, shaking with emotion she threw her arms around them both at the same time . They didn't look like they knew what to do with this sudden display of emotion. She buried her face in their hair taking long deep breaths—Which one? She murmured. Then she looked into Ethan's eyes. "You," she said. "You put the Dark Mark in the air on September first—my Ethan—I felt your magic--and my Edward." They stood, uncomfortable in her embrace.

Ginny was spell bound. This woman had not seen her children for years, and yet she knew the twins apart. A tiny part of her wondered why her own mother always mixed up Fred and George.

After a moment Valeriana backed up looking around nervously. Ginny wasn't sure if she was looking for dementers or she was just edgy. Ginny, Draco and Lucius stood a little apart, not speaking and avoiding eye contact.

Then Ginny realized for whom she was looking. As her eyes lit on Voldemort, she seemed transformed. 

"Valeriana," The Dark Lord said softly, and she disentangled herself from her family, turning slowly, her eyes locked on his, she sank to her knees in front of him. "We were faithful, Master," she said. "Desmond and I—Desmond?"

"I know," he said. "You and your husband were faithful, and great rewards will be yours." 

"Desmond—is he alive?"

"He is alive."

She would have spoken again, but he held up his hand for her silence. "Think of what reward you want to be yours," he said. "You do not have to tell me your wishes now. Think about it."

"I have thought about it my Lord. It is all I have thought about—"

He turned her palm upright in his own hand and traced the furrows there. "What happened here?" he asked, looking at the deep scars etched into her hands.

"Sometimes when the dementers—Sometimes, I failed." She licked her lips furtively, looking at the ground. "I gave in to the despair. I thought you had abandoned us," she whispered, and then the words came in a rush. " I knew such thoughts were dangerous. It was wrong—punishable—but I had no magic—No way to repair--my broken dreams—"

"I see," said Lord Voldemort, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small jar of silvery ointment. He put two of his own fingers into the jar and pulled out a bit of it and spread it carefully on her hands. The scars disappeared immediately. "You know now, if I could have come sooner, I would have."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"You are forgiven," He said, drawing a finger down the side of her cheek.

He looked at her for another moment, as if debating whether to speak again, then he turned and walked down the corridor, greeting other newly freed Death Eaters. 

They gathered at the shoreline and waited for the house elves to Pop them outside of the Azakaban wards. A cold wind was blowing off of the ocean, making Ginny shiver, but Valeriana stood unheeding in the frigid spray. After a moment she walked into the water. When she was knee deep, she raised her hands and attempted to call the elementals. It was a painstaking business, and Ginny was uncertain whether or not Valeriana actually managed to do it until a steady stream of sparks began issuing from her finger tips, hissing as they fell into the cold water.

The house elves began to arrive on the shore. One of them, a large, misshapen house elf waded out, up to his neck in the cold water. "Mistress," he croaked, and Valeriana turned, showering him with sparks and hot water. "What is it, creature?" she snapped, her dark hooded eyes filled with anger at being interrupted, the magic whipping around her filling her with a confidence she didn't have a moment ago.

"Kreature comes to take Mistress away from here. Mistress must go to the Snow Castle," he said, hesitantly holding out his hand. "Mistress must, touch Kreature.

She recoiled.

"Valeriana," said Carman. "The wards do not allow prisoners to leave. Your magical essese is recognized by the ward. The creature's magic will protect you. Isn't that what house elves do? Protect and serve their masters?"

"I have to touch it?" asked Valeriana, showering sparks which blew in the wind and igniting briefly and then fizzling into nothingness on the barren rock of Azkaban. 

Narcissa pulled a wand from her robe and handed it to her sister. "I was going to wait to give it to you," she said, brushing the sparks which were smoldering on her robe. "But I think you need it already."

Valeriana took the wand carefully, as if it were a treasure. As she wrapped her hand around it, she smiled. "How can this be?" she said. "Mine was broken—Wait—it's Laurel's, isn't it?" 

"Yes," said Narcissa. "I had it shortened by an inch—"

Valeriana turned, waded back into the frigid water.

"Mistress?" The house elf was still waiting for Valeriana to touch it and apparate.

She looked at the house elf and then she looked around the shoreline. Apparently Valeriana was not the only one with an abhorrence of touching house elves. A number of the freed Death Eaters and even some of those who had come willingly, were hesitant to touch the house elves.

Voldemort, talking with Snape, did not seem to be aware of a problem.

"Valeriana?" said Carman. 

She frowned at Carman and then seemed to gather the tiny remnants of magic around herself. She stood a little taller, watching the indecision play on her fellow Death Eater's faces. Magic once again whipped all around her, bits of fire, and wind and water. How she had managed to pull anything from this desert's edge was a mystery to Ginny, even standing knee deep in the ocean. Suddenly Valeriana raised her hands above her head and shouted. "I told you he would come for us!"

Murmurs of agreement met her statement.

"Today, He has come for us!"

Some of the freed Death Eaters turned to listen to her.

"He has come at last," she continued. "I will not fail him. Who is with me?" 

While all eyes were on her, she took several steps out of the water and turned to Kreature and spoke in a loud voice. "Take me where the Dark Lord wishes, creature," she said holding out her hand, and Pop! They were gone.

It was like she had opened a doorway. The house elves began apparating the wizards and witches off of Azkaban island.

Ginny turned to find Maximus and a group of house elves at her elbow. "Maximus will take Mistress to the Snow Castle," he said. "All students go now."

Ethan and Edward exchanged excited glances.

"We aren't going back to Hogwarts?" asked Ginny.

"Maximus will take Mistress to the Snow Castle," Maximus repeated.

Ginny glanced at Snape who was still talking with several adult Death Eaters, and she nodded. "I don't suppose that was a request," she muttered as she touched Maximus' hand. 

"No, mistress."

Pop!

==

When they got to the Snow Castle, it was a party atmosphere. The house elves were doing what they did best—cooking and serving food.

Ginny wanted nothing more than to go back to Hogwarts and go to sleep.

__

"Not in a party mood, Ginny Love?"

"No Tom."

Edward sneaked up behind her and surprised her by dropping snow down her back. She shrieked and pushed him away when he tried to make up by kissing her. "Come outside with us," he begged, wind blowing his hair and robes madly around him. He leaned in to kiss her again, but his icy wet robe whipped around both of them, stinging, and flecks of ice fell from his hair onto her face.

"Where's your wand?" asked Ginny. 

"I don't need a wand," Edward insisted.

"You either need a wand or a snowblower," retorted Ginny.

Edward looked at her blankly.

__

"What's a snowblower?" asked Tom.

Muggle invention. My dad had one once. It didn't work.

"Come on, Ginny. Come outside. You can see the Aurora. It's beautiful," said Gloria. 

"It's freezing," said Ginny.

"Not a problem," said Ethan showering them with sparks.

"Quit it, Ethan, if you set his carpet on fire, He'll kill us," spat Edward.

"Not us," said Gloria, planting a finger in the center of Ethan's chest. "Just you."

They finally convinced Ginny to come outside with them and she met with some of the students from Drumstrang including the ones she had brought to him. She found out they were all actually second year students. They had a rollicking good snowball battle, using the air elemental to cause the snowballs to speed up or slow down erratically, but Ethan kept accidentally melting them. When they were soaking wet, and seriously silly with wandless magic they decided to go back into the Castle.

"Where's Hilda?" asked Ginny, remembering that she had brought nine people out of Drumstrang, and she now only saw eight.

"Avada," said _Maura_softly.

"No," said Ginny, stopping in her tracks.

Maura nodded. "He had asked us all if we were willing to serve him. When he asked Hilda, she also said yes, but He said, "You're lying. I have no use for you. Avada Kadara!"

Ginny stared open-mouthed.

__

"Shocked, Ginny Love? Have you forgotten who we are dealing with here? I hope you had fun," Tom continued. "Playtime is over."

"What?"

Maximus had just popped into their midst. "Master says: 'Get those bloody brats in here before He blames me for their absence.' Young ones will hurry."

Amid rapid cleaning and drying spells, the group of teenagers entered the marble floored Hall of the Snow Castle.

Lord Voldemort had gathered all of the newly released Death Eaters around him in the center of the room.

"Azkaban is ours," he said.

"I know to some of you, it seems to be a remote and useless piece of rock. Why would we want it? Soon. Soon you will understand. I cannot tell you yet, although I long to share this additional victory with you. We have allies, my friends. Powerful allies. And although they are powerful, no live creature would want to live near these allies." He chuckled softly. "So now, we have a place for them. But I shall not tell you, because we have a spy among us."

His eyes traveled the expanse of the room, resting on some, passing over others. No one was safe.

"But, I shall not spoil this festive occasion. We do have some unpleasant business that needs to be taken care of though—Most of those at Azkaban have at least some semblance of their minds intact. There are three, however, that need our assisstance. The first of them is, Desmond Lestrange. Voldemort nodded to the Death Eaters at his side who brought a crumpled, babbling form of a man out to the center of the circle. This is your decision, Voldemort told Valeriana, yours and your sons. I do not think Desmond had any other relatives that are here tonight, does he? 

Silence greeted his question.

"Very well, then. The current wizarding law requires that you confine such wizards as this to St. Mongo's Hospital for Magical Maladies until such time as their death or a cure is found. What do you say, Valeriana Lestrange? What do you think Desmond would want?"

"Master, he has been confined for the past fourteen years," she said, tears creeping into her eyes. She dashed them away.

Voldemort nodded. "Do you want to release him to the Elements, or shall I?"

"Master, please. He would be honored if you would—"

Voldemort pulled his wand.

"Wait!" Valeriana looked at her husband, curled in a twitching fetal ball in the center of the room. "He's a wizard," she said softly. "He should die with magic in his hands."

Voldemort nodded. 

Valeriana went to her husband in the center of the room, and took his hand. "Desmond? Des—It's Valeriana." His head lolled to one side, and spittle had collected in the corner of his mouth. His eyes stared sightlessly ahead. "Des—" She wiped the drool from his mouth, and kissed him gently on the cheek. He gave no response. She wrapped her arms around him putting herself in a dangerous position with regards to Voldemort's possible spell. Everyone in the room could feel the vibrations from the massive amount of Elemental magic she was pulling through him. A faint smile crossed his face. In that instant, the room exploded with green light.

****

Avada Kadavra!

Valeriana laid his body gently on the floor. It seemed to have relaxed a little in death, his arms loosely at his sides instead of curled in upon himself. Valeriana took a step back, and raised her wand. **"Incendio!"** she said.

The fire was an instant explosion. Ginny had never seen such a strong **Incendio**. She didn't know you could do it like that. In less than 30 seconds, Desmond Lestrange's body was a pile of ash, cremated in the wizard way, and unusable for any Dark purpose.

Ginny felt sick.

__

"Have you never seen someone die, Ginny Love?"

"Only—Only in the Chamber, thought Ginny.

__

"Ah—and you could pretend that the clone that died really wasn't a person."

"I guess so."

__

"You're not going to make much of a Death Eater, Ginny Love."

"I didn't want to be a Death Eater. I just wanted to save you, Tom."

__

"You can avoid this if you really want to," said Tom.

"How? I don't think he'll let me leave--"

__

"You could allow me to take care of things here, and you could retreat to some pleasant memory."

"Let you take me over?"

__

"I—we don't have to call it that."

"What would you call it?" asked Ginny incensed.

__

"Helping you," said Tom.

"Forget it."

__

"I'm not going to forget it."

Ginny suffered through two more deaths. She wished Edward could be with her. She felt lost and out of place, but Edward was with his mother and Ethan in the center of the circle.

Voldemort was announcing the names of all of the freed Death Eatersa and their families. Valeriana Ethan and Edward Lestrange, are reunited with their mother," said Voldemort. He paused to allow the boys to come to him and their mother. Elizabeth Snood united with her husband, Charles."

Ginny wondered whether Gloria was related to the newly freed Charles Snood.

__

"Undoubtedly," Tom surmised. "Probably cousin or uncle."

Voldemort continued naming Death Eaters and their relatives. Several Drumstrang students stood in the center with their parents and two Beaubaxtons students. 

And now, the circle is nearly full. He traveled around the circle speaking occasionally to the Death Eaters. When he came to Ginny, he asked, "Have you found my emerald yet?"

"No, Master."

He frowned. "Look harder," he demanded. His eyes narrowed. I expect you will have found it by next time you come to me."

"But, master I don't understand the poem," Ginny burst out.

"Do you plan to end everyone of our little get togethers with **Crucio**?" he asked her.

She paled. "Please—"

"Begging does not effect my decision," he said, drawing his finger along her cheek.

She closed her mouth and stood shaking with fear, thinking it took him a thousand years of looking and He hadn't found it!

He chuckled softly. "No, I haven't found it," he said, "But when I realized it had to be found by a red-haired parselmouth," He took a lock of her hair in his fingers as he spoke. " I realized I wasn't the right person to find it. You, on the other hand, are." He snaked the fingers of his other hand under the sleeve of her robe and brushed his finger against her Dark Mark. "Remember," he said, "It is your choice whether this Mark brings you pleasure or pain." The Mark tingled for a long time after his touch.

When he had finished his trip around the circle, he announced, " I have a treat. I was going to wait to share it with you, but since we are only missing one in this circle now, I think we should complete it. You know that I can call you by the Dark Mark. I can make the pain nearly unbearable, but some wizards through stupidity or force of will can resist it for a while. I've always been mindful of when I call for those of you who have businesses that take you in the public eye or those of you who are students. I have been considerate, but some have still resisted. Resisting the call is no longer a choice. When you chose this Mark, you chose to suffer, and if necessary die for the cause. You made a binding wizarding promise. You have before you tonight those who have suffered for their faithfulness. They didn't plead insanity, or imperious or any other excuse." There was a slight shuffling of the circle as some of the Death Eaters avoided the Dark Lord's eye, but he ignored them and continued speaking. "These my faithful ones, went to Azkaban! I think you deserve to take your revenge on the one who put so many of you there.

****

Mors Mordre!

Ginny sucked in her breath and clutched her arm. What did he want from them?

"You now all feel the Mark. This is mildly painful. It gets your attention and makes you want to come to me, so that you can feel the release—The pain abruptly stopped.

****

Mors Mordre Igor Karkarov!

Karkarov the traitor is now feeling twice the pain that you just felt. 

****

Mors Mordre Igor Karkarov! Ten times the pain that you just felt. If left this way, Igor will either disapparate and come to me or he will attempt to tear off his arm, but there is no point in my making him suffer. I want him here. I have a new spell. I will not just call him. I will summon him.

****

Mors Mordre Accio Igor Karkarov! Voldemort began counting, "One, two, three, four—"

Igor Karkarov appeared in their midst. His arm was on fire like a flaming torch.

Voldemort pronounced the Flame Freezing charm and smiled. "Hello Karkarov."

He looked around in a panic. He didn't move. He didn't speak. He cradled his charred and ruined arm in front of him, a sob caught in his throat.

"Come, Come, Karkarov. Have your forgotten your manners so soon?"

"My Lord—" he began to crawl on one hand and his knees toward Voldemort to kiss his robes. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I'm sorry."

"Don't tell me." said Voldemort. Tell these my faithful, just released from Azkaban.

Karkarov went even whiter and whimpered.

Voldemort spat the names of those Karkarov had turned over to the Ministry.

Dolohov

Travers

McKinnon

Mulciber 

Rookwood

Snape

Evan Rosier is dead, but his daughter is alive. Step forward dear. Ginny saw the little girl from Drumstrang with the adder draped over her shoulder—Maura Rosier.

Voldemort hissed, telling the snake how beautiful it was, and then he turned back to Karkarov who was openly sobbing. "Azkaban. I couldn't go there. I just couldn't. There was no other way for me to escape. I didn't mean to—"

"Oh, look," said Voldemort as if he just discovered something of delight. "There are seven of you. The perfect number to gain some sort of use for you Karkarov. Even though you life was wasted while you lived, it will bring me some satisfaction in your death. Aren't you glad that your death won't be as meaningless as your life?"

Karkarov continued to sob.

"I asked you a question," said Voldemort.coldly. He paused, but Karkarov didn't try to answer.

****

"Incendio!" said Voldemort, and the right sleeve of Karkarov's robe caught on fire, the flames climbing to the ceiling.

Karkarov screamed batting wildly at his arm, like a muggle. He didn't even try to use magic to stop the spell—of course neither did anyone else. They waited until Voldemort decided to stop it.

"Aren't you glad your death won't be as meaningless as your life?" the Dark Lord said.

"Yes. Yes. I'm glad." Sobbed Karkarov.

Voldemort stalked among the chosen Death Eaters speaking to each of them, taking extra time with the little girl. We will start with you, Maura Rosier," said Voldemort.

She raised her wand and looked directly at Karkarov. "You took my mother and my father from me," she said coldly. **"Crucio!"**

Ginny closed her eyes and tried to block out the screaming. What was the name of that deafness charm? she wondered.

"Dolohov," said Voldemort, and the Death Eater stepped forward, wand raised.

****

"Crucio!"

"Travers."

****

"Crucio!"

"McKinnon."

****

"Crucio!"

"Mulciber."

****

"Crucio!"

"Rookwood."

****

"Crucio!"

"Snape." Said Voldemort, and Ginny opened her eyes. Although the Death Eater mask covered most of his face, she could see his glittering dark eyes glaring out of the slits.

****

"Crucio!" he said, his voice cold and merciless, Karkarov's shrieks no less tortured. She closed her eyes again, and did not see the Death Eater that spoke the final spell. 

****

"Avada Kadavra!"

"Incendio!"

The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and Ginny swallowed reflexively. 

__

"You can do it, Ginny Love. Think of something else."

"How can I think of something else, Tom! A man just was tortured to death!"

__

"Think of the Air Elemental. Fresh, sweet, clean-smelling air—"

"Open your eyes," hissed a voice in parseltongue—His voice.

Her eyes flew open to see him watching her from across the circle, flicking that snake tongue. She was filled with panic. He would know she didn't belong here. He had to know that already—Why hadn't He killed her?"

"Because if there is the slightest chance that you are the Prophecy Child, he cannot kill you," said Tom.

It seemed to take forever, even with Tom's coaching for Ginny to get control of herself. When she finally did she was alerted to a disturbance in the center of the Death Eaters circle. Voldemort, and Valeriana appeared to be speaking. Rookwood was on his knees, clutching at the Dark Lord's robes and begging.

All the others were watching in amazement, and curiosity got the better of Ginny. She stared too. It appeared that Rookwood was begging for his life.

"I have promised rewards for those who suffered in Azkaban," announced Voldemort. "Thus far only one Death Eater has claimed her reward: Valeriana Lestrange. It is a simple reward. One that I would have granted even without her suffering had I known what was happening in Azkaban."

Rookwood was inching towards the edge of the Death Eater's circle, but Ginny did not see how he could escape—or why he needed to--

****

"Expellaramus!" pronounced Voldemort, and Rookwood's wand flew toVoldemort. He tossed it to one of the other Death Eaters. "Perhaps one of the rescued loyal Death Eaters can use this," he said. Voldmort turned back to his spell-bound audience.

"I was loyal," Rookwood screamed. 

"Then why were aurors present when we arrived at Azkaban?" asked Voldemort.

"That wasn't my doing! That was Severus!"

Snape took a single step forward and then stopped, leaving the final decision about himself in Voldemort's hands. 

"Snape's in Dumbledore's pocket," screeched Rookwood. "He didn't go to Azkaban for you. He sang to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore gave him his freedom. Handed it to him in exchange for information about you and the Circle."

Ginny could see nothing of either Snape's nor Voldemort's reaction to Rookwood's words. She had no idea of how she could help him, or even if she should try.

__

"Just wait. Be patient," said Tom.

"This isn't about whether or not you're the spy," said Valeriana. "It's about your disloyalty to the Dark Lord. You never should have treated me like dirt. I've had a long time to think about my revenge. A long time to think that you are nobody's _master_--"

Rookwood turned back to Voldemort studdering in fear. "I-I-it was a game we p-played. Sh-she called me Master when I brought her some thing-- I meant no disrespect to you. Please."

Vodlemort ran one long finger down the side of Rookwood's face. "You lie," he said softly.

An inarticulate sound came from Rookwood, as Voldemort breathed, **"Crucio."**

Rookwood suffered in silence for almost thirty seconds before he started to scream. In another thirty, Ginny thought her eardrums would burst. She closed her eyes.

At last there was silence. After a few moments, Ginny opened her eyes. Rookwood was trembling on the ground. 

"I'm the keeper of Pandora's box." He shouted. "Without me the dementers will be uncontrollable. You need me!" he screeched. "I am the child of Chaos!"

"I do not need you," stated the Dark Lord ominously. He turned back to his audience. "Imagine, my loyal Death Eater, Valeriana Lestrange, listening to Rookwood who doubted my return. Imagine her despair when he taunted her, saying that he—He—the little worm-- would be her Dark Lord for she would never leave Azkaban. Imagine having to swear allegiance to none other than this piece of dragon dung! Imagine, day after day playacting for his entertainment just so that she could survive. Survive, for the day when she could take her vengeance." A slow smile creased Voldemort's face. "That day has arrived."

Rookwood no longer inched, he stood and ran for the edge of the circle, straight towards Ginny's side of the circle, but Valeriana's spell caught him before he got to his goal. 

****

"Crucio!"

The force of the spell, threw him face down in the dirt as the Death Eaters scattered away from Valeriana's fury. She held the **crucio** for an impossibly long period of time, Rookwood's screams echoing off of the barren landscape. When she released him, she was sweating profusely and she staggered slightly under the strain of the nights' events and performing the c**rucio** spell. The Dark Lord caught her hand, supporting her. Narcissia stepped forward, and grasped her other arm. "Sister," she admonished. "It is too soon for you to attempt this. It can wait."

"No. It has been too long already."

"Stand up," ordered Valeriana. 'As long as you are standing, I won't use crucio."

Rookwood struggeld to his feet. "My beautiful—"

****

"Sectum!" The spell cut through the mid section of his robes and flesh. Blood spurted everywhere.

__

"Oh, dear," said Tom. "Ginny Love. It looks like you're going to need another new black robe."

Rookwood crumpled to the ground and Valeriana switched spells to **crucio.**

When she relaeased the spell she was panting and leaning heavily upon her sister and the Dark Lord.

No one bothered to ask about the welfare of the shivering mass of flesh that was Rookwood, but Ethan and Edward joined the little group. "Mother," said Edward. "Let us help."

"We too deserve to be a part of your revenge," said Ethan.

Voldemort looked at Valeriana. "What do you wish?" he asked. "I leave the choice to you. I can keep him at the Snow Castle until you are ready to continue or you can finish this now."

"It would be good to share a spell with my sister again," said Valeriana grasping Narcissia's hand. "And my sons."

Ethan stepped forward, and kicked Rookwood's shivering body over onto his back. He was unconscious and blood was trickling out of his mouth.

****

"Medico!' pronounced Edward.

****

"Enervate!" said Ethan.

Ginny started to edge away from the gruesome scene. It seemed to take forever, although both Ethan and Valeriana seemed to be doing serious damage with their **crucio** instead of just causing pain. Ginny was sure Rookwood's screams would haunt her nightmares forever.

__

"Well, Ginny Love, that's better than it being your screams, in your nightmares, isn't it?" asked Tom with his eternal logic.

==

At last it was over. Vodlemort stood alone in the center of the circle again. The cloying smell of blood and burning flesh hanging in the air. Ginny felt like she could never draw a clean breath again.

"I wanted to allow the children a little bit of time with their newly acquired friends and relatives," Voldemort said, "but now it is time for those who are still doing my will at Hogwarts to return there. And time for the other children who are my guests to seek their rest. It is late. Sleep well. There is still much work to do." He switched to parseltongue, just for her ears, "And Virginia remember you must find my emerald."

She shuddered as she looked into those hideous red eyes.

"Yes, Master," she hissed.

Voldemort nodded to the house elves which hurried forward to apparate the children back to Hogwarts.

"What about Professor Snape?" Ginny wondered aloud. Looking in his direction, she saw Snape, Lucius Malfoy and a few other adult Death Eaters in an intense conversation with Voldemort. As she watched, Carman, Valeriana and Narcissa joined them.

"Master will not come for many hours," said Maximus, a crease of worry furrowing the elf's face. "He requires Master to stay."

****

Answers to reviews

**Kemenran****: **Thanks for your insights. Of course Ron and Hermione are going to help**.**

**ennui2**I know I have Draco/Samara right when ennui is jumping up and down and yelling at me. Thanks for all your work at the Yahoo site. Please go and visit it. You now have a chance to post links to your own stories if you have read and reviewed mine.

**Silverfox1**You are right. I don't believe they did trick or treat, but it was too fun a chapter to just scrap. Please forgive me. And Britian, you should change your custom. Trick and Treat is great fun. (Can't you just see the Dursley's locking Harry in the cupboard and taking Dudderkins out for candy? Yuk.

****

Sky : Glad you liked—Here's your Tom/Ginny interaction, and more to come.

****

smiles Was that a prophecy?

**Tania Nightqueen**Re-read the prologue and you will understand.

Taju`akiel Of course I will finish the book, but not for you—for me. In fact it's already done. I'm working on the sequel. The only reason you have to wait for the next chapter is because you guys are so slow in reviewing.

****

Trillium Freaky I like. Depressing, no.

****

Bill: Glad to hear from you. Thanks for calling my fic a masterpiece. Author jumps around excitedly. OK, Lady Lestrange. Here's your wand. Calm down.

****

Ennui deMorte Thanks for the yahoogroup.   
and the changed review, but you can't count as the tenth review when you have already reviewed. 

****

Joda: Thanks for the kudos.

(A/N: Are you worried about Severus? Heehehe. I know. I'm evil. 10 reviews gets the anwer.)


	54. CH 53: Portraits, Polyjuice and Portkeys

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Portraits, Polyjuice and Portkeys

Chapter 53

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. This chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts. Take a deep breath now. Non-stop action till the end.

**** ****

Portraits, Polyjuice and Portkeys 

By Lady Lestrange

Samara was knocking consistently on Ginny's ward. 

"Ginny! Ginny! Wake up. You're going to be late for class."

Finally Ginny rolled over and broke the ward. She looked up sleepily at Samara. "Cancelled," she said.

"What? Snape!" cried Samara. "Snape cancelled your class? How do you know?"

"Uh—" Ginny's sleepy mind fought for an answer.

__

"Owl," said Tom. "Early this morning."

Ginny repeated Tom's lie.

"But—" Samara looked at her in confused disbelief. "Snape sent you an owl?"

"OK," thought Ginny. "That sounded strange." She sat up and tried to get her sleepy brain to think.

"Snape wouldn't send an owl to her," she thought. "Tom, you're getting me caught in a lie—"

__

"You said it; not me."

"It was your idea!"

"No, not Snape," said Ginny. "Edward. His brother owled him first."

__

"Very good, Ginny. I couldn't have done better myself."

"Is that a complement? Are you complementing me on my lying?" Ugh. "I'm going back to sleep," she told Samara.

"But you'll miss breakfast. I thought you are always hungry in the morning? Aren't you the same one who at the beginning of the year, said you'd never make it to lunchtime without breakfast? And you skipped breakfast last Friday—when you and Edward—" Samara stopped talking. "Oh," she said softly. "You were with Edward last night," she said. "Late. Sorry. Next time just ignore me. I don't know when to shut my mouth. I'll let you sleep."

Samara went down to breakfast trying to remember if Ginny's ward was up last night. She thought it was, but she could have been mistaken. There was too much confusion last night with the Slytherins in the Common Room. She and Harry had decided not to tell McGonagall. First of all, Harry said she wouldn't believe them—which was probably true. Secondly, Harry said, he didn't want to tell her about his Invisibility cloak, and how else could he explain standing in the room with no one seeing him.

"Maybe Dumbledore would believe us though, and he knows about my Dad's Invisibility cloak."

"Harry," Samara had said, "If you feel you have to tell Dumbledore, I understand, but I'd rather not—"

"Why?"

"How am I supposed to explain my appearance there? Plus, if we tell him about the curses and the veritaserium, how am I going to explain my part in that?"

"I don't know," said Harry, "But they shouldn't just get away with this!"

"What about me, Harry? Are you going to tell on me too?"

"Of course not." He sighed. "I see your point. It's bound to come up that you participated with the veritaserium and even if we could get by that, I doubt that the Slytherins would be quiet about your**—**um curses. OK. I'll keep quiet. It's not like Dumbledore has been a great help in the past, anyway."

"Are you sure, Harry?"

"I'm sure, but I hate for them to just get away with this."

"So, we'll just have to think of something to annoy them that is just as bad. We should be able to get into Slytherin Common Room. Edward waltzes in and out of there all the time."

"Did you ever think, that's because he's a Slytherin?"

"Probably."

"What! You think he's a Slytherin too?"

"Yeah," said Samara. "There's some Gryffindor traits, but most of the things I see in his aura, I see predominantly among Slytherins."

""Like what?"

"Holes, murkiness, a red overlay, and an aura held close to his body, the shimmer that indicates the use of wandless magic."

"Holes," said Harry. "Didn't you repair holes in my aura too?"

"Yes. Actually, they came back when you touched my book."

"Ah—" said Harry. "So that's why the headache came back."

Samara took his hand, holding her palm pressed against the back of his hand, and lacing her fingers through his., and allowing herself to reach out to him with her healing power. "I didn't know you were hurting." 

Harry shrugged. "There's no point in complaining," He said. "So do I have any of these other Slytherin traits too, or just the holes?" 

"There's some of the red overlay too, but there's very little red in your actual aura. I've come to believe that the red overlay is something that happened in a person's childhood—abuse—trauma—of course, the loss of your parents could have caused that red overlay, but mostly, your aura is very vivid. It tends to blot out the overlay with its brightness. Like now, you know what I'm doing. Your aura is trying to match the healing colors itself—to help me to heal the holes—"

"It's very nice," said Harry closing his eyes.

Dumbledore sent a rainbow of color with his wand, to catch everyone's attention. "I have an announcement to make. A very welcome announcement, I'm sure." He smiled jovially, his eyes twinkling. "I have just received an owl from Madam Edgecombe at the Floo Network Authority. The needed repairs and wards have been placed on the floo network, and Hogwarts is approved to be reconnected to the Floo via my office. Fires for warmth and messages may once again be lit in the common rooms at your discretion—"

A cheer went up from the student body.

"What are they cheering about?" asked Hermione as she and Ron entered the Great Hall.

"Floo's fixed," said Samara now drawing her hand away from Harry Potters'. 

"Oh, that's wonderful news," said Hermione, settling down to read her Witch Weekly.

"I'll say," said Ron, "I was actually getting quite good at conjuring those little blue flames of Hermione's. It was frightening."

"Me too, said Samara laughing, but Hermione frowned. 

"Ron," she said, "the whole idea of school is to get good at your spells. Look at what happened to poor Pig in Apparition last week."

"Read your Witch Weekly," said Ron. 

"What happened to Pig?" asked Samara.

"Splinched," said Harry.

"Oh—" Samara put her hand over her mouth.

"But Professor Sinistra helped Ron get him back together." Harry continued.

"I don't know," said Ron. "He's still flying a little crooked."

"Ron," said Harry "He's always flown crooked."

"That reminds me," said Ron. "I might need some help catching him for today's class. He doesn't want to come to me, since last week. I think he's scared of me."

"OK " said Harry. "I have to get Hedwig too. We'll go up to the owlry right after Defense class. We should have time before Apparition."

"Are you apparating your pets now," said Samara.

"Yeah," agreed Harry reluctantly. Professor Sinistra said, "As soon as we can flawlessly apparate our pets twenty five times, we can apparate ourselves."

"So how many times have you apparated Hedwig?" asked Samara.

"Twenty-four," said Harry.

"And you couldn't have done it one more time and tried it on yourself last week?" asked Samara incredulously.

"I could have," said Harry, "but I was stalling. I didn't want to be in pieces when Malfoy splinched."

"So did he?" asked Samara.

"No," said Ron disgustedly. "He performed the spell flawlessly."

"On his pet?"

"No," said Harry. "On himself."

"Where is Malfoy this morning?" asked Ron, looking over at the Slytherin table.

"Oh, maybe lying in," said Samara. "I guess Snape cancelled his first class—Advanced Defense—Ginny told me."

"What!" said all three of the trio together.

"Is he sick?" asked Harry.

"He must be dying," said Ron, his face creasing into a grin.

"Ron, that's an awful thing to say," Hermione commented, closing her Witch Weekly. 

"It's Snape! It's not awful; it's cause for a holiday!"

"Well, Ginny's class may be cancelled, but ours isn't," said Harry beginning to gather up his books.

"Oh we have time, Harry," said Ron. "It's only 8:45, but once all their books were gathered they all stood and started for the door. Then, Samara realized that Hermione left her Witch Weekly on the table. She sprinted back to grab it and gave it to Hermione. "Oh, you needn't have bothered," said Hermione. "There's nothing much in it today. You'd think they could find enough news to fill a tiny paper like that," she said shaking her head.

"So can you make a portkey yet, Harry?" asked Samara.

"Just a very rudimentary one," said Harry. "And only set for one person at a time. It's actually more complicated than apparition because it can usually be used by more than one person, or by multiple people, and can be set for a variation of times and—"

He froze mid-sentence as a scream issued from the center of the room. They all turned to see Lavender sitting on, and then falling off of, a Hogwart's toilet seat, her bare bottom slapping the floor as she slipped. Lavender's face was bright red as she pulled her dressing robe around herself, picked up the toilet seat and flung it like a misshapen frisbee into the hysterically laughing Slytherins.

In truth, the Slytherins weren't the only ones laughing. Samara leaned on Harry, tears in her eyes from mirth, and then covering her mouth and trying to control her laughter. "We missed one," she whispered.

"Portkey," he whispered back, trying, like the rest of the Gryffindors to look sympathetic as Lavender flounced through the crowd and back up to Gryffindor Tower. As soon as she got past them the laughter started again. Harry turned, searching the Slytherin table for Owen Pritchard. He spotted him, holding on to Pansy and laughing with her. Harry noticed Fred and George were also laughing hysterically, but their laughter died as Errol fluttered onto George's plate, dropping a letter onto the table..

Harry nudged Ron. "Looks like your brothers got bad news," he said.

Ron frowned. "Hey George," he called walking over to their end of the table. "What does Mum have to say?"

"Oh we fixed the clock last week when we were home—" said George.

"I didn't know it was broken," said Ginny as she wandered, sleepy eyed, to the table.

"Hey Ginny," Ron frowned at her. "Are you sick?"

"No," said Ginny softly. "What happened to the clock?"

"We updated it," added Fred. "It's now more specific about the family whereabouts."

"What?" said Ron, horrified. "It's specific enough just having her know I'm at school."

"It now says, at school--studying" said George.

Ron narrowed his eyes. "Why don't I believe you?"

"You know us," said Fred smirking. "Anyway, Mum is in a cauldron—"

"What's she upset about?" asked Harry pushing his glasses up.

"She says we broke it," added George. "This morning it said Ginny was 'at Azkaban'.

"That sounds broken," said Fred thoughtfully.

"Naw—it's done stranger things," added George. "It said Ginny was in 'mortal peril' all forth year."

"She _was_ in mortal peril," said Ron. "Ginny—you really don't look well. Maybe you should go to Madam Pomfrey—"

"Maybe it's detecting the person's well-being as well," said Fred as Ginny finally joined them at the table. "Did you put that spell in, George?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, Ginny does look a little pale, doesn't she?" asked George.

"Yeah," Fred joked. "For just coming back from Azkaban—"

"I'm fine," said Ginny, staring wide-eyed at Fred.

__

Tom chuckled. "I like Fred and George," he said.

"Ginny, I thought you were lying in," said Samara.

"I was hungry," commented Ginny destractedly.

"Ginny—you missed the funniest prank," said Samara She proceeded to give Ginny an intricate description of the toilet seat incident.

==

The Slytherins were talking about the incident throughout the day. As Harry and Ron walked into Advanced Charms, they heard Owen Pritchard and Deameon Parkinson sniggering with their heads together.

Flitwick, who like Snape, had skipped breakfast. Completely missed the cruelty of their comments. "My, you gentlemen are in a pleasant mood this morning," he chirped happily. 

Harry threw a disgusted glance at Ron who mouthed, "Slytherin scum," as he took out his wand.

"Maybe you should tell Flitwick," whispered Parkinson. "It could be worth extra credit." 

"I don't need extra credit," said Pritchard.

"I'll take it," said Parkinson eagerly.

Pritchard frowned at him, putting a finger over his lips signifying silence.

"Quiet down, class," said Flitwick, climbing onto his chair. "I hope you all read the assignment--"

"Pritch did," muttered Parkinson sniggering.

Without a blink, Flitwick charmed a piece of ribbon out of his wand, and wound it around Parkinson's mouth. He continued teaching without missing a syllable. "And if you read the assignment, you know that the next chapter is about learning how to widen the use of a portkey from one specific person, to a number of people, generally separated as all male users and all female users. For example, the portkeys which take witches and wizards to the Quiddich cup, must be charmed to allow both to use it—this is the charm—"

Harry took out his quill and began scratching notes on his parchment.

==

The rest of the day continued without incident until Defense. As they approached the classroom, Harry knew that Lavender was in for a rough day, and as a Gryffindor, he wanted to be supportive. He, with Samara, was the only one who could have saved her that embarrassment. He felt sorry for her and chastised himself mentally for not noticing the spell that was set when Samara was coming down the stairs with Draco. He heard the Slytherins giggling and sniggering long before they reached the defense classroom.

True to her Gryffindor bravery, Lavender arrived in the corridor just moments later with Parvati, Dean and Seemus. 

Alvin Nott was talking in a loud voice. "Draco, you really missed it this morning at breakfast, she didn't have a glamour charm and her face was so red—"

"Her face," added Ethan, with a smirk, "Don't you mean both cheeks?"

The Slytherins howled with laughter.

"You were looking at her face?" questioned Goyle.

"Well, sure," said Nott. "I mean, I've already seen—"

A blast of light issued from Seemus' wand and Nott was struck with **"Mutus!" **followed by** "Oculis!"**

Lauren immediately caught his arm in a tight grip, keeping him from stumbling into anyone in his sudden blindness. Alvin automatically stretched both hands out in front of him, feeling for support.

"Oh, well," said Draco undoing Seemus' muteness with a with a shrug. "with Gryffindors, who can tell the difference between their face and their ass." 

"Draco!" Shouted Samara. Harry could practically see steam coming out of Samara's ears. She threw a curse at him, but he blocked it, throwing up his wand arm and pronouncing **"Testudo!"**

"Testudo?" laughed Samara. "What did you think I was going to do to you, Draco? You're a little paranoid aren't you?"

"Well, considering the _last curse_ you threw at me," said Draco, still holding his wand ready. "I thought it might be safer to over-react. Anyway," he said with a wry grin. "I've always said you're not a Gryffindor."

"I was sorted into Gryffindor," said Samara.

"No," said Draco, "You were chosen by Ginny Weasley. What house you're in is not determined by where you sleep. If it were, Lavender would most definitely be the prophecy child." Draco smirked. "And she isn't."

The Slytherins sniggered and prodded one another in their mirth.

"And Seemus has few more people to curse blind," interrupted Alvin right before Lauren, with the pretext of helping him, ran his face straight into the dungeon wall.

"Ouch!" he cried, grabbing his face, as his nose started to bleed from the impact. "Lauren, you did that on purpose."

"You're right," said Lauren, "Just like you and Lavender—" She broke off as Snape glided into view, and opened the door to the classroom. **"Cogere! Pergo!"** said Snape, stopping Alvin's nose bleed and cleaning up the blood. "And who caused Mr. Nott's nosebleed?" asked Snape.

"Seemus blinded Alvin," said Draco. "then he walked into the wall."

"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, not slowing his pace or looking at them.

"Was pushed," began Alvin.

"Ten points," interrupted Snape. "Get in here and get your books open! You, Miss Avery may take Mr. Nott to the infirmary to get the spell reversed."

"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir," said Lauren sweetly as she pulled Alvin back into the corridor.

Samara started to protest the points taken from Gryffindor, but Ginny poked her in the ribs and she shut her mouth. Snape did not look like he was in a mood to be lenient. His dark eyes scanned the group with an expression that could only be described as loathing.

"Don't dawdle," Snape added to the two Slytherins. "Today we are going to discuss escaping, in route, from an unexpected, and possibly dangerous portkey. I guess this lesson comes a day late for you, Miss Brown."

Lavender's face colored pink again, and she looked at her shoes.

The Slytherins sniggered.

"Come to think of it, this class is a little late for you too, isn't it, Potter?" asked Snape, leaning forward heavily on his desk. The bones of his shoulders pushed against his robe as if the sharp points of them might rip through the cloth, and his eyes glittered maliciously. "Of course, this will only be a theoretical class for most of you at this time," Snape continued. You have to have a pretty good grasp of apparition to actually accomplish it. How many of you have apparated by now?"

Only Draco raised his hand.

==

Harry Potter walked into Apparition class later that day, determined to accomplish the apparition of himself across the room. That was as far as they could apparate within Hogwarts' grounds. The Apparition room was the only room within the castle where apparition was allowed by the wards and of course, one could not apparate outside of the room or off of the grounds. Once they got advanced enough to practice longer apparitions they would have to go outside and off Hogwarts' grounds.

"It doesn't matter how far you are going to apparate," said Professor Sinistra. "Distance makes absolutely no difference. As long as you can completely see yourself in the new location, you will accomplish the apparition, but you must be able to see yourself already there. When you plant a mandrake seed, you expect to see mandrakes growing, not radishes. When you add the last hair to polyjuice potion, you expect it to turn gray not green. When you transfigure a mouse into a water goblet, you expect the goblet to be minus its tail. You have done these things. You know you can accomplish them. You must have the same certainty before you apparate.

****

"Itare phantasma!" demonstrated Professor Sinistra as she apparated across the room. "Mr. Potter, I believe you only had a few more apparitions of your owl to complete last time. Are you ready to apparate yourself?"

Harry licked his lips and started to answer, when Professor Sinistra turned away. "I see you are not," she said. "Miss Granger."

"I am," interrrupted Harry angrily. "I was just—"

"Hesitating," Professor Sinistra supplied. "If you hesitate, you will splinch. You must already be sure you can do it, before you attempt it."

"I'm sure," said Harry.

"No, you're not. An apparition teacher must know which of her students are confident and which are not. Certainty eliminates most of the splinches. You are almost there. We will see Miss Granger first and then I will come back to you." She patted him on the shoulder and moved to Hermione.

"Miss Granger, are you ready to apparate?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Hermione, bubbling with excitement.

"Go then," said Professor Sinistra.

****

"Itare phantasma!" said Hermione, flicking her wand upwards over her head. She disappeared from one end of the room and reappeared at the other end of the room. She stumbled as if she had fallen off of a hovering broomstick, but she regained her balance and grinned widely. "I knew I could do it!" she said. "I wanted to do it last week."

"That is precisely why you did accomplish it this week," said Professor Sinistra.

"Mr. Potter," began Professor Sinistra. 

Harry didn't wait for her to tell him he wasn't ready again. He raised his wand over his head and said, **"Itare phantasma!"**

There was a roaring whirl of wind in his head, and for a moment he felt as if he was being torn limb from limb by the hurricane winds, but he concentrated on being in the place across the room. _Just be there_, he told himself, and the wind calmed, the ripping sensation eased. His first awareness was that he was clutching his wand in a death grip, an incessant throbbing spreading out from his scar. He found his footing on the floor across the room, and a blinding pain hit him right between the eyes, his scar sizzling and burning and in that instant, Harry Potter sank to the floor.

"You did it!" cried Hermione.

"He knows," Harry whispered clutching his burning scar. "He knows, I can apparate now." When he took his hands from his scar it looked new. It was a puckered red brand, still hot from Voldemort's touch. Harry pulled his messy black hair over his forehead, covering the distinctive mark before any of the Slytherins could notice.

After apparition class, Harry, Ron and Hermione went back to the dorm. "You can't be sure that You Know Who knows you can apparate," said Ron. "I mean, you've had pain in your scar before—"

"It was different," said Harry. "It was like he could reach right out and touch my scar—Like he was right there between 'where I was' and 'where I went to' In that moment when everything about me was scattered, he was more in my scar than I was."

"Well, maybe you can splinch off your scar, and leave it with You Know Who," said Ron.

"Ron," said Hermione, exasperated. "Harry, maybe you should talk to Dumbledore about it," she suggested.

"Maybe—" said Harry aloud. "Dumbledore, or—Snape," he whispered. Just thinking of asking such a personal question of either of them made him shiver with dread. He couldn't imagine asking Snape what his Dark Mark felt like when he apparated—did it feel like his body or a part of Voldemort's. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

"Professor Snape would help you," added Neville.

"Snape!" shouted Ron. "Are you out of your mind? He was a bloody terror today!"

"He looked sick," added Samara as she and Ginny and Beatrice joined them.

"Yeah, he's sick alright," added Ron. "We've known that since day one."

==

After a while they ate dinner, and Harry got a good night's sleep. His scar was back to normal. He considered telling Dumbledore, but Dumbledore was off on Ministry business, when he went to his office. A few more days went by and Harry decided that he could wait to talk to Dumbledore. After all, he wasn't going to apparition again for a week and even when he went back to class, there were a lot of other students who had to apparate before he would be trying it again. Once the week past, it didn't seem so important anymore. 

There were other things to think about-- 

"Hurry up, Ron," called Harry. "We're going to be late for the Slytherin-Ravenclaw game!"

Ron grumbled and climbed out of bed. "OK, I'm coming," he yawned.

"This should be a good game," said Harry.

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "Strategy and finesse, against brute force and cheating,"

Harry laughed and picked up his winter cloak. "Get your heavy cloak," Harry suggested. "It snowed last night. It's cold out."

"This is my heavy cloak," Ron said, "My only cloak," as he gathered it up and the two of them headed down to the Great Hall. "Speaking of cloaks," said Ron, "Is Samara ever going to get your Invisibility cloak back from Draco?"

Harry shrugged. "She said she would try, but I don't think she's trying very hard. She said Draco wants her to bring him the piece I took out of it. She feels like she's in the middle of our argument."

"Well, she is, isn't she. You know, Harry, this might be a good time to go ourselves," suggested Ron. "We know that Draco will be on the Quiddich Pitch, along with most of the Slytherins."

"It would work if we had some polyjuice potion," said Harry.

Ron nodded, his face breaking into a smile. "Ginny has some," he said.

"Ginny!"

Ron shrugged. "Who knows what she was thinking of when we made the potion, but she has a couple of bottles stashed in her trunk."

"Will she let us have them?" asked Harry.

Ron's grin widened.

"Ron, I am not stealing them from Ginny," said Harry.

"It's not stealing. It's borrowing from family," said Ron. "Or you could ask her, Harry. I'm not sure she'd give them to me, but I'm sure you could convince her."

Harry blushed.

"Ah-h- I see I'm right," Ron smirked.

By the time Harry finally convinced Ron that they both had to ask for Ginny's help, the game was already started. They went up to the boy's dorm to look at the Maurader's map and determine where Ginny was. She was in the stands watching the Quiddich game, and when they arrived they had to convince her to leave the stands to talk to them. Because she didn't want to actually leave the game, they just went under the stands. Shivering in the cold wind, they told Ginny that they wanted to try to retrieve the Invisibility Cloak during the Quiddich game. Once she heard what they planned, Ginny was indeed helpful. She not only volunteered to give them the polyjuice potion, she also volunteered to get hairs to put into the potion. She suggested her own and Samara's. Even though they were both Gryffindor's, they had been in Slytherin often. Ron and Harry both balked at masquerading as girls. 

"OK," said Ginny. "Let me try and get two of Edward's hairs, or you can use one of his, and one of Lou's or Joe's. Any of the first years can go to Slytherin now, since it's a weekend, or you can masquerade as Ethan and Edward. Another option would be if one of you want to be Edward and I can be myself," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "That would save some polyjuice too."

"OK," said Ron reluctantly. "I guess since it's your cloak, Harry, you'll want to go—"

"Let's go see where Edward is," suggested Harry. "so Ginny can get his hair." Harry pulled the Maurader's map from his pocket and proceeded to look for Edward. He didn't have to look far. Edward was on the Quiddich Pitch, playing chaser for Slytherin.

Harry gaped at the little dot that was flying expertly, dodging bludgers and catching the quaffle.

"And a bludger just misses Lestrange," announced Lee Jordan. "He passes to Parkinson, back to Lestrange and he scores! That ties up the score at 40 all."

"So Edward wanted to play Quiddich after all." said Ron, fists clenched. "Where's Ethan then?"

They all searched for the little dot. It took a long time. They looked in Slytherin—at least as much of the Slytherin dungeon as they had on the map. They looked in the library, and although they didn't find Edward, they found Alvin Nott in the restricted section.

"Wonder what he's looking for," said Ron.

"Who cares," said Ginny.

They looked in the kitchen. They looked fearfully in Gryffindor Tower, but Ethan was not there either.

"Here," said Ron at last pointing to several dots in Myrtle's bath room.

"And Malfoy has caught the snitch!" cried Lee Jordan. "That ends the game," he said sadly, "with a score of 210 to 70. Slytherin wins."

Harry squinted through his glasses to see who else was in the bathroom. The names were written so small, they were hard to read. Ethan Lestrange, Owen Pritchard, Millicent Bullstrode. While they were watching, the dots disappeared.

"They can't do that," said Harry.

"What happened?" wondered Ron. "They couldn't have apparated." 

"It doesn't matter," said Ginny. "The game is over. You can't go now. Malfoy will be back."

"It does matter!" cried Harry and Ron together. 

"What were they doing in that bathroom?" Harry wondered aloud. He decided to ask directly. Ginny wouldn't lie to him. "Ginny," he said. "Did you ever—Did Edward—Did you ever tell him about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Tell him?" Ginny said, her voice a confused whisper.

"Or take him there?" Harry continued.

Ginny shuddered, a dreamy unfocused look on her face. "I hate that place," she said. "I wouldn't go there—giving out tours," she spat.

"Then, I wonder," said Harry, "how he found out that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in Myrtle's bath room." 

"He knows that?" said Ron amazed.

Harry nodded.

"Maybe--one of the ghosts," suggested Ron.

"Maybe," agreed Harry, as they started back to Gryffindor Tower. 

"How was the game?" Hermione asked as they came through the portal.

"Game?" said Harry, whose thoughts were totally on the threesome that had disappeared from Myrtle's bathroom.

"Terrible," said Ron. "Slytherin won. What was the score, Ginny? Ginny?"

"Where did she go?" wondered Harry.

==

The last person that Samara expected to be pounding on the wall outside of the Slytherin Common Room, was Ginny, but apparently, Edward was expecting her. He opened the door and opened his arms. "High scorer," he declared. "Forty points. That deserves a kiss."

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and pushed him towards a secluded corner of the Common Room, ignoring Samara completely. "We have to talk," she said, pulling a bottle of her make up potion from her robe, "And put this on right away, before you forget." 

"I won't forget," said Edward.

"Make up potion?" questioned Samara.

"I hate freckles," said Ginny, dipping her finger into the potion and smearing a glob across Edward's nose.

"I never noticed Edward had freckles," said Samara.

"That's because the potion works so well," said Edward, taking another drop and rubbing it on his arms as well as his face. He grinned at Ginny, and then bent to kiss her.

"Excuse me," said Pritch as he elbowed in between Ginny and Samara. "Professor Snape said you had a bit of trouble last night. He said to make these for you right away." 

Pritch dropped a silver chain into Edward's palm and a comb into hers. She

looked at the silver hair comb with small black stones which he had placed in her hand, and frowned. 

"It's a portkey," Pritch explained. "It's keyed to Slytherin Common Room. Either of them can bring either or both of you. The activation word is **fidissime**.

Edward snorted, and Ginny, mentally translating the latin had to smile. "Do you really think that we are his most faithful?" she asked.

"Well, it couldn't hurt to have Him think that," said Pritch. 

"You couldn't have gotten any more sleep than we did, if you made these last night." Said Edward.

"This morning actually. My little brother wasn't too happy that I missed half of his quiddich game."

--

Samara wondered back over to Draco and the rest of the Quiddich team who were going over the game, blow by blow. Absently, Draco draped an arm over her shoulder. After a few minutes she wandered over to Pansy and Lauren and their first years who were hanging around them being annoying. She talked to them for a while, when Alvin came in looking dejected and exhausted. 

"No luck?" said Lauren sadly.

He shook his head.

"What's wrong?" asked Samara. 

"He needs some information on dementers and can't find it," said Lauren.

"Have you tried Ravenclaw library?" asked Samara.

"No," said Alvin. "How am I supposed to get into Ravenclaw library?" 

"Polyjuice?" suggested Gloria Snood, pulling several of her mouse brown hairs from her head, and handing them to him. "All the first years are allowed to go to other houses on weekends."

He stared at her for a minute, and then took the hairs. "It might not be the best night," he said. "They might not want to see a Slytherin—"

"They won't care," said Lauren. "They're Ravenclaws, and if you were a first year, thinking you might belong there instead of Slytherin, it's a perfect time to go. Too much noise over here to study--"

"I don't know where the library is," he said. 

"I'll go with you," Samara volunteered.

"What about Draco?" asked Lauren.

Samara glanced over at the team, who were now having a heated discussion about whether or not a certain bludger actually hit Ming Chang's broom. "He won't miss me," said Samara. "I'll be back later. Let's go."

"I have to get my polyjuice," said Alvin, running down into the boy's dorm. 

When he came back, he had already swallowed the polyjuice. As what looked like Gloria and Samara headed for the door, Draco looked up.

Samara waved merrily. "We'll be right back," she said and they ducked out the door to go to Ravenclaw.

"So what teacher assigned dementers?" asked Samara. 

"Ah—guess," said Alvin.

"Has to be Snape," said Samara. "Advanced defense, right?"

"How did you know?"

"Oh, Ginny has all sorts of weird assignments for that class too. I know that man is your head of house, but he's a real sadistic git, isn't he?"

"Oh, he's not as bad as some," said Alvin enigmatically.

Samara paused at the door to Ravenclaw Common Room. "I have to start calling you Gloria, OK?" 

"Sure, Samara. Thanks. Do you know the password?"

Samara nodded, and spoke: "Raido: the traveler"

"Hi Samara," said Aldwin without looking up from his work, drawing runes on parchment with his wand. The glowing letters covered several dozen parchments that were piled around him in some order that only he understood. 

"I wish you'd quit doing that," said Samara.

"Why? You do it," Aldwin answered with a smile. "And you don't even use the runes to know who's in the room with you. You have a mysterious friend. I don't think we've met."

"Oh, this is Gloria Snood," said Samara.

Aldwin took Alvin's hand in his own. Of course, he thought that Alvin was Gloria Snood, but the runes seemed to know who he was. "The rune, Thurisaz, is yours," said Aldwin. "the forces of evil, chaos, magical power, temptation and bondage." 

Gloria's eyes widened with Alvin's horror.

"But do not fear," said Aldwin, "Evil is what we make it. You can use this rune's energy to create evil or for protection from it," said Aldwin bending over Alvin's hand and kissing it. 

Samara closed her eyes and tried not to giggle. At least, Alvin was playing a very good role. He did, however, pull his hand from Aldwin's rather hastily.

"The rune suggests a challenge to face what you would rather not face," intoned Aldwin, explaining further. "To put fear aside and use your power with integrity."

There was a long moment of silence. "Where's the library?" Gloria finally asked.

"She has some homework we wanted to work on," Samara explained. "We'll just be on our way. Sorry to have interrupted you."

"Interruption by such lissome ladies is always a pleasure," said Aldwin. "Anyway, I was just going to validate my evidence in the library myself." He gathered up his runes papers. "Since you both are rather inexperienced in our library--"

"Excuse me," said Samara haughtily. 

"OK, Samara, you've used our library on numerous occasions, but you've never supervised an underclassman." He smiled, and walked beside her. "And I enjoy your company, Samara."

"That's just because no one else argues with you. They know better."

"We don't argue; we debate," said Aldwin. "So Gloria," he said, turning to Alvin, "What's your homework assignment?"

"Dementers," said Alvin.

Aldwin looked puzzled. "That's pretty advanced for a first year."

"It's a special interest assignment," said Alvin. 

"Ah—I did that too, first year," said Aldwin. "I was so bored. So who's your special interest supervisor?"

"Professor Snape," answered Alvin.

"O-h-h," said Aldwin. "Now it makes sense."

"What makes sense?" asked Samara. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"When students are bored with their classes, they can request additional studies in a special interest class. They have to have a teacher supervisor," said Aldwin, eyeing Gloria/Alvin's Slytherin robes for the first time. "Someone in Azkaban?"

"Used to be," said Alvin. "My uncle."

"And for what exactly are you searching?" asked Aldwin as they entered the library.

Alvin glanced at Samara for confirmation, and she nodded. "The spell that created Pandora's box," said Alvin.

Aldwin whistled softly. "Quite a feat for a first year. Ancient magic. May I summon a few texts that you may find helpful?"

"We'd appreciate it," said Samara.

Aldwin walked up to the podium and began summoning books. The current library aide was Morag McDoogle, and he walked over to say hello to Samara and Gloria/Alvin, introducing himself to Gloria.

"McDoogle," said Alvin. "Wasn't McDoogle originally Doogle?" Alvin asked. "The Doogles that used to be in Slytherin?"

"Yes," said Morag with a sigh. "My Great Grandfather was a Doogle. He was a Ravenclaw. He didn't want to have anything to do with his sister and brother who had some strange—um—ideas—Slytherin stuff. Anyway, he married a Ravenclaw and changed his name to McDoogle, but his son, my father was sorted into Slytherin anyway. My mother is a Ravenclaw though," said Morag. "So," Morag continued, "My blood is just as pure as your Lestrange friends—"

"Lestrange friends?" said Alvin.

"Right," said Morag. "Weren't you the little girl that was hanging all over one of the Lestrange twins, last time you were here?"

Alvin looked helplessly at Samara.

"Edward," she supplied. "He's in Gryffindor."

"Right," said Morag.

Aldwin brought fourteen books to their table. "That should get you started," he said, dropping them in front of Alvin.

Alvin looked at them for a moment in silence. "Thank you," he said at last, opening the first of the books.

"So where is Edward?" asked Morag, as he and Samara moved away from Alvin to let him work. "We haven't seen Edward back in Ravenclaw in ages."

Samara shrugged. "He's at Slytherin, congratulating his brother on beating you guys at Quiddich. We couldn't stand the noise."

"I told you, you belong in Ravenclaw, Samara," said Aldwin. "Slytherin and Gryffindor are both just one jump ahead of the muggles and monkeys on the food chain."

"Oh, I know Slytherins that are below both," said Cho as she entered the library.

"What was the score?" asked Ananda.

"Sh-h-h-h—" came a soft hiss from a neighboring cubicle.

"We're disturbing someone," said Morag, pulling his wand and putting a silencing charm around their area. "I have a topic for you and Aldwin, Cho," said Morag.

"Oh, no. Not tonight," said Cho. "I'm tired and I'm in a foul mood."

"Don't worry about missing the snitch. You did your best," said Aldwin. "That's all that counts."

"I'm better than him," growled Cho irritably. "It's frustrating that he always catches the snitch before me."

"If you had a newer broom—" began Ananda, but Morag interrupted her.

"Here Cho, this will take your mind off of Quiddich. If someone uses Dark Magic to save a life is it still Dark Magic?" asked Morag.

"Where do you come up with these?" asked Ananda.

"I sit up late at night and count meaningless debate questions instead of sheep," said Morag.

Samara burst out laughing. No one else thought it was funny, but she loved Morag's wry sense of humor. "I'll be the judge this time," she said. "Morag can be the referee."

"We don't need a referee," said Aldwin. 

"We're not that bad," said Cho.

Samara and Morag exchanged glances. 

"If it saves someone's life," said Ananda thoughtfully. "I don't see how it can be dark—"

"Well, if it saves a bloody Death Eater like Malfoy, it's definitely dark," said Cho. "In fact, even if it wasn't wandless or dark—"

"Who said anything about wandless magic?" snapped Samara. "You're off of the topic, Cho."

"I am not!" 

"No arguing with the judge," said Morag.

Ananda giggled.

"What's so funny?" asked Cho. 

"The referee and the judge," she said.

"We've never actually decided what constitutes Dark Magic," said Aldwin. "So I'm not sure how to proceed."

"Are you telling me, you don't know what Dark Magic is?" inquired Cho.

"Well, I know what _you _consider Dark Magic," said Aldwin, "but I don't know if I consider it Dark."

"Why? Can't you make up your mind? Are you that indecisive, Aldwin?"

"It's not that I'm indecicive. It's just that I want to make the right choice. How can you conclude that wandless magic is Dark, if you compare it to, say one of your Death Eaters proforming Avada Kadavra with a wand? Which is more Dark? Avada Kadavra or a wandless accio?"

"Don't say _my_ Death Eaters," protested Cho. "They aren't _my_ Death Eaters."

"But which is more Dark?" questioned Morag. "I'd say the one that killed someone."

"Yes, well, people have been killed by spells that aren't unforgivable too," said Ananda. "Incendio," for instance has burned people—

"All you need is the flame freezing charm, Ananda," said Cho, disgustedly. "That's not Dark."

"What if it's performed on a muggle?" asked Samara, and they all got quiet.

"Well, obviously that would be murder," said Cho.

"And if someone performed it on a young wizard who didn't know the flame freezing charm and he died, would that be worse than killing a muggle?" asked Morag.

"Of course it would, both Cho and Aldwin agreed.

"But they are both alive!" protested Samara. "They are equally bad. How can you say that killing a wizard is worse, Cho?"

"Because a wizard is a higher order creature than a muggle," said Cho "They contribute to the balance of the universe. They create, rather than just use the physical manifestation of objects. Therefore, their life must be more valued."

"To whom," said Ananda. "That muggle's child will cry just as hard as the wizard's child when his parent is killed.

"Well of course, all life is valuable," said Cho. "I'm just talking in degrees."

"Is that what you mean about wandless magic too," asked Aldwin. "It depends upon how much the wizard is affected?"

"Exactly," agreed Cho. "And any wandless magic diminishes the wizard and contributes to his death. So all wandless magic is dark," said Cho. "Some magics are darker than others, but all wandless magic should be avoided.

"That's only if you consider dying as a bad thing, Cho," said Aldwin. "Death is but an unknown journey. Your own fear of the unknown does not mean that the magic itself is dark."

"What about the changes that occur in the wizard himself?" Cho said. "What if he doesn't die, but just becomes some deformed creature?"

"Ah-h-h-Like Voldemort?" said Samara.

"Some people would argue that it enhances the wizard instead of diminishes. I agree that there are changes, but we don't know that all change will be for the worst," said Aldwin.

"Oh, you are giving me a headache," said Morag. "I'm giving up on this referree job. I think I'll go see how Gloria is doing on her homework."

"Gloria?" said Samara.

Morag gestured to Alvin. 

"Oh, right," said Samara, checking her watch, which showed nearly an hour gone by. "You know, I think we should be going anyway. It's late."

"It's not that late," said Aldwin. "How about a game of chess?"

"We need to go," Samara repeated for Alvin's benefit. 

"I haven't finished," said Alvin, looking at the books in front of him. 

"Take them with you," said Morag. "You can bring them back tomorrow or even Monday. I'll let you into the Common Room if you let me know when you are coming." Morag winked at Gloria, and whispered, "And my blood is just as pure as the Lestrange's. You're much too sweet to be associating with them."

"The rule is only on the weekends," said Cho.

"She's right, you know," agreed Ananda.

"I'll bring them back tomorrow," promised Alvin.

"When?" asked Morag, putting his hand on Alvin's shoulder. "I want to be sure to be here."

"Ah-h. After supper," said Alvin, ducking out from under Morag's arm, and hurrying to gather up a few of the books.

Samara giggled all the way back to Slytherin common Room.

"You really thought that was funny, didn't you?" snapped Gloria, who was slowly changing back into Alvin as they walked. 

"I guess you'd better tell Gloria you got her a date tomorrow," Samara laughed.

"I did _not_ get her a date," protested Alvin. "He was just being friendly."

"Nope," said Samara. "A Ravenclaw is only that friendly when—well—" Samara giggled. "Gloria has a date—Unless of course, you want to bring the books back yourself--"

"No!" snapped Alvin. "And you will keep your mouth shut about this. I don't want Lauren to find out."

"My lips are sealed," said Samara, touching a finger to her mouth.

"What's that about your lips?" asked Draco as they entered the common room.

"This," said Samara, plastering herself against him and kissing him. He wrapped his arms loosely around her and when she lifted her face away from his, he asked coldly, "Where were you?"

"Ravenclaw," she answered. "Alvin needed help with his homework."

"Homework. That's all?" asked Draco, studying her face as if he expected to see her aura. He glanced back at Alvin frowning.

Samara rolled her eyes. "He took polyjuice to get in," said Samara. "He was Gloria Snood."

'I was," agreed Alvin. "You can ask Morag."

Draco caught Samara's hand, and pulled her towards the picture of Salazar Slytherin. "Wait," said Samara as she put her hand up, flat against the picture itself, touching first the cool scales of the snake and then Salazar himself, her hand brushing against his, feeling the huge gemstone on his ring finger. "I don't want to dance right now. I don't want to see the room—do you remember how we left it?

"**Apertum Pseudothyrum**" Draco said again, but the picture didn't open.

Draco looked at Samara. "What did you do to the picture?" He asked examining it closely.

"Nothing. The picture is exactly the same. The snake is still sleeping, and Salazar is still sneering—"

"Snake?" said Draco incredulously. "It's not sleeping, and it's not a snake. It's a basilisk."

"I just don't want to go to the room right now. Maybe it's not opening because we're holding hands and our intentions are different." Samara pulled her hand out of Draco's.

Samara looked at the picture again. The snake was still sleeping, and Salazar was still sneering, but he had now removed his large emerald ring and was holding it out to her. "He wants us to take the ring," said Samara.

"What ring?" muttered Draco.

But when Samara reached for the ring, Salazar pulled it away from her, putting his finger at his lips signifying silence as he did before. She glanced at Draco. "Maybe we could try to put the room in order," she whispered, and as Draco repeated the "**Apertum Pseudothyrum** " spell, once again, the door slid open.

They stood for a long while in silence, at the entrance to the room watching the turbulent emotions that hung like dark clouds above them in the room. The room looked awful, but it was better that this ugliness stay here than be carried around inside, wasn't it? 

All of the pain of loss was contained in the room. This happened long ago, and yet Samara thought of losing any of her brothers and realized that time didn't matter. The emptiness of their loss would remain forever. Draco stood unmoving. His hatred hung like a banner across the room. 

"Draco," said Samara. "If you are going to do this with me, you have to reaffirm your belief in life—love. The room needs the counter balance—everything which that night was not—

He nodded, but didn't move. "I can't," he whispered. "It's not in me."

"What is in you?" she asked. "What do you believe in?"

"Nothing," he answered.

"That's not true," she said, wrapping her arms around him.

She let her hand brush against his Dark Mark, and he sucked in his breath, as if it were sensitive to her touch. "I believe in magic," he said. "and power—" He reached his hand up to stroke her face, "And you."

She let him enfold her in his arms, but they didn't dance. He only stood on the threshold of the room. One thing puzzled her about what he had said. He had told her he hated his parents. She could feel his hatred in this room. It was stark and raw and passionate. She knew it was real. So, why had he chosen to join Voldemort? Wasn't he doing exactly what he had professed to hate?

"Why?" she whispered. "Why would you join your parent's cause, if you hate them?"

"I didn't join my parents' cause," he said.

"Draco, you can't deny that you are a Death Eater. At least not to me. I've felt your magic. I see your aura—"

"I'm not denying that I'm a Death Eater," said Draco, "but I didn't join because of my parents. I joined because of Him."

"Why?" Samara breathed incredulous.

"Because he's right!" spat Draco, turning away and leaving her alone in the room. 

She glanced back at it, and then followed Draco up the stairs. She didn't want to dance anyway. When she reached the top of the stairs and the portrait, Salazar was once again holding out the emerald ring to her. It looked real—three dimensional instead of a part of the picture. 

She hesitated, looking at Draco, who had crossed the room and was staring into the fire. His aura was a perfect match with the flickering flames. 

Her eyes were drawn back to the picture of Salazar, who was coolly holding out the emerald ring on the palm of his hand. On impulse, she reached out for the ring, thinking of just touching it, but at the last minute, a powerful aura of magic appeared around Salazar and the ring. The aura was a deep forest green, shot with streaks of vivid purple and indigo. She pulled her hand away, staring. This was not Salazar's aura. It was the aura of a healer and a seer. It was the aura of someone powerful who had bewitched the picture—to do what? She wondered with a frown, but one thing Samara learned about Slytherin, was that you didn't trust anything too much. Salazar was scowling at her, his strange aura gone, as he thrust the ring back onto his finger. She stuck out her tongue at him and then glanced around self-consciously. Hopefully, no one saw her making faces at the portrait. 

Her hands were shaking as she hurried over to Draco who was staring moodily into the fire. She was glad he couldn't see auras. Hers would be a mess right now. All she could think of was his words—Voldemort's right—to do what? To kill the muggles and muggle born? Her parents? Her? From behind him she wrapped her arms around his neck. There has to be a better way, she thought, scalding tears running down her face against his warm skin.. Draco turned, gathering her into his arms and she forgot about the emerald, and Salazar and his weird aura. She forgot about muggles and mudbloods. For a little while, there was only her and Draco, clinging to one another in a world that satisfied neither.

++

****

ANSWERS TO THE REVIEWERS:

****

Trillium: Yes, well I like "weird and different". And you felt sorry for Des--ahhh--how sweet. And yes, of course you have to keep reviewing!

****

Bill: Glad you are enjoying. Did you start reading this story rather recently or have you been silently with us for the last year?

****

The Elemental Sorceress: Hmmm. Can Tom see and hear through Ginny's eyes and ears or is he just reading her thoughts? Donno. Wait a minute--Hey Tom? What's it like in there? Sorry. He's sulking and will only talk to Ginny.

****

ennui2: So glad you're reading and reviewing. Everyone should go visit the awesome Yahoo site that ennui put together for us. It's   
I never have much luck in getting links to come up, so if it doesn't show up, just go to yahoo and groups. The name of the group is The_Seers_Truth **You're awesome ennui!**

Joda: Did you read the whole thing--like right now--one sitting? Awesome. Updates arrive at your request--10 of them in the form of reviews.

****

Ennui de Morte: OK ennui2, I can't count this among the ten reviews. Sorry--well, not really, but I have to keep up appearances don't I--Anyway. My head is spinning from reading the yahoo group**. **You don't think the prophecy child has arrived yet? 50 chapters and she hasn't arrived? OK, does anyone know if St. Mongos is missing a patient? You are right about not taking candy from Fred and George though--and Ginny warned all the first years on the first day. Dobby--Basilisk food. heheheh.

****

Reiven: Yes. (Author does best impersonation of Molly Weasley: Where have you been? –back to Lady Lestrange mode-Master, we will obviously have to fix that dark mark so the summons works.) I might put more Pritch in the next book just for you, so stick with me. Yes. Eddie should have. And please participate in the "stuff" at the Yahoo group. Your ideas are so insightful. It's always bugged me that the Slytherins have an all boy quiddich team. After all the girls are Slytherins too. I don't think they'd put up with being excluded. So they didn't.

****

Silverfox1: Yes. I know. Trick or Treat has no meaning in the US either except to get candy and the religious people are angry here too, but there usually isn't much damage--at least not in my area. Maybe toilet paper on the bushes--nothing broken--but my point wasn't to say trick or treat was good or bad. It was just too much fun to think of Harry sitting there watching the muggles dressed up like witches and wizards--and the Weasley twins--can you just see how cute they would be? Sorry. I'm getting carried away. Tricks and Treats! Pats head. Have a lemon drop, Silverfox.

****

Sky: Lots more Ginny/Tom to come. And next book is definitely Ginny/Tom. You liked Valeriana better than Bellabitch? Cool. This is my most favorite chapter too. Trying to get the climax to equal it. I think I've almost got it! Crosses fingers. Waves wand.

****

Kemenran: Volde has an army? Oh no! Hurry tell Dumbledore!

****

Smiles: Poetry, just for me? How sweet. You know I hate sweet. grrrr. Seriously, your poetry is pretty good. One too many syllables on "There is growing danger" Change to "There's growing danger." Try making your lines longer. It's easier to stay in rhythm when you have more words to work with. Keep those lovely reviews coming!

Lady Lestrange

(alias: Carman Doogle on the yahoo group "The_Seers_Truth")

If you haven't done so, go visit the yahoo group. And if you want something good to read, (in addition to ST) check out my reviewers. Many are excellent authors. 

–Lady Lestrange

10 reviews to the next chapter-- 

****

TEASER: Next Chapter, Draco finds out that Samara is muggle born, then it's on to Knockturn Alley. 

==


	55. CH 54 Betrayed by Wand and Blood

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Betrayed by Wand and Blood

Chapter 54

****

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. The chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts. Take a deep breath now. Non-stop action till the end.

Here, Samara finally tells Draco of her muggle parentage and next chapter, we visit Knockturn Alley.

****

Betrayed by Wand and Blood

Chapter 54

Ginny spread the robe out across her bed and outlined the stains once again with her wand. "Scurgify!" she cried, putting all the intention of cleaning that she could into the spell. **"Scurgify! Scurgify! Scurgify!"**

__

"Ginny. Forget it. Throw the robe away. It's ruined, just like the ones in first year."

"Tom, I can't. Snape had me burn the sleeve off of one of my best robes. I got potion on this one and blood on another one." She sighed. "This was one of my good ones."

__

"Not anymore."

"I only have one other that isn't a half worn out second hand robe and I can't afford to buy new ones. **Scurgify!"**

She poured a little more of Mrs. Skower's magical stain remover on the stain, and then picked it up to examine it. "I think it's eating away the cloth," she said with concern.

"_I wouldn't doubt it," replied Tom._

__

"After all the words we wrote on the wall with the potion are still shining through, but the stone is crumbling away after Filch's scrubbing. Couldn't expect much more from cloth, could we?"

Ginny crumpled the robe and threw it on the bed. "Maybe I could transfigure it into something else."

__

"The stains wouldn't go away," said Tom. "Just throw it away. You have to buy some new robes. It will make you feel better anyway."

"No it won't."

__

"It always made Carman feel better."

"I'm not Carman! I don't have money to throw away."

__

"You're not throwing away money. You're throwing away a stained and ruined robe. Not to mention, it is slightly small on you--You will enjoy a new robe. One in which your hands can touch.—"

"My hands? My hands can touch in my robe," retorted Ginny.

__

It's something for me to think about when you're snuggling with Edward. I sometimes wonder if it will rip right down the middle of the back when you—" The picture in her mind which Tom had conjured of the robe ripping and falling right off of her, made her realize just how threadbare her robe was.

Sigh. "I don't have the money. You should understand that, Tom."

"_I do," said Tom sympathetically. "When you don't have money, you have to find a way to earn money. Of course, I don't think you want to earn money like I did—"_

"I don't want to know, Tom."

Nonetheless, a flash of a shopkeeper in Knockturn alley bickering about the price of dragon blood appeared in her mind, followed by the same shop keeper discussing the price of muggle blood.

"What! How did you—NO! I didn't ask that--"

Of course, the memories were already in her mind so they appeared in her mind's eye before she finished the sentence—"Tom! Those weren't attempted suicides at your orphanage!"

__

"No one died! I numbed the pain. I healed the cuts. They didn't even wake up—If they had awakened, then I'd have had to explain."

"Tom! You took their blood."

__

"No. Actually Salazar took it. I was in charge of the healing. He thought we should have just killed one or two and then we could have just taken it all. I had to convince him it was worthwhile to let them live."

"Oh—"

__

"Can we think of something else?"

"Yes. Good idea," said Ginny, consciously trying to separate her memories from Tom's. "You said you had an idea of how I could earn some money."

"_Yes," said Tom. Ginny could feel a half smile trying to express itself on her lips. "Your brothers have a remarkable potion, and you, Ginny Love, have the market for it. You could sell it for twice, three, probably ten times what your brothers are getting for it—"_

"You want me to sell the make up potion to the Slytherins, to cover their Dark Marks? I couldn't do that."

__

"Why?"

"It's not ethical. It's probably illegal."

__

"I don't think so. I mean concealing the Dark Mark, might constitute a crime—of course in some auror's eyes, having one is a crime, even if the person were under **Imperio—**However, selling a concealing glamour–type potion is certainly not illegal. You have nothing to do with where they put it."

"I just don't think I could do that. It's just—It's—"

__

"It's called exploiting the market, supply and demand, free enterprise—"

I mean, Tom, it's taking advantage of them—It's morally wrong."

__

"No it isn't. They would be glad to have a reliable source to cover the Mark. You've used it Ginny. What would you do without it? It's a win-win situation."

"Why is it, that you only have morality when it suits you?"

__

"It doesn't just suit me. It suits all involved. You get the money. They get the protection. Why would you deny them that protection? Denying them; that's wrong—morally or otherwise."

She shivered, thinking of all the questions that she avoided. Edward too—

Slytherin's different. "They're OK with having the Dark Mark, so many of them do—" Ginny balled up the ruined robe and threw it in the corner. She started to brush her hair in preparation for going down to supper.

__

"Alvin Nott isn't OK with it. One time, Cho or someone like her gets a look at it, don't you think there will be questions? If you could save him from going to Azkaban, don't you think you should do it?"

"Well, yes. Alvin never even wanted to get the Dark Mark—"thought Ginny as she headed down to the Gryffindor Common Room.

__

"Exactly. What kind of service are you doing for him? It's not taking advantage. It's filling a need, and considering the price he paid for the Dog Droppings—"

"They're puppy puffs." Thought Ginny as she entered the Common Room.

__

"Alvin was not a puppy! Did you get a good look at the size of his teeth?"

Ginny giggled. "I wonder how much the twins got for his custom puppy puffs."

__

"Why don't you ask them? Here they come."

I couldn't ask them that.

"I could. Do you want me to do it?" The now familiar tingling sensation of Tom's attempting to take control of her body rang through her.

"Will you quit that?" she hissed. 

__

"No. Probably not," said Tom.

"Hi," Ginny greeted the twins. "How's business?"

"Booming," said Fred.

"Barking," said George. "Puppy Puffs have to be our biggest seller."

"But the clown faces are doing OK too. They sell in spurts. We did great with them at the Quiddich game, but now, they're kind of slow. Are you going to the Great Hall?"

Ginny nodded and started to walk with her brothers. "Maybe I could help you," Ginny said slowly. "There are some people I know—she shrugged.—girls who might be shy to ask you for the make up, just as make up, not as a joke."

"Yeah, well Eloise Midgin doesn't have a problem asking," said George.

"She bought a whole case—twelve bottles," said Fred in awe.

"Well, she was desperate," said Ginny. "I'm talking about first and second years, who probably wouldn't approach you. Maybe some of Edward or Samara's friends—"

"Slytherins?" asked George.

"Only if you charge them double," said Fred with a grin.

__

"Tell your brothers that you get half the money," said Tom.

"And Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, too," said Ginny ignoring Tom. "Samara's at Ravenclaw now. She and Aldwin are playing chess again. Did I tell you she beat Ron last night?"

__

"Don't change the subject, Ginny. Tell them you want a cut of the money."

"No! Really!" Said Fred.

"Smashing! She beat Ron? I'll bet he was in a state!" said George.

"He was," said Ginny. 

"Let's go tease—um talk to him," said George.

"Good idea," said Fred.

"Ginny! _Tell them you get half! Fifty-fifty on Slytherin sales! Say it. Say it. Say it!"_

"Fifty-fifty," said Ginny.

"What?" George looked at her like he didn't know her.

"You're our sister. You want money for helping us?" Fred stared.

"Yes."

The twins looked at each other for a moment, obviously communicating in that strange twin sort of way they had.

"Ten percent," said Fred.

"OK," said Ginny

__

"Fifty," shouted Tom. "Ten percent isn't enough for the Slytherins, especially if you are charging them double. Your cheating brothers still get their whole amount. Don't you dare agree to ten percent—the cheapskates!"

"But, I really don't think ten percent is enough, if I sell it for more. Especially if I sell some to the Slytherins," said Ginny softly. "How about if you get ninety percent of all the sales, and if I sell it for more, I keep the difference. You aren't really losing anything, except the ten percent, and you're not working at selling the potion."

"I don't know," said Fred thoughtfully.

__

"Some of the Slytherins use a lot of glamour charms," said Tom.

Ginny parroted his idea. "They have such complexes about appearances—"

"And they have more money than they know what to do with," said George.

"If your brothers made the potion so that when someone quit using it, their complexion got worse than it originally was—" began Tom.

"Shut up, Tom," thought Ginny. "They're Gryffindors. I'm not even suggesting that."

"Come on, Fred," said Ginny. "I burned a robe in defense a few weeks ago, and I just spilt a potion on another robe—

__

"You're not telling them about Rookwood's blood?" inquired Tom.

Ginny ignored him. " I really need the money—"

"OK, Sis," said George, and Ginny threw her arms around him in glee. "Thanks so much! I'll sell so much potion, you'll have to brew more."

"I doubt it," said George. "We brewed quite a lot already and we're not even sure how long it will last—probably only several months."

"Not that much," mumbled Fred, "We'll bring a case of the potion over to your room."

"That should get you started," said George.

"Oh! One other thing," said Ginny. "About the clock—Could you just fix mine to say "at school" like it used to?"

"Oh, why, Ginny?" said Fred.

"Well, I'm sure your hands don't tell mom your every move. Fred—playing a trick on a teacher. George-skipping class."

"I don't skip class," said George, indignant. 

"I think our Ginny's growing up," said Fred.

'Please?" Ginny begged.

__

"Don't beg, Ginny Love. It's so unbecoming—"

"Oh I don't know," said George. "I think Mom should know where her baby is—"

Ginny's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't want Mom to find out that you charmed all those Canary Creams wandlessly—"

"Ah-h Gin, you wouldn't tell her that! We couldn't use our wands. It was summer," protested Fred.

"And then there was the ton-tongue taffies—"

__

"Very nice, Ginny Love. Blackmail works."

"It's not blackmail."

"Of course it is."

"Ginny!" cried Fred. "You wouldn't do that—"

"Wouldn't I?" 

"OK," said George. "Your hand says, "At school or studying. You can continue to be Mom's little angel."

"Good."

As they reached the Great Hall, the Weasley's separated, the twins going to sit with their friends, and Ginny pausing at the door to see what Edward and Gloria Snood were laughing about.

"Stay here," said Edward sniggering. "Look, Ginny."

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" asked Ginny.

"Cho Chang," said Edward.

"Ravenclaw table. There she is!" Gloria was practically jumping with excitement.

"What did you guys do?" asked Ginny.

"Nothing." Said Edward.

"Not us," corrected Gloria. "Greg Goyle."

"Cho is convinced all Slytherins are evil," said Edward. "We wanted to make her eat her words."

"Or maybe prove them, considering Greg," laughed Gloria.

"Samara was telling me about Cho, and her plan to single handedly rid the world of --" began Ginny as a big-eyed fluffly black and white puppy lumbered into the room. He was tripping over his own feet and absolutely adorable. "Oh—" said Ginny. "He's so cute." She turned to Gloria and whispered. "That's Greg Goyle?"

Gloria nodded.

"He should stay a puppy," said Ginny.

Gloria and Edward were laughing hysterically as the puppy wriggled and waddled over to Cho. He scratched her leg with a too large paw. "What kind of puppy is he?" asked Ginny as Cho picked him up. "He looks like some kind of sheepdog."

"Donno," said Edward. "You'll have to ask your brothers that one."

Cho was searching the Ravenclaw table, obviously trying to discern 'who' the dog was. Then she settled down to eat her supper, and read the book that was propped in front of her. Apparently she either thought she knew who the puppy was, or she didn't care.

'The puppy curled up beside her on the chair, periodically sticking a wet nose under her arm and nudging her. He started to gnaw on the dangling safety chain of her watch and worked his way up her wrist to her fingers. Absently she petted him, while he chewed gently on her fingers.

"Anytime now," whispered Edward, and almost on cue, the puppy beside Cho grew into Greg Goyle. He was sucking on her thumb. Cho screamed and shoved away from him. "Get away from me, you—you—"

"Puppy?" supplied Greg with a leering grin.

Cho blushed and went for her wand, then she seemed to think better of it. She turned and marched from the hall, leaving her book behind on the floor.

Edward, Ginny and Gloria stood just outside of the Great Hall in fits of laughter. At last they entered the Hall and went to their respective tables.

==

When they came to the Gryffindor Table, Samara caught Ginny's hand. "You missed the best puppy puff," she laughed. "It was Cho and Greg Goyle—"

"We saw it," confessed Ginny. "Edward and Gloria set it up." 

"Oh it was priceless," said Samara. "The look on her face when she discovered that puppy was Greg Goyle of all people—"

"Well, I've never seen Cho at a loss for words before," replied Edward. "It was worth the cost of the puppy puff just for that."

"However did you talk Greg Goyle into doing that?" asked Beatrice.

"It wasn't hard," said Edward. "He'll do most anything for food."

"Oh, Edward. That's rude," said Ginny. "He isn't that bad. He thought the joke was pretty funny too, especially after Edward told him all the comments she made about Slytherins all being Death Eaters. I have a feeling that Greg might just be the first of many."

Samara chuckled. 

"She may learn to hate dogs," said Beatrice.

They ate in silence for a while, then talking about classes and quiddich and shopping for the holidays. "Are you going to do your Christmas shopping at Hogsmeade this weekend?" asked Samara.

Ginny shrugged. Unless she made some money, there were going to be very few Christmas gifts from her.

"I wrote and told my parents that I wanted a broom for Christmas," said Samara. "Hopefully, I won't have to keep borrowing yours every morning after January," she told Ginny.

"I don't mind," said Ginny.

"I know you don't. Thanks," replied Samara.

==

After supper, the common room was deserted. It had snowed late in the afternoon and most of the Gryffindors were outside playing in the snow. 

Lou and Joe were playing chess in the corner of the room and the trio was working on some private project. Ginny and Edward joined Samara who was curled up in a chair by the fire, furiously taking notes on her Advanced History. She didn't even look up when Ginny and Edward came to sit by her.

"Studying hard?" Ginny asked.

"Hmmm?" Samara said, continuing to work. Edward glanced over her shoulder and read aloud—

"_The best documented expedition to the Coastal Rift was made by Merlin, in 1004. No expeditions of later years have been so successful, and whether or not the Rift actually exists is open to speculation. Most Wizard Historians concede that the very existence of rooms of Requirement within the magical community point to the flexibility of matter which existed before the creation of the Rift itself. Rowena Ravenclaw contends that the world of magic and the world of muggles were in ancient times separated by a Veil of Chaos, which was rent by the great Magicks of Raven, probably between the years 890-910. Bridget Wenlock (1232) believed that it was the wizards themselves who intruded upon the world of the muggles in the New Land. Because of the Rift, the great Russian seer, Priam Vablastsky in the year 1006 prophesied that political stability would elude the Wizarding world as long as muggles inhabited it. This account may be validated by an actual report given to the Governors of Magic by Morgania, the lessor, in the following century (1302). The report certainly describes the present geography of the Land with considerable accuracy. However, it is open to debate whether or not_—anybody gives a hoot!" spat Edward. He blew out his breath, tossing the book back to Samara. "Glad I'm not taking that class."

"Have you done your Advanced Defense?" asked Edward.

Ginny shook her head, and then glanced around the common room, counting heads. "There's eight people here," she said. "If we can both accio all the wands here, we'll only have two more to go—" 

Edward shuddered. "Let's ask," he suggested.

"Hey Hermione," Ginny called. "I need some help with my Advanced Defense—"

"See," said Ron. "I'm not the only one that asks Hermione for help even if she isn't in the class."

Harry laughed, but his smile faded as Edward followed Ginny over to the trio.

"We have an assignment," said Ginny. "To wandlessly **accio** ten wands that are not our own and then document the wood and wand cores. Apparently, it will help us to understand our own magic better and also to realize which wands we might be able to –um—what was the word Snape used?"

__

"Steal?" provided Tom.

"Appropriate," continued Ginny "if we are ever captured by Dark Wizards."

"That's awesome!" said Hermione, laying aside the papers they were working on. "So, if you can accio the wand, it will work for you right? Whose have you accioed so far?"

"No one's," said Ginny. 

"This isn't necessarily about taking a wand in a combat situation--" said Edward. 

"You wouldn't get it," said Harry softly, his green eyes boring into Edward's.

"It's about taking a wand by stealth," continued Edward. 

"Fine," said Ron, taking his wand from his pocket and laying it on the table. "Can either of you accio mine?"

****

"Accio!" said Ginny. Ron's wand rolled over on the table, and Ginny licked her lips in concentration. **"Accio, willow wand, unicorn hair!"** The wand lifted and hovered, laboriously floating toward Ginny in a zig zag pattern much like Hermione's wand had done in Snape's class. However, the wand looked not at all sure that it should go to Ginny, and stopped just a breath away from her hand.

"The wand chooses the wizard," said Ron and Ginny reached forward and snatched the wand from the air.

"Got it," she cried.

"But you aren't supposed to know what it is," said Edward as he tried to accio Ron's wand. 

It had no interest in coming to Edward. 

"I don't think it's going to work for you," said Ron.

"That's no surprise," said Harry. "Unicorn hair doesn't seem really compatible with your magic, does it Edward?"

"What do you mean, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Well, unicorn hair denotes pure intentions, doesn't it?"

"In Ravenclaw," interrupted Samara, "Terry called Unicorn hair a 'light' wand, because the unicorn is a creature of the Light."

"Terry Boot?" asked Hermione. "he's in my arithmancy class."

"Yes, I know," said Samara. "We were talking about wand cores. He says some cores are considered light, some dark and some neutral although Aldwin says they are more correctly categorized as creative power which is internal; destructive power, which is usually external and Spiritual power which—"

"I'd believe Terry," said Hermione. "He's always got the answers in arthmancy. I think he'll have one of the top OWL scores this year."

"You haven't met Aldwin," retorted Samara. "He's either going to break the record for the highest NEWTs or he'll off on some philosophical quest and forget to show up—"

__

"That would be good," spat Tom. "Highest NEWT's—humph--If anyone's going to break my record, Ginny Love, it's going to be you."

"I doubt it, Tom. I just want to pass." Ginny thought. "I hate to break up this little debate," Ginny said aloud, "but I do have to get my homework done sometime tonight—"

"Oh, sorry," said Hermione. "Do you want to try to accio my wand, Ginny?" 

"Sure."

Both Ginny and Edward tried to accio Hermione's wand, but neither succeeded, but both Harry and Ron could use it. By now, several others had joined them and were trying to accio and use each others wands. Lou and Joe had finished their chess game and came over to watch.

"So what's your wand core?" Edward asked Lou. 

"Dragon scales."

Edward had no trouble accioing Lou's wand and levitated a couple of pillows, before writing down, Oak, 11 1/2 inches, Dragon scales, as one of the wands he could use.

He couldn't accio Joe's wand, which was Aspen, 12 ½ inches unicorn mane hair, but Ginny got it. She said it felt like she would have trouble doing anything too strenuous with the wand and although she could levitate the pillows, when she tried to set up her ward with it, it vibrated dangerously and she stopped, afraid that she would shatter the wood.

"How about yours, Harry?" asked Ginny, and Harry opened his palm, leaving his wand lying on it. Ginny held up her hand. **"Accho!"** she said, and the wand soared to her hand like a lightening bolt. As she closed her hand on it, Tom gasped.

"Oh," he breathed. "It's my wand."

"No. It's Harry's wand," thought Ginny. Aloud, she said, "Phoenix feather and--?"

"Holly," supplied Harry. "eleven inches." 

"Not just phoenix," said Tom. "_The_ phoenix. My phoenix, but it's a lot stronger in his wand. Mine was a tail feather. I wonder. Ask where on the bird was the feather," said Tom, and Ginny complied.

"Tail feather," said Harry, holding out his hand for his wand.

"Do the ward," urged Tom. "No. Let me do it. Please Ginny. I won't keep control. Just let me feel this magic. Let me feel the phoenix."

But she had already handed the wand back to Harry.

__

"Damn it, Ginny. I was going to give it back. I just wanted to do one spell. What would that hurt?"

"Sorry—" thought Ginny.

__

"No you're not," spat Tom, anger boiling in his frustration. "How can you still be afraid?"

"I'm not—I just—I can't trust you—"

__

"You used to know the difference between me and Salazar!"

Ginny felt him retreat from her, rage simmering just below the surface. If he had a body, Ginny knew without at doubt, she would have been the recipient of some sort of curse. 

"Sorry," she muttered again.

A deep silence greeted her.

"Harry, can Edward accio your wand?" asked Hermione.

"No," said Harry, glaring at Edward, "but **Accio**!" cried Harry smoothly taking Edward's wand from his robe pocket. Harry frowned as he closed his fingers around the wand.

"I don't mind," said Edward, widening his stance and pulling gently from the wind elemental.

"Did someone open a window?" asked Ron. "There's a draft in here."

"Well, it is getting cold," said Hermione. "There are a lot of drafts in this old castle."

"But it's a good excuse to snuggle," said Ron, moving closer to Hermione and putting his arm around her. She smiled up at him and he kissed her lightly on the cheek.

Harry had pulled his own wand and was holding the two side by side. Edward's was an inch and a half shorter than Harry's and Harry looked up suddenly. "Your wand is yew," he said surprised.

"Yes," said Edward. "Have you ever used a yew wand?"

"No," said Harry thoughtfully. "I just dueled against one."

"Who?" said Edward, obviously expecting Harry to name some student.

"Voldemort," said Harry succinctly, and Ron startled. "I wish you wouldn't say his name"

Harry shrugged, still running his fingers along the wand. "This feels—feminine—" said Harry, but if he expected that to be an insult he was mistaken.

"It _is_ feminine," said Edward, looking straight at Harry. "It's a harpy feather."

Harry grimaced and tossed the wand back. Edward caught it expertly with the tip pointed at Harry Potter. "Sorry," he said snidely as he turned the point of the wand away from Harry directly, and placed his wand in his pocket. 

"Yours? Samara?" asked Edward, who accioed Samara's wand, twirled it through his fingers and looked at it. "It's so small," he said. "I feel like I'm holding a pigeon feather quill."

"And Lisa Turpin thought it felt like a bludger bat," laughed Samara.

Ginny laughed and accioed Samara's wand. The smile died on her face as she touched it, but aloud she said, "Good," that makes four I can **accio."**

"Tom? This feels like Him. Do you feel it?" Ginny asked But Tom didn't answer. 

Turning the wand thoughtfully in her hand, Ginny said, "Oh, wait, you don't have a wand core. It's just your unknown dust infused into the wand, isn't it, Samara?"

"Actually," said Samara. "I found out what is in my wand. It's infused with basilisk skin dust. Didn't I tell you?"

"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Ron, jumping to his feet. Hermione caught hold of Ron's sleeve and pulled him back onto the sofa. Her eyes were wide with astonishment, but she didn't say anything. 

"Basilisk!" said Ginny. She laid it quickly on the table.

Instead of accioing the wand, Harry walked around the table, and very gently laid a finger along side of the wand. He cautiously traced the edge of the wand, taking several deep breaths as he touched it. He blanched, his scar standing out against his pale skin, and pulled his hand away, but he didn't retch. 

Samara, oblivious to the stir she had caused, was still talking about her wand. "The Slytherins said, they knew it was a snake. Of course, everything is a snake over there—Someone said, boomslang, but the Ravenclaws said it couldn't be boomslang. It's not magical—"

"That's true," agreed Hermione.

"Then, Terry Boot said, 'It's a basilisk, because of the pentagon shaped scale pattern and of course, because it's obviously a magical serpent. Then, that's when we started talking about different kinds of cores. He asked me to use my wand to stun his book—"

"Your wand? Did it work?" asked Hermione, noticing Harry's pale strained face, she threw him a puzzled glance.

"Yes. It worked."

"So his book is 'dead' too now," observed Harry, rubbing his face, and still taking deep breaths.

"Harry?" asked Hermione. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, said Harry. "I'm a little uncomfortable with it, but not like when I touched the book. The book wanted to teach me. The wand doesn't want to have anything to do with me. The magic of the wood, seems to counteract the magic of the infusion," he said. "What is this wood?"

"Cedar," said Samara, "For protection and healing—"

Harry nodded. "That's why I can hold it, but I think I'd have a hard time with the simplest spells with this wand." Harry paused, still examining the wand. " So is Terry's book dead too," Harry repeated. 

"No just unconscious. I could **enervate** it. What's wrong with a basilisk infusion anyway?" Samara asked into the sudden silence. "It's just a snake. A magical snake, but –"

"It's not just a snake," said Ginny.

"I've seen pictures," said Samara. "On the portrait of Salazar in the Slytherin Common Room, he has a basilisk draped over his shoulder."

"Over his shoulder," exclaimed Harry surprised. "It must be a baby. The one in the Chamber was 20 feet long."

"Well, so were anacondas—" began Samara.

"And it could kill with a glance—" continued Harry.

"It didn't kill anyone," interrupted Ginny.

"Myrtle," said Harry.

"OH--that's why its eyes are closed," said Samara softly.

"So, Harry, however did you manage _to see_ one," asked Edward with a smirk.

"Dumbledore's phoenix had pecked out the eyes," said Harry. "The same phoenix who gave the feather for my wand—Fawkes" He turned to Samara. "Did you realize what was on the ruined pages? The pages that held the basilisk skin and then the basilisk dust in your book for so long?"

"Yes," said Samara. "It was a potion, to shorten some incubation period—"

"Is that all you remember?" asked Hermione.

"No," said Samara. "It contained all different kinds of bloods and venom—vampire, werewolf, gnome, unicorn--

"And that didn't strike you as strange?" asked Ginny.

"What? That it had a lot of blood and venom in it?" She shrugged.

Several members of the group nodded. "But there are lots of weird potions," said Samara. "I didn't give it much thought. Anyway, I was just so excited to finally get my wand to work--"

"You can't use that wand," said Hermione. "It's dark."

"Don't be ridiculous," spat Samara, putting her wand back into her hair. "I've been using it for over a year now. I made this wand. I spent months on its construction. I didn't pick it up in ten minutes at Olivanders."

"Nonetheless--" said Harry, "Your wand core—er—infusion—"

"It's the intent that matters, not the wand core," interrupted Samara. "I know Terry said some cores are technically classified as light and some as dark, but that choice ultimately rests with the wizard. Intention. Aldwin says, light and dark are vastly over-rated. The wand isn't going to do any spells that I don't want it to."

"So why would you want to hang on to that –basilisk wand?" asked Ron. "The wand chooses the wizard," said Ron darkly. " –or the witch."

"Oh, come on," snapped Samara. "I made it. It's a piece of wood, an enhancing substance, and my magic. The magic is still mine—dark or light."

"Maybe you're a dark witch," supplied Edward with a slight grin. 

"And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked Edward, testily. "If someone uses a unicorn hair wand to do Avada Kadavra, they're still dead. The wand doesn't matter. It's a tool to focus the magic, compatible with the wizard, yes, but not identical."

"Hey, don't get mad at me, Samara. I don't have a problem with your wand," said Edward, throwing up his hands in mock defeat.

"Well," interrupted Hermione, " it is considerably harder to do a curse with a unicorn hair wand than say a dragon scale or even dragon heart strings—"

"OK," said Samara, "I'll agree it is harder to do a curse with a light wand, but the fellow with the unicorn hair wand could just levitate them out of the tower window and drop them on their head. The person would still be just as dead and the act is still murder, even though the magic is not considered dark. I really don't see a difference and I doubt the person splattered on the ground would either—"

Edward burst into laughter.

"There is nothing funny about this conversation," said Harry coldly.

"I think it's hilarious," said Edward. "You're ready to burn her at the stake, just because her wand is different from yours. I suddenly understand what Binns meant when he said that the witches were their own worst enemies in the witch trials—"

__

Tom was seething. He's comparing us with muggles, the great git! O-oh Ginny, don't you let him get away with that1 I won't be compared to a muggle!

"You are comparing us with muggles," Ginny blurted.

"Not all of you," said Edward. "Just the ones out for blood—" He shrugged, glancing back at Harry. "So what? As long as Samara's wand works for her, it's not our business—"

"It's everybody's business," snapped Harry.

"Pardon?" said Edward softly. "What is everybody's business?"

"What side other people are on—light or dark. Voldemort or Dumbledore."

"Wait a minute," said Samara.

"I don't think it is—"interrupted Edward.

"Because you are on the wrong side," blurted Harry. "Who knows if you have a Dark Mark on your arm—"

"A what?" said Edward, frowning.

Ginny sucked in her breath. "Harry—"

__

"Oh nice save, Lestrange," said Tom. "Let Edward handle it. Don't rush to his rescue unless he needs you, Ginny Love. Let's hope he has the potion on his arm."

"A skull with a snake crawling out of its mouth," said Harry, putting his hand in his pocket, on his wand. "The sign of the Dark Lord—on your left arm--"

"Here," said Edward, ripping off his robe and rolling up his shirt sleeves. "Take a look. He thrust his arms under Harry's nose. You're starting to sound a lot like that crazy defense teacher you had, jumping and pointing fingers at everyone—Constant vigilance!"

"Not everyone. You."

"And Samara—" retorted Edward. "One has to wonder, Harry. How did you find out what this mark looks like and how did you see a basilisk—"

Harry pulled his wand.

Next you'll be chasing dustbins," mocked Edward, picking up his robe, and seeming to ignore Harry's drawn wand, but Ginny felt the slight stirring of the air elemental.

"Harry," said Hermione clutching his wand arm. "Harry. Let it rest. Edward doesn't have a Dark Mark or a basilisk wand—"

"Harpy," spat Harry, still holding his wand poised.

"And _you_ accioed it!" said Edward, pulling his own wand and glaring at Harry. He turned it in his hand and held it out to Harry. _You_ could have used it. _You_ didn't have a problem with it at all until I told you what it was—Samara didn't even know what her wand infusion was until just a few weeks ago—no just a few minutes ago. Before, she thought it was a snake. Just some kind of magical snake--So what—"

The door to the common room opened revealing Neville and Beatrice. Instantly Neville had his wand out. **"Stupefy!"** called Neville, and Edward turned, just a moment too late. He crumpled onto the floor unconscious.

__

"That was so unfair," complained Tom. "That wasn't Longbottom's fight." 

"Unfair, Tom?" wondered Ginny. "He was trying to help,"

"Bloody hell," said Ron. 

Neville looked from one to the other. "I thought—" he said. "I'm sorry. Are you alright, Harry?"

"Yes," said Harry. Putting his wand away. "Edward and I were just having a little disagreement."

__

"And Longbottom interferred—" commented Tom disgustedly. "Aurors. They never fight fair when they're dealing with Slytherins."

"Personally, I can't believe that Edward let Neville take him down,."thought Ginny.

"Element of surprise," said Tom. "It's always an advantage. But of course, you're right. Edward is seriously losing his touch—"

It didn't warrant knocking him unconscious, but thanks anyway." He grinned at Neville. "It's the thought that counts."

"I thought the disagreement was with me," spat Samara.

Harry turned toward her as if he were seeing her for the first time. "We know you didn't know that you had a basilisk skin as a wand infusion, Samara, but—"

"Yuck!" interrupted Beatrice. 

"Will you stop it!" shouted Samara, tears collecting in her eyes. "I worked very hard on that wand, and I have no intention of getting another one." She looked hard at the little group and then turned toward the portrait hole. "I'm going for a walk," she said.

"Should I enervate Edward?" asked Neville.

"I'd say, let sleeping Slytherins lie," said Ron.

"Don't you mean let sleeping Death Eaters lie," said Harry.

"He doesn't have the Dark Mark," Ginny protested.

__

"Leave it, Ginny Love," said Tom. "It's best not to get involved."

==

Outside the common room, Samara hesitated. It was already nearly time for curfew. Where could she go? She decided on the kitchens. That seemed to work for Edward and Ginny. 

Once she got there, however, she realized that the house elves expected her to eat. In fact they insisted on it, bringing her pumpkin juice while bowing and chattering. Although she wasn't really hungry, she got a cup of tea and some chocolate cookies. She realized that she never really had a liking for pumpkin juice. Maybe it was something that you had to experience as a baby to develop a taste for it. No, she thought idly as she sipped her tea. That couldn't be true, because Seemus loved the stuff. 

She pulled her wand from her hair and examined it. Was it really a Dark wand? What difference could a piece of wood and a bit of some animal make anyway? She pushed the tea aside and put her head down on the table. She felt really sad and homesick. Her last few letters from her Grandma Lori were depressing. According to Grandma Lori, her parents were still together, but still fighting. Her mother had actually added a few lines to the letter. She had written, "why doesn't this school have email?" Mother still couldn't quite get a grasp on the fact that it was really a magical school. And then she went on about Samara's oldest brother who finally decided that he'd had enough and moved out of the house. Her youngest brother, who just turned 16 a few months before her birthday, got his drivers license and promply totaled the family car. Finally, her mom said brooms were entirely too expensive and she wasn't getting one for Christmas. 

"Miss Samara should go up to her room to sleep," said a house elf. 

"I'm sorry. I just have a lot on my mind," said Samara.

Miss does not have to be sorry. It is not Tully's place to make Miss uncomfortable. Only comfortable."

Oh it's not your fault," said Samara. "I just wish I could have talked to someone—Draco maybe or even one of the Ravenclaws. I don't feel very happy in Gryffindor tonight."

Pop! The elf was gone.

Pop! The elf returned. "Draco will be here. Tully is telling him you wished to speak to him."

"Oh no!" said Samara. "I didn't mean really. I just was thinking—You didn't wake him, did you?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh no. Master cannot sleep well. He was awake. Reading school books."

"Master?" questioned Samara. "Aren't you a Hogwarts elf? Do you always call the students master?"

"Oh no, Miss. Tully is not a school elf. Tully is a Malfoy elf."

"Are you allowed to do that—bring your own house elf?"

"Eeek!" the house elf squeeked and began beating her head against the table. "Bad Tully," she pronounced. "Bad! Bad! Tully!"

"Stop!" cried Samara. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"What are you punishing yourself for now?" drawled a lazy voice. 

"Oh, she just told me she was a Malfoy elf instead of a Hogwart's elf. It was nothing." 

The elf continued to beat her head with greater vigor. 

"I tried to get her to stop, but she wouldn't listen to me," said Samara.

Draco's eyes darkened, glaring at the house elf. "Tully. Stop. You will go to my room and await me there. Stand in the center of the room and touch nothing."

Pop!

"So you were studying?" asked Samara, suddenly self-conscious as she noticed his usually immaculately combed hair was tousled and he had hastily thrown a robe over his nightclothes.

"Just reading," said Draco. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." 

"Well what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Nothing actually," said Samara shamefacedly. "I was just thinking about you, and mentioned it to the house elf—and—" Samara shrugged blushing.

Draco pulled his chair closer to hers and put an arm around her. 

I got a letter from my Grandma Lori, she said. "I feel like things at home are falling apart without me. My oldest brother moved out. My youngest brother wrecked the car, and now Mom and Dad say there will be no money for me to get a broom. I suppose I'll have to make my own broom too," she said bitterly.

"Weasley's had an enchanted car too," said Draco. "I understand they aren't that easy to control. The Weasley twins had several accidents with it before Ron and Harry tried to park it under the Whomping Willow tree, not that I think a Gryffindor could handle anything faster than a Comet 260."

Samara giggled. 

"It's good to see you smile," said Draco tracing his finger over her lips before leaning in and kissing her.

She glanced over at the two house elves that were still manning the kitchen. She wished she had some privacy with Draco. Draco followed her gaze and ordered the house elves to leave. "We will call you if anyone else arrives," Draco promised. Draco hesitated a moment and then decided that they needed a privacy ward. Within seconds it was up.

"Now," said Draco coming back beside her. "You can tell me whatever it is that has been bothering you. No one will hear you but me."  


"That's the problem," said Samara.

Draco looked at her in confusion.

"I'm not sure if I want you to hear me." She looked at her feet and considered how to word this, as Draco waited, his aura a study in curiosity. "Draco, how strong is this—" Samara hesitated searching for a word. She refused to say 'love' when he hadn't said it. Anyway she wasn't sure she'd label her feelings as love. How strong is this _attraction_ we have to one another?" she continued. 

"I don't know," said Draco. "I suppose we should just wait and see." Draco shifted on his chair so he could reach her better, his hands searching the folds of her robes to find an opening. "How strong is your attraction to me?"

"Maybe too strong," said Samara as his fingers found skin. 

"I'm not leaving you," said Draco, his fingers tracing tiny circles on her midriff. "I don't know about you. Are the Gryffs giving you trouble?"

Samara didn't answer right away, and when she did, she didn't talk about their attraction to each other. Instead she said, "It wasn't an enchanted car. It was just a regular one—a muggle one."

Draco pulled his hands back into his lap and stared at her. His aura showing his confusion, followed by betrayal and anger.

Samara licked her lips and spoke in a barely audible whisper. "My brothers aren't squibs," she said. "They're muggles--and I'm--muggle born."

"I mustn't have heard you—" he began, but his aura said he did. It was dangerously red and turbulent, practically screaming his anger out to her. 

"You heard me," said Samara. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at his aura. "Don't make me say it again." She whispered. He was so far away from her. He was untouchable.

Draco jumped up and paced away, his aura still bright with anger and frustration.. "I thought it strange that I never heard of the Donnally's, but--," Shaking his head, he turned, making his decision at last. "Why are you lying to me?" He asked. His eyes were narrowed in anger, his aura a turbulent mass of fire.

"I'm not. I'm finally telling the truth!"

He grasped her shoulders, his eyes searching hers. "I have no intention of letting you go," he said, shoving her away, he pulled his wand, "**Veritatis!** Is this what those damned Gryffindors told you to say?" He growled at her.

She shuddered with the invasion of his truth spell. Didn't he have any trust for her at all? "No," said Samara, not attempting to fight the spell. . "I didn't think it mattered and then, by the time I realized how much pure blood meant to you, it was too late. I couldn't tell you I was muggle born."  


"No. No. NO." said Draco brandishing his wand and pacing away. "You don't understand. Your magic is pure. It is not a mudblood's magic. I felt it. I know the feel of mudblood magic and yours isn't—There has to be wizard blood somewhere—**Sectum!"**

A thin line of blood appeared at her wrist where he had cut her. She was so shocked, that she didn't react at first. He grasped her wrist pulling her to him, and she pulled her wand.

****

"Expellarmus!" shouted Draco, and her wand clattered across the floor behind him. She flinched as he dipped two fingers into the cut smearing her blood on his hand. He brought it to his nose sniffing—his lips tasting--

"Draco, there isn't. I wish there were wizard blood because it's so important to you, but it's just not there."

He released her and looked at the ground, saying nothing. His aura spoke volumes to Samara. She took a step away from him. 

" I'm sorry. Can't you—care for me for who I am?"

He pointed his wand at the blood on his hand and said, "**parensentis** **manefesto**" The blood began to glow with an odd silver light.

"I do," shouted Draco. "Do you think I can't _see_ who you are with my own eyes? Sense with my own magic what you are and what you are not? Look at this!" he said shaking his blood stained hand under her nose. "You are not muggle born!" 

"**Accio** wand," said Samara. "I have no idea what you are talking about," she said cooly, clutching her injured wrist, but not putting her wand into her pocket.

He hesitated and then continued more calmly, "I just want to know your family tree. Is that so difficult, Samara? There has to be a connection to the wizarding world. Maybe you or one of your parents was adopted."

"No one was adopted."

"Are you sure?" He said finally putting his wand away, and pulling from his pocket a small thumb sized vial of potion—She recognized the bottle--veritaserium.

She stared at it, his intent clear. He didn't believe her. He wanted proof that she was being truthful. She clutched her hand around her wand so tight she thought it would splinter in her hands, but it only grew warm.

"Would you?" he asked gently. "Tell me the truth?" He held out the little vial. His aura was pure orange.

Samara yanked her wand from her pocket, a thousand curses in her mind. **"Incendio!"** she shouted and the little bottle exploded into flame in his hand.

He swore as he shook the shards of molten glass and potion from his hand.

"I'll tell you the truth," Samara said tightly. "Whether or not you believe me, is your choice. My grandfather didn't marry my grandma Lori. He was killed.''

"We know almost nothing about him."

"What do you know?" he insisted.

"Why does it matter?" she said exasperated.

"Answer me!" he roared.

****

"Testudo!" she blocked reflexively, although he threw no spell.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said.

"You already did."

Draco glanced at her arm, his aura contrite, but he said nothing. Samara was not thinking about her arm when she said he hurt her. She was thinking of how little he trusted her. How quickly he thought she lied. And how he couldn't accept that she was muggle born. She was the same witch she was a moment ago. 

When at last he spoke, he pulled his wand again. **"Pergo. Medico."** He cleaned up the blood, and healed her arm.

Tell me about your grandfather," he urged gently, but his aura was still fraught with orange.

"I don't know much. He was an only child. They were quite wealthy and didn't associate with the same circles as my grandmother."

"Tell me what you know—" he said curtly. "Please." 

Some of the orange disapated, his aura returning to its usual red. She wished she saw rose color-- She licked her lips, wanting him to just kiss her and forget all this lineage stuff. Why did this have to come between them?"

"Tell me," he said yet again.

My grandfather thought he could convince them to allow the marriage, and then they were killed--the whole family-- 

Who were they? Where did they live? Don't you have any information at all?" 

"All I know is if he had married her, I would have had a different surname."

"And what would that be?"

"Riddle."

Draco stared at her mouth open in amazement, and then his face broke into a smile as he pocketed his wand. "Perfect," he said, taking her in his arms at last. She let him kiss her, switching her wand from her right hand to her left behind his back. 

"You're not mad at me for keeping this from you?" She asked softly. 

"No," said Draco. "I wish you would have told me sooner, but I'm not mad at you. 

She shifted in his arms, pulled back her hand and slapped him with every ounce of strength she had. "Well I'm mad at you," she growled, switching her wand back to her dominant hand.

"What was that for?" he asked his burned palm automatically going to the red welts across his face.

"**Sectum!"** she spat, slicing his arm a little deeper than he had hers. "The same thing as that's for—your being a bloody basdard! You could at least say you're sorry."  


"For what? What did I do?" Draco questioned holding out his empty hands in front of him. His right hand had already started to blister from the boiling veritaserium.

A long silence stretched between them.

"You are absolutely hopeless. You know that?" asked Samara at last.

"Humph!" His aura had settled into a vivid rose color, and Samara sighed, stepping into his embrace. 

"I'll probably regret this," she said, turning her face up to his. 

"No you won't," he murmured bringing his lips to hers in a searing kiss. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, oblivious to the blood that his injured arm was getting on her robe. She reveled in the warmth of his arms and the scent of him. She had been afraid that she would never feel this again. Liquid heat filled her, and she let her magic flow over them. He molded his body to hers, deepening the kiss, and answering her magic with his own. After a moment she pulled away. 

"I have to go back to Gryffindor Tower. It's late."

"Pity you're not in Slytherin," he commented. "When are you going to get that error corrected?"

"It's not an error," said Samara. 

Draco sighed. "Come on. I'll walk back with you."

"There's no point in both of us risking Filch."

"Well, if you ever find the scrap that Potter took from his Invisibility cloak we wouldn't have to worry—would we--"

"Draco—" He silenced her with another kiss.

"Shall we take the tunnel passage?" asked Samara. 

"Absolutely," said Draco, pulling his wand to light the way. **"Minima Lumos**." 

So would your grandfather have been Tom Riddle?" asked Draco as they began the trip back to Gryffindor Tower..

"Yes," said Samara. "Thomas Samuel Riddle."

"Samuel?" repeated Draco hesitating.

"I know," Samara rolled her eyes. "I'm named for him. You'd think with three boys they would have already used the name—"

"Not Tom Marvolo?" questioned Draco.

"No," said Samara, surprised. "Although my Grandmother said that Grandfather was convinced he had an older brother named Marvolo. Do you think he really existed? She spent years looking for him after my Grandfather died."

"Oh, he exists," said Draco, "But it's probably a good thing she didn't find him."

They stopped at the end of the tunnel. "Go back from here," said Samara. "The Fat Lady lectures me, when she sees you with me." 

"Draw her some rum candy," suggested Draco. "It's not like you have to pay the Hufflepuffs to do it."

Samara snuggled against his shoulder for another moment. "I'm glad we skipped the week of fighting and went right to the make-up part this time." 

His aura, fraught with rose and red and violet, brightened somewhat, as a smile creased his face, and he chuckled softly.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I can't wait to introduce you to my mother," he said with a smirk.

"Draco?" 

"**Nox**." He said as he put his wand away and wrapped both arms around her.

"You're beautiful," he whispered, allowing his magic to course through her as he kissed her once again. "Just beautiful."

==

****

ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS:

Sky: Glad you liked the funnies in the last chapter. 

****

Raven173: ch53: Think Harry is going to get revenge? Who do you think he is, a Slytherin? Glad you liked the Invisibility cloak stuff.

Ch54: I love my Valeriana. More to come. Think Ginny is succumbing? To Voldemort//Salazar or is it just Tom.

Ch55: Yep. Lost of clues. Hope you like this chapter and get to read it soon.

****

Tamora Pierce: Glad you finally caught up. Review again soon.

****

Taju akiel: Of course my sequel will be good. Ha! How dare you think otherwise.

****

Silverfox1: Yep. Better be able to see where you are going or you might not get there. Samara is learning more about those Slytherins everyday, and she isn't going to trust Salazar even in a picture just yet. Must be all that Gryffindor propaganda she hears.

****

Trillium: Sniff. I hope everyone reviews really quickly and I'll have another chapter up for Trillium because she can only see this on Mon and Wed at school. Maybe I'll get to put up Knockturn alley chapter before Monday—Maybe—What do you think reviewers?

****

Reiven: Well now you know Draco's reaction to Samara being a muggleborn. If you don't believe that Draco "knew" from the beginning that her magic was special, you will when you see how some of the people in Knockturn Alley spot mudbloods a mile away.

I don't know if I will go to see Harry potter and POA trailer at Looney Tunes, but I hope it will be on quicktime com on the warnerbrothers list soon after.

****

Ennui2: Sighted Friend. Yes ennui. (Author sighs) You know everything about the prophecy. You're probably a seer yourself, aren't you. Just like Trelawney—hehehe—How many predictions did she get right? Two? You really should write your own fic. You'd do great! Thanks for all your insights and for making the site at Yahoo. If you haven't visited groups at yahoo yet, check it out. It's under The_Seers_Truth

****

Kemenran: More as requested.

****

Smiles: Where's my poem?

Check out "the Seer's Truth" yahoo! group:  
  
All my thinks for this site go to ennui2. Visit the site. Put up a link to your own stories or the stories you love.. "Post a link" open only to those who have reviewed The_Seers_Truth but the rest of you can join the discussion. 


	56. CH 55 Knockturn Alley

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 55

Knockturn Alley

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. This chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts. 

Non-stop action to the end, and now, on to Knockturn Alley--

****

Knockturn Alley

By Lady Lestrange

Harry didn't bring up the subject of Edward until the next evening when Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were sitting in the common room talking. All of their books and homework had been packed up for the night. "You know," he said, "McGonagall still thinks Edward's the prophecy child."

"Well, mate," said Ron. "The only thing we can do is find the real one."

"Edward thinks it's me," said Ginny.

"You!" said Ron. "It can't be you. You came to Hogwarts two years ago. It's not a year after Hufflepuff's loss—"

"Professor Quirrel was a Hufflepuff," she told them.

"But you're a pureblood too," said Harry. "We know we're looking for a muggle born, but I didn't know about Quirrel. Who else in your year is muggle born?"

"There's just Eloise Midgin and Colin Creevy, and they're both muggle borns."

Ron shuddered. "That's a scary thought," he said.

"Do either of them have anything special about them? Any special talents or powers?" Hermione wondered aloud.

"Sure," said Harry with a grin. "Colin could blind whole groups of people with a single flash."

"Oh, come on Harry," said Hermione. "He gave his camera equipment to Dennis since he's on the Quiddich team now.

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "That was one of the stipulations to let him play. George told me."

"You're lying, Ron," accused Ginny playfully. "They never said that. Even if they did it they wouldn't have told you!"

Ron and Ginny laughed.

"Harry," said Hermione. "I wouldn't think it was Edward, but we've been wrong before. We were wrong about Snape, remember? We thought he had some plot with You –Know-Who, and he didn't. It was Quirrel. We thought he hexed your broom and he didn't."

"Hermione, you can't be serious," said Harry.

"Well, it doesn't say anywhere in the prophecy that we have to approve of him—"

"He's a pureblood," said Ginny.

"Born in Azkaban?" questioned Hermione. "Are we sure he's a pureblood, or is that just the Slytherin assumptions." 

"He's pureblood," said Ginny with certainty, thinking I've met his mother.

__

"Lovely lady, isn't she?"

"Shut up Tom."

"He's not the prophecy child," said Harry. "Parvati said the prophecy child is a girl. He's just a Slytherin git. I still think he's a Death Eater."

__

"Oh Harry, Pity you'll never prove it," said Tom. "And then of course, there's Ginny—"

"Shut up, Tom."

Hermione put her hand on Harry's arm. "You just looked at his arm yesterday. You were so sure, he had the Dark Mark, but he doesn't—"

"He will," said Harry.

"He does." 

"You can't know that," Ginny protested. "Harry I know you don't like Edward, but—"

__

"Smart boy," commented Tom. "Why do you like Edward, Ginny Love?"

"Why do you like Carman, Tom?"

"You're too young to know about those things."

"No. I don't like Edward," said Harry, "but it goes further than that. I have a thousand little nuances of feeling in my scar now. Burning or tingling or pulsing or just out right pain, and all of them mean something. I haven't figured it all out yet, but when certain Slytherins pass me in the corridors, my scar reacts. I know which ones are connected in some way to Voldemort's magic. I don't know if they have a Dark Mark or if their magics are similar or if they are related by blood to other death eaters. I just don't know—But there is _some_ connection. I'm going to find out what it is." He turned his head, not meeting Ginny's eyes.

__

"I told you his scar would react to your Dark Mark," muttered Tom.

"I know," said Ginny softly thinking of the night her Dark Mark burned when she was kissing Harry.

Harry looked at her. "You know?" And then recognition dawned. "Your connection is from that damned diary," he spat. "and that was Malfoy's fault, not yours, Ginny. Never yours."

__

"Yes, Ginny Love. You are the picture of innocence aren't you? Good thing he won't ask to see your arm. Or did you remember to put the potion on today."

"I remembered," Ginny thought irritably. "I'm not completely stupid."

Tom said nothing, but he didn't need to. She could feel his smirk. Tom and his Slytherin arrogance and his Ravenclaw superiority. She had just about had it with him, but it was not like she could do anything to mute him.

"I'm not stupid," she thought.

Ginny reached out and laid her hand over Harry's. He didn't move to clasp it in his. He didn't try to kiss her good night. Ever since the night she had gone to Azkaban, he had been avoiding touching her. No wonder, she thought If he associated the pain in his scar with touching her-Especially if his pain was anything like her Dark Mark. She sighed. "Good night," she said as she climbed the stairs to her dorm room. She cared about Edward, he was her friend—"

"Edward is not your friend," Tom interrupted.

"--but it was Harry she wanted to touch." 

She felt Tom shudder at the thought, as she glanced over at Hermione and Ron, wrapped around each other so intimately that their robes were tangled around each other. A pang of regret hit her, and she turned away, her thoughts again going to Harry, but he had disappeared up the staircase.

"Tom, do you think Harry ever will—"

"_No," said Tom. "No. No. No. I don't think a single thing about Harry Potter. You aren't taking my thoughts in that direction."_

"But we talked about Harry—before—"

"**_Before_**, you were eleven. I knew you weren't going to act upon any of those thoughts, and **before**, I was able to separate my thoughts from yours. The barriers were intact."

"But Tom, I need you—"

__

"For what?" Tom spat. "Ginny, I don't want to make this a threesome—"

"Don't be disgusting, Tom."

__

"You suggested it."

"I did not."

__

"Did so."

"Did not."

"Did so."

"Did not."

__

"Oh, good, you're acting like an eleven year old again. I never thought I'd be happy to see the day when I wished you were eleven again."

Ginny burst out laughing, and Parvati and Lavender stared at her as she got ready for bed. "Sorry," she muttered. "Just thinking—of something," she explained to them

__

"Well that's just hilarious, isn't it? A Gryffindor thinking—"

"Tom you're beginning to get really annoying."

__

"Just beginning?"

==

Lavender and Parvati looked up from their game of Exploding Snap. Lavender was beating Parvati soundly, probably because Parvati was spending most of her time staring into space and muttering because she couldn't See any more, due to the intermittent doses of Dreamless Sleep Potion Madam Pomfrey prescribed.

Parvati stood and began pacing. "I should know something else," said Parvati.

"What?" asked Ginny.

"Not what. When," Parvati answered looking at Ginny. When is it all going to happen? She sat at her desk and gazed into her Crystal. Lavender gathered up the cards. 

"I guess she's done playing cards," muttered Lavender.

"Where are Seamus and Dean?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, they had detention," said Lavender. 

"For what?" asked Hermione, who just appeared somewhat breathless and covered with snow.

"For throwing snowballs with rocks in them. They broke one of the windows," said Lavender

"They could have just done **'reparo'**, said Hermione.

"Snape's window," answered Lavender. "Parvati, leave the Crystal alone for a while ."

Parvati ran her hands over her Crystal again. "I just need to know when—" she said. "I can see her on the train and the founders are all there. They're pulling her and the Death Eaters guarding--"

"Death Eaters?" said Lavender. "You never said anything about Death Eaters—"

Parvati continued gazing into the Crystal. "When?" she muttered. "Show me when."

She shook her head, and looked up at Lavender and Hermione. "It just keeps going back to the scene at the Yule ball. I see the twelve trees, all decorated and Snape saying to dance.

"Snape?" said Hermione.

"What about the Death Eaters," asked Ginny. "You didn't say there were Death Eaters on the train."

"Well, there had to be, didn't there?" asked Hermione. "Only a Death Eater could send the Dark Mark."

"Yes," said Ginny softly. "A Death Eater."

__

"Feeling a little quesy, Ginny Love? I could take over from here."

She ignored him.

The familiar tingling feeling coursed through her. She shivered.

"She's been captured by them." Parvati turned and gripped Ginny's hand. "Does this mean anything to you?" she asked. "She was speaking in parseltongue to someone—do you know of anyone else who is a parselmouth—Have you spoken to—anyone—in the snow—"

"In parseltongue?" asked Ginny incredulously, pulling her hand away.

__

"Speachless, Ginny Love?"

"I really don't think she wants to know, Tom."

"Oh Parvati," said Lavender, trying to console her friend. "Ginny would have told us if she knew anything about this. Right Ginny?"

"Of course," Ginny answered uneasily.

__

"Sure you would, Ginny Love—"

"If only I could understand the parseltongue," muttered Parvati, carressing the Crystal. "When?" she asked. "When? All I see is snow and Christmas trees," Parvati complained. "There's so much snow—There's McGonagall taking roll of who is going home for the holiday and the prefects working on the final decorations for the feast—"

"Parvati," whispered Hermione. "What if the Crystal _is _telling you when—"

"McGonagall said she wanted the final count of who is going home—" whispered Ginny. "I already told her all the Weasleys were going home and I wasn't sure if Harry was coming with us—She said she needed the count. He had to make up his mind by Monday—"

"Monday?" said Lavender in alarm.

"Well the train takes students home too," said Hermione. "Could that be the time? We should be very watchful on the train home."

Ginny shook her head. "Or it could be during Christmas break. I wonder who is staying—"

"It could be anytime in the snow," said Lavender with exasperation.

Ginny bit her lip—or it could be at the Snow Castle she thought. And how long was there snow on the ground that far north—whereever it was

__

"I see you Gryffindors really have this narrowed down," said Tom. 

"So what's your bright idea?" Ginny asked Tom.

__

"I'd like to hear the parseltongue myself," said Tom. "Then we'll know who is talking to the prophecy child anyway—you, Harry or Salazar. That should help. And what is said may tell us if she's made her choice for dark or light—Honestly Ginny, you should have thought of this long ago."

"Well, I didn't—" thought Ginnny sharply.

"Didn't what? Think? Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I'd really like to hear the parseltongue," said Ginny.

"I wish you could,"complained Parvati. "I feel like the answer is right there on the edge of my consciousness, but I can't understand it. It's in parseltongue!"

__

"You need a pensieve," suggested Tom.

==

Ginny sucked in her breath. "That's it," she whispered to Hermione. 

"What?" asked Parvati.

"We have to get a pensieve and have you put these visions in it."

Hermione nodded. "You know, Parvati," said Hermione. "Harry's a parselmouth. So's Ginny. They could understand what these visions mean."

"But he can't hear them," said Parvati, blinking and wiping her teary eyes. "They're in my head."

"We could use a penseive," said Ginny.

"Oh, no," said Parvati. "No one's taking thoughts from my head. It hurts."

"Not always," said Ginny.

"You think I don't hear your nightmares, Ginny? No. No one is screwing around with my thoughts."

"You could do it," said Hermione. "You could put the thoughts in yourself. It's not that hard. Neville's done it."

"Neville?" said Parvati.

Hermione and Ginny both nodded. 

"We don't have a penseive anyway," said Parvati.

"If we got one, would you put your visions in it?" asked Hermione. "So we could try to figure out what the prophecy means—"

"I don't know," said Parvati softly. "No."

"Parvati," said Hermione, a little annoyed, "This prophecy may mean the end of He-who-must-not-be-named.."

Parvati cringed 

"It may mean life or death for the Prophecy child if we can find her—"

"I can't," said Parvati. "It would be too—embarrassing—"

Tom chuckled softly.

"Seen one, you've seen 'em all," quipped Lavender.

"Parvati no one cares about your sex life," snapped Hermione. "We're talking about something important here."

Tom's mirth started to effect Ginny and she smiled, covering her mouth discreetly.

"Easy for you to say," Parvati smirked at Hermione. "Yours would be—an empty bowl wouldn't it?"

Tom burst into laughter.

Ginny snorted and tried to change her laughter into a cough.

"Quit it Tom," admonished Ginny, but he ignored her.

Hermione blushed and Ginny tried to smooth things over. "It would be helpful to see your visions," said Ginny. "To hear your visions. Please Parvati. You wouldn't have to put in anything that was—um—embarrassing. You would have control over that."

Ginny bit her lip. "You've heard my nightmares," she said, "But if I could help someone who probably doesn't know they are Voldemort's next target. I would do it. Even if I had to relive every bit of that—that—"She looked at the ground unable to continue.

"Rape," supplied Lavender.

Tom was suddenly quiet. His laughter stilled.

Ginny nodded, and then looked at the girls surrounding her. Hermione looked shocked, but Lavender and Parvati didn't. "How long have all of you known?" Ginny asked. She felt Tom hovering, whether from guilt or sorrow or curiosity, she didn't know. Go away Tom!"

__

"I wish I could, Ginny."

Lavender and Parvati exchanged glances. "From the first time you talked in your sleep," said Parvati.

"I—I didn't realize," whispered Hermione. "Ginny, I'm so sorry."

"Hush up, Hermione," said Parvati. "Just give her a hug. For someone who is so smart, you are sometimes just impossible.."

'Does your family know?" asked Hermione, as she pulled Ginny into a friendly hug. 

"Mum and Dad," said Ginny. "And Percy. He was at St. Mongo's—when—when-- He was really upset. Thought he should have been able to stop it. Being a prefect and all. I think Ron knows something bad happened, but not what. The twins don't have a clue—please don't tell them. Don't tell anyone. It's over now."

Hermione nodded.

__

"Really? Is it over?" Tom asked.

"No."

__

"Ginny you know that I was just as much a prisoner of Salazar as you were—"

"That excuses nothing."

__

"I suppose not."

"I trusted you."

"I know," said Tom. 

But he didn't say the words--nor feel the feeling Ginny was waiting for—"I'm sorry." Even after all they had been through together, he still felt he was justified. What he had done was necessary to save his life and separate himself from Salazar. He would do it again--if necessary.

Ginny took a deep breath and pulled away –determined to stand on her own. She looked right into Parvati's eyes with the intention of staring her down if necessary. "What are you going to do, Parvati? This Prophecy Child needs you."

__

"Sometimes hard choices are necessary," said Tom.

Ginny cringed. "Go away, Tom."

__

"OK," said Tom, and he retreated to some distant memory.

"You get the penseive and I'll see what visions I can put into it," promised Parvati.

"No," said Ginny. "All the visions."

Parvati swallowed. "You drive a hard bargain."

"We might make a mistake without all the puzzle pieces," said Hermione. "It's better to have them all."

"She's right you know," whispered Lavender. 

There was a long silence as Parvati considered. She raised her eyes to Ginny's and nodded. "OK," she said. "I'll do it."

"And while we're shopping," said Hermione. "We can get Samara a new wand."

==

Later that day, Ginny and Hermione told the boys what had transpired in the room with Parvati.and they all went on a search for a pensieve. When they returned to the common room, Edward was tailing along after Ginny

Harry shook his head. "Dumbledore said that pensieves are too personal to be shared."

"There must be another teacher," said Hermione. "If Dumbledore won't consent to let us use his—"

"It's not that simple," said Edward. "They are made for each individual—"

"Yes," Harry said, twirling his wand through his fingers. "That is exactly what Dumbledore said. He said they sell pensieves in Diagon Alley and perhaps I might consider buying one myself--"

  
"You?" said Ginny, putting her hand on Harry's effectively stopping his nervous fiddling with his wand.

__

"Oh," whispered Tom. "So close to that wonderful wand—You could tell him you'd curse Edward if he gets out of hand. I'd do it in a minute, probably with less provocation than Harry Potter—"

Ginny pulled her hand away from Harry's.

"Snape has a pensieve," said Ron. "Remember the charmed Pensieve in DADA when we did the Patronus?

"I don't think I'd want to look into Snape's pensive." Harry shuddered. "And I don't think he'd let us have it anyway. I can't imagine asking—"

"They're pretty pricy if you are buying your own," said Edward.

"How would you know?" asked Ron testily.

"I was considering buying one once," said Edward shamefacedly. "I—ah—didn't have a very happy childhood." He shrugged. "I couldn't afford it."

"How much were they?" asked Ginny.

"Even a cheap one is 50 galleons or more. It depended upon how many memories you wanted to put in it and how clearly you want them preserved."

Harry whistled. "50 galleons. My parents left me pretty well off, but I still have two more years of school and who knows what the job market will be when the war is over—"

"That settles it," said Ginny. "There has to be somewhere to buy second hand pensieves. I've had second hand books and second hand robes since I started school. Ron too. There has to be some kind of consignment shop that sells these things. We just don't know where it is."

"Knockturn Alley," said Edward. 

Silence greeted his declaration. 

__

"He's right, you know, Ginny Love."

"I know, Tom."

"I've been there with my brother," said Edward. "Granny wouldn't let us go there alone."

__

"Nonsense, Eddie. I knew your granny. She probably sent you on errands. She needed both of you to carry the packages." 

"Who would sell their thoughts?" asked Hermione. "That's –that's disgusting—" She shivered.

__

"Gives whole new meaning to the saying penny for your thoughts," Doesn't it, Ginny Love?"

"Shut up, Tom."

"Well," said Ginny "That's the sort of thing is for sale in Knockturn Alley. I'd suppose that a poor widow may sell her dead husband's pensive if they are that expensive. She couldn't afford not to. We just have to find one that doesn't have too many awful memories in it." 

"At least the ones without awful memories should be cheaper," said Edward seriously.

__

"He's right," said Tom. "You got all mine for free—"

"I've paid for those Tom—Believe me, I've paid." She expected Tom to laugh, but he didn't. 

"I know, Ginny Love," he said.

Samara giggled. She couldn't help it. They were just way too serious about this whole thing. It sounded preposterous to her—selling memories. 

Hermione frowned at her. "And while we are shopping, we can get you a new wand, Samara."

"No—"

"Just look," urged Ginny. "Talk to Mr. Olivander about the wand you made—"

"Ok," said Samara reluctantly. "But I'm not getting a new wand."

"So," said Hermione. "You've been to knockturn alley, Harry. Do you really think this trip is wise?"

__

"Harry was in knockturn alley? Why didn't you tell me that, Ginny Love?"

"I didn't think it was that important. He wasn't there very long. He slurred his words using floo powder for the first time—"

"I was twelve when I was there and it was a mistake," replied Harry, but we do need the pensieve. I can't think of any other way to examine Parvati's visions. I need to hear the basilisks," Harry said white-faced. "It's the only way to understand the predictions in their entirety. I think if we do this, we will know, once and for all who the prophesy child is. And I think we need to do it now, before Parvati changes her mind again."

__

"I'd like to hear what the basilisks have to say myself," admitted Tom.

"Anyway, if we continue to wait," said Ron. "You –Know-Who will find this child, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." He was rubbing his hand affectionately over Ginny's back. Harry had begun to think that Ron didn't even realize how often he reassured himself that his little sister was indeed still there. These seemingly meaningless touches were a grim reminder to Harry just how close they had been in second year to losing Ginny. He couldn't stand to think that someone was in terrible danger and not do anything to help them. He had to do this. 

"Seriously, Hermione," said Edward. "I don't think this trip is wise for you. Knockturn Alley is not the place for--wizards and witches of muggle parentage."

"What Edward," said Harry. "Do you want to make this little trip all by yourself?"

"I'd probably be safer."

"Yeah, and among friends," said Harry.

__

"Harry's pretty perceptive," said Tom. "You know, Ginny Love, I'm starting to like him. And he's certainly a safer choice than Edward—"

"Samara's muggle born," said Hermione. "So's Beatrice for that matter."

"Oh, I'm not going," said Beatrice. "Just thinking about going makes me nervous."

"Edward's right," said Ginny. "I don't think any of you should go. It should be me and Edward."

"I'm going," said Harry firmly. "If you think I'd let any of my friends go alone with the likes of him—Especially you Ginny."

"Then you'd better keep your scar covered. If fact, keep your hood up. Too many people in Knockturn would just love to deliver the Great Harry Potter to the Dark Lord." Said Edward. "You are a liability in this venture."

"As long as you aren't planning to do the delivering, I'm not worried."

__

"Does that mean he's worried about Edward?" wondered Tom.

"Well, like you said Tom, he's perceptive," thought Ginny.

"I'm going," said Ron.

"So am I," said Hermione.

Samara pulled her wand from her hair. "If anyone says anything about my parentage, I have a wicked curse ready for them."

"I'll bet you do," said Edward with a smile.

"That is the attitude we must all adopt," said Ginny. "Now, let's see how much money we have." 

Harry watched the group scrapping up knuts and sickles and counting them twice. Amazingly, Ginny had quite a stash—certainly more than Ron ever had, but not enough for the pensieve. "We need to stop at Gingortts first," said Harry. "I'll pay for the rest of it."

There was another moment of silence and then Ginny spoke. "Let's get moving. Stay together. Hoods up."

"And we're all purebloods," said Edward as he raised his hood.

==

****

Knockturn Alley

The group decided that they would be safer if they looked like couples. That way, they would be holding on to each other's hands and it would be harder to lose anyone. Harry had Samara's hand. She was striding ahead with long purposeful strides. He felt like her puppy instead of her boyfriend. Edward was walking with an arm draped lazily around Ginny's waist and Ron had a death grip on Hermione. Edward and Ginny looked comfortable with the arrangement, and when Hermione leaned her head on Ron's shoulder, Harry had to admit, they looked good together. 

A gasp from Hermione brought him out of his revery. Harry turned to see Hermione's hood slipped to the side revealing her mass of brown hair. An equallly brown withered, clawlike hand was entwined in Hermione's hair. 

"Just a few of the Mudblood's hairs," squeaked the hag. "I'll pay you well—or maybe you want a potion—or a charm—" She was addressing Ron, completely ignoring Hermione.

It was Samara who reacted first. "Back off Hag!" she snapped, her wand in the woman's face. Then the others had their wands out too, and trained them on the hag. Except for Edward, who spoke in a cool collected voice. "You are mistaken. She's a pureblood."

__

"Ahh-Ginny, another way to make some money," said Tom. "All that growing and shortening of her hair that she's doing, she won't even notice."

"Tom. I can't do that!"

__

"Why? If I can take blood undetected, you can take hair."

"No. Anyway, I'm doing fine with selling the potion to the Slytherins. The only thing I have to worry about is that the twins will start to wonder why I'm selling so much. They must think some of my customers bathe in it."

__

Tom chuckled. They do, don't they?

The hag had turned one green eye and one brown eye at Edward. Harry was strangely reminded of Moody, although he didn't think either of the eyes were magical, they were certainly unsettling. "Ah, Mr. Lestrange. I didn't see you there. My pardon." She withdrew her claw from Hermione's hair, but in the process scratched a nail across Hermione's neck, leaving a thin line of blood. "Where's your brother today?"

"Busy."

Hermione's hand went to her neck and her other hand to her wand, but Edward shifted in front of Hermione and turned her away from the hag. Ginny heard the hag whisper as she sucked on the fingernail which had drawn Hermione's blood. "If you change your mind, Mr. Lestrange—premium Mudblood is much more valuable than hair, you know."

Soft laughter, caused them to turn. "Selling body parts now, are you, Lestrange," Drawled a lazy voice from the shadows. "Or are you just showing them the sights." 

"It's none of your business, Malfoy," snapped Ron, pulling out his wand yet again.

__

"Get your brother settled down," suggested Tom. "People are looking—wondering if there is going to be a duel."

"This is getting us no where," hissed Ginny. "We're drawing attention."

"Get your hood up," Edward muttered to Hermione.

Indeed they were drawing attention. They needed to move off of the street and find __________where Ginny and Edward hoped they sold Pensieves. 

"Just seeing the sights," said Edward. "Want to join us?"

What was Edward playing at? There was no way they wanted Draco to join them. That would be worse than Edward himself being with them. Harry started to protest, but Edward continued undaunted. " Darla has a book for me at ___________" he said.

Draco paled. "I have other things to do," he said shortly and after giving Samara a critical eye for hanging on to Harry's arm, he strode off.

Samara hesitated a moment and then pushed off of Harry's arm and hurried after Draco. "Draco! Wait!"

He stopped.

"Who's Darla?" Hermione asked Edward.

"Vampire," said Edward. "She's had the bookshop in Knockturn Alley for several hundred years as far as I can tell. And she does have a book for me. You don't mind stopping, do you? It's on the way."

"No," said Ginny. "But we need to hurry. We've wasted enough time already. Samara!"

==

As soon as Samara caught up with Draco, he grasped her arm, and turned her to face him. "Why didn't you tell me your were coming to Knockturn Alley?" he asked.

"I didn't want you mad at me," she answered truthfully.

Draco shrugged, releasing his grip on her arm. "Of course, you could have picked better company, but if I'd have known you were coming, you could have saved me a trip."

"Really?"

"I would have given you a list."

"Draco! Come look at this!" called an excited young voice from a shop doorway.

Samara recognized one of the little "puppies" who missed out on the Halloween Party.

"And you could have babysat, too," said Draco in a bored drawl.

"Draco!" called the "puppy" again.

"In a minute," Draco answered sharply his eyes never leaving Samara. "What are you looking for anyway?" He looked over her shoulder at the little group of Gryffindors., as Ginny Weasley moved closer to Samara to try to hurry her conversation. They looked pathetically out of place.

"Oh, they found out that my wand is infused with basilisk skin. They went crazy! They think I should get a new one."

"A new wand?"

"Right."

"Can I have your old one?" Draco joked.

"I'm _not_ getting a new wand," said Samara.

"Of course not," said Draco, his lips brushing hers. "The old one fits you perfectly, but Olivanders is in Diagon Alley."

"Samara!" called Ginny.

"They want to get a pensieve too," said Samara.

"For who?"

"Samara," said Ginny again.

Samara shook her head. "It's complicated. I'll tell you later."

Samara started to pull away, but Draco's hands tightened on her arms again. "How did you get here?" he asked.

"Floo."

"They let you use the public floo? It's monitored!"

__

"See," said Tom. "I told you using the public floo was risky. You should have let me apparate you."

"How would I have explained that, Tom?"

__

"Learned it from a book. Worked for Samara."

"I guess I could have went with the old standby—I had this friend in first year."

Tom chuckled.

==

"They didn't exactly let us use the floo," Samara told Draco. "Edward, umm, convinced them to ahhh—ignore us."

Draco shook his head. "He's an idiot. He should know better. If the officials remember you when you come back through, you're toast. They'll deliver you right back to Dumbledore with a lecture and points off for leaving Hogsmeade. Floo back through Hogshead. No questions. But have your wand drawn, just in case they're nervous. In fact, send Harry and Hermione first. They can apparate and tell the proprietor that you're flooing.

==

__

"You shouldn't stand in one spot for too long," suggested Tom. "You're drawing attention."

"Samara!" called Ginny again.

"Gotta go," said Samara.

"Go then," said Draco gently pushing her away.

She turned back to him and kissed him. "I'll see you later in Slytherin, OK?"

"Maybe."

"Draco."

"Sure," he said with a smile.

==

The stop at the bookshop was enlightening. The little group browsed while Edward picked up his book, but Harry was determined to find out what book Edward wanted from this bookstore. It was obviously a Dark bookstore in more ways than one. Tiny reading lights that could be turned on and off in deference to the store's owner were situated along the shelves. Other than that, there was no light in the dingy store and all the blinds were drawn. Harry felt like he was in the restricted section of the library—at night---at Drumstrang instead of Hogwarts, trying to cast lumos with Ron's spello-taped wand.

Darla herself was unremarkable, except that she looked very young—perhaps only as old as Harry himself. She was also pretty, Harry thought with a smile. Then she smiled back, revealing inch long fangs. Harry took several steps backwards in surprise and bumped into Ginny. Ginny turned and faced Darla.

"Virginia?" said Darla, coming around the counter to inspect her. She glanced again at Edward. "And in such good company—"

She smiled again showing those hideous fangs. "It's good to see you--alive," she told Ginny. 

"Thank you," Ginny said demurely.

"Do you have a book called Potions for Life and Love, by Helga Hufflepuff?," asked Hermione. 

Darla turned her attention to Hermione, but didn't answer. Her eyes sort of glazed over and her nostrils flaired as if smelling something. She gripped the counter until her knuckles whitened.

"Out!" Ginny said, Pushing Hermione toward the door. "Get out, now." The group hastened toward the door.

Edward following a little more slowly. "I'm sorry," he said. "I guess we should have wiped the blood off of your neck, Hermione." He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wet it with his wand and proceeded to wipe off the blood now.

"I'll do that," said Ron, grabbing the handkerchief.

"You knew that Darla's potion wouldn't work when she smelled warm blood!" spat Ginny. "That was inexcusable!"

"I just didn't think!"

And what about you Ginny?" said Samara. "What was that all about?" she asked. "And how do you know Darla. And how do you know that her potion wouldn't work? What potion?"

"Oh no," said Tom "Now what are you going to tell them? 

"I don't' know," said Ginny weakly.

"Of course you know," Samara demanded.

__

"You know we could always try the truth. It would be a novel experience."

"I think she was a friend of someone I knew in first year," said Ginny softly. "I don't remember her." Ginny glanced at Harry and Hermione. "I know the potion does for vampires what wolf's bane does for werewolves—it helps them cope."

"But—" began Samara.

"We're drawing attention again," said Harry softly. "I think we should leave." Indeed a crowd of unsavory residents of Knockturn Alley had gathered around them. They were murmuring and speculating about them in chilling detail.

"Go," said Edward, catching Ginny's hand and hurrying up the street. They turned a corner and broke into a run. About a block later, Ginny stopped.

Here's the store," Said Edward. "___"

They composed themselves and went into to buy the pensieve.

The salesman wasn't readily available when they entered the store. "Oy Bradwr! ," Ginny called, and a short gray haired man that reminded Harry vaguely of Mr. Olivander came from behind a curtain that obviously separated the back room from the rest of the store. 

"May I help you?" he asked in a deep polite voice. His eyes traveled over the group and the curiosity in his eyes was quickly squelched. 

"I hope so, Bradwr," said Ginny. "A pensieve, please. It needn't be very big." Ron moved up behind her and to give her moral support, put his hand on her shoulder.

"Do I know you?" the man inquired.

"No," Ginny said—

"_Oh yes we do, Ginny Love. Bradwr was one of my friends at Hogwarts."_

"But I know you very well." Ammended Ginny. "Very well, indeed, Bradwr Eifion . You are a friend of a friend."

"You're just a child," said Bradwr unbelievingly. 

__

"Since when is being a child a liability," said Tom. 

"Ah, yes," Ginny said "but being a child need not be a liability. 

Ginny was suddenly treated to remembrances of potion brewing and she instantly had the knowledge that one of the ingredients of the elixir of life was a child's blood. I didn't want to know that, she thought. She hesitated, and felt the familiar tingles of Tom attempting to take her over.

"It might be an asset," she said, recovering herself. "Especially in the eyes of our mutual--acquaintance."

"And who might that be?" whispered the man.

__

"He knows of whom we speak," said Tom. "He's playing you. He designed the skull and snake for me—We were good friends, until—well, never mind."

"I think you know," said Ginny. "The fellow you used to call friend. The one you did that lovely artwork for—back at Hogwarts. He remembered you fondly the last time I communicated with him…" 

"Whatever you want," he whispered. "It's yours. Just tell him, I'm not brave. I couldn't –"

"Hush," said Ginny. "He knows. Now. We'd like a pensive."

"And whose pensive will this be?" asked Bradwr.

"Mine," answered several in the group.

Bradwr raised an eyebrow. "When you first came in the store," he said softly. "I thought you didn't belong here, but I see I was mistaken."

Hermione chocked. 

"Purged or unpurged." Said Bradwr, now the quintessential salesman. 

The group answered together again.

Hermione and Harry saying "purged."

Edward saying "unpurged."

Ron and Ginny asking "which one is cheaper?"

Samara didn't answer. She was examining the contents of one of the pensieves in the corner display adjacent to the roaring fire. It was a large solid gray granite bowl with flecks of pink in it. The silvery liquid inside was boiling with activity.

Edward moved over to Ginny and possessively wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her away from Ron.

Bradwr surveyed the group again.

Harry had moved over to Samara's shoulder. He knew from experience that sometimes you could fall into a pensieve and it was very hard to get out of. He touched her shoulder, but she didn't respond. He shook her. Still she didn't respond. Edward strode over and pulled out his wand—**"emancipo!" **he said. 

Samara looked up, her eyes were dewy with excitement and her mouth was hanging open. "How much for this one?" she gasped.

"200 galleons," said the salesman without a blink.

"200 galleons, that's absurd," blurted Ron. 

"That pensieve belonged to Morgan le fey's grandson," said Bradwr. "Those memories are priceless—but---but if you want it--"

"Oh, no." said Hermione. "We just want something that we could—um"

"Play with," Edward supplied.

Bradwr smiled indulgently. "I understand," he said, moving to a lower shelf near the back of the store. There sitting behind a collection moving figurines of dragons, gryffins and hypogrifts were several small ordinary pensives—if such things could be called ordinary. On a nearby table a set of wizard's chess was set up, waiting to be played. 

Ron reached out and touched a knight who was mounted on a unicorn. The creature lowered it's horn and tried to gore Ron's finger. 

"Oh, no, you don't touch it," said Bradwr. "Those pieces are only moved by magic."

"Woah, wicked!" said Ron, intrigued now.

"Let me show you," he said. With a wave of his wand, he moved several pieces so that the game was in play. With a grin, he moved the queen, who was a beautiful pale witch. She came to the space to put the opposing king in check. The chessboard queen, pulled out her wand and trained it at the dark king. "Crucio," she said in a soft feminine voice and the king writhed and moaned without leaving his space.

"Oh—"Hermione stared appalled.

"Hard to concentrate with all that moaning," said Ron with a tight voice. 

"Well, then, you would want to end the game quickly," said Bradwr. With another wave of his wand, the white rook moved forward to join the queen's attack. The wizard castle pointed his tiny wand and a shot of silvery green light bloomed from it. "Avada Kedavra," said the chess piece, and the Dark King exploded in a shower of sparks. 

"Too expensive," muttered Ron. 

"When she is on an adjacent square, your queen can also use imperious curse on your opponent's players to move them out of turn.

'Marvelous," deadpanned Ron. 

"Anyway, we came for the pensieve." Interrupted Ginny How much for that one?" She pointed at random to one of the pensieves on the shelf, and Bradwr brought it to the counter for their inspection. 

"This pensieve belonged to an elderly Hufflepuff witch. Several of her children were killed. I believe that is most of the memories in this pensive."

"How much?" said Ginny again. 

"30 galleons," said Bradwr "and 10 for the purging charm."

"20 galleons," said Ginny

"And we don't care if it's purged," added Edward.

Bradwr raised his eyebrows. "Well, since you are a friend of a friend," said Bradwr. "25 galleons."

"That's still too much," interjected Edward. "I think we should invite our mutual friend to visit—" 

Samara stepped forward and muttered a spell. Bradwr turned a familiar shade of green. "I've slowed it down a little and added a splitting headache," she told her friends.

"I think 20 galleons is fair," she said to Bradwr."And I will take off your curse."

"I'm in business," Bradwr moaned. "I can't—" He swallowed hard, fighting nausea. Apparently his headache didn't allow him to think of going for his own wand.

"15 galleons," said Samara. "Because the last time I did this curse it lasted a little over 15 hours. But like I said, I slowed it down a little. If you'd like we could come back in a couple of hours and see if you change your mind about the price, but then it will be--10 galleons."

Bradwr dove for the trash can, as the nausea got the better of him.

"I think she's been spending too much time in Slytherin," muttered Hermione.

__

"That could be true," agreed Tom. 

"Stop it, Samara," said Harry.

She gazed at Harry for a moment, then shrugged. "It's your money," she said and with a wave of her wand, lifted the curse."

Immediately Bradwr straightened and blinked at them. "10 galleons," he said to Harry. "For you, kind Sir. And for the purging charm."

"No need," said Edward. "I have a purging charm." He held up the book that he had bought earlier.

Bradwr wrapped the pensive, his eyes never leaving Samara's face. 

Just as they were ready to leave the store, the man reached out hesitantly and touched Samara's robe. "Madam," he spoke, addressing Samara. "Tell your—um—our mutual acquaintance that I have never spoken—never betrayed—never—"

"He knows," Ginny said shortly, but Tom had retreated and was silent. The rush of his thoughts too quick for Ginny to follow.

When they left the store, they walked to Diagon Alley and had lunch before they went to Olivanders. They practically had to drag Samara, but she reluctantly went, stating flatly that she had no intention of getting another wand.

Olivander in his odd way, greeted them by naming their wands—asking how they were working for them and if they were taking good care of them. "I bought wand polish just the last time I was at Hogsmeade," said Hermione. " I remember," said Olivander. "Oak, 10 ½ inches and Griffin talon."

Hermione smiled at him. "And you," he said to Ron. "You are the one who spell-o-taped his brother's wand. Spell-o-tape! It's a wonder you didn't kill someone. How is your wand now?"

"Just fine," answered Ron.

Unicorn Hair, willow; said Olivander.

"And you," he said to Edward. "Yew and Harpy." Such a strange combination. But powerful. Yew for life after life and Harpy who carries souls to hell."

" And Harry Potter., Phoenix, 11inches, Holly. How is Dumbledore's familiar treating you?"

"Very well," answered. Harry, letting Olivander examine his wand as he did the others. "Oh dear," said Olivander as he took the wand in his hand. "Oh dear. Oh dear. What's happened to it?"

"Well, it's dueled with Voldemort," said Harry.

"No. No. No. I see that, but what has Fawkes done?"

"Oh," said Harry. "He infused it with some of his ashes—"

"When he burned. Oh, yes. I see now. An awesome magical event. Were you present?" Olivander asked in a hush.

"Yes. He was re-born on my lap."

"Oh. I would have loved to see that. You know not many people have seen a phoenix burn. Awesome birds. Healing and Power. I wish he had given a few more feathers, but I daresay, he was disappointed about how his last feather was used. Perhaps that's why he chose to add the infusion to yours.

"What's the difference between an infusion and a core?" asked Harry. "We studied cores, of course, but not much about infusions. Why is that?"

"Well, infusions aren't used much anymore," said Olivander. "They aren't quite as safe as cores, and it's always difficult to find a spontaneous magical event surrounding the infusible substance.

"Are they considered less safe because they can be used to draw from the Elementals?" asked Samara.

"Yes. That's right," said Olivander. "But there's not much call for them. Last I heard of anything being infused with a magical substance were the Firebolt broomsticks. Illegal of course. Big stink about it. I'm sure you heard it on the wireless. The Ministry almost closed the company, claiming the company was fighting dragons to produce a magical event and then using the Dragon wings as an infusion, in their brooms, but it was a hoax. No brooms were found with infusions of anything in their broomsticks.

Harry just stared at him.

"So—Are you here for a wand?" Olivander asked Samara.

"I have a wand," she said. "Pulling it from her hair."

He took it in his hand. "Basilisk skin and cedar," he said. "A very complementary combination. For a healer or a warrior, or perhaps both. Your wandmaker must have been very skilled to find a basilisk involved in a magical event. Usually that event would involve the killing of whomever is closest."

"I made my own wand," said Samara. 

Olivander eyed her speculatively and handed her wand back to her. "If you decide you want to be a wandmaker when you graduate Hogwarts, come and see me. Those skilled in the tedious work of wandmaking sometimes are uncomfortable working with dangerous magical creatures. Although these days, danger is everywhere."

"I don't know anything about making a wand with a core," said Samara.

"That's fine," said Olivander. "I believe that infusions may eventually come back into vogue anyway."

"Really?" asked Harry 

Olivander nodded. "It's inevitable. With the Dark Lords using wandless magic, the light wizards will have to use wands to equal their power.

"You don't think Samara should get another wand?" Questioned Hermone. "You're just going to let her leave with that?"

"Of course," said Olivander. "I couldn't possibly get a closer match than she has done. Ideally, every wizard or witch should be involved in the making of their own wand. It strengthens the magic, making it very difficult for an enemy to take their wand. I can't duplicate what she has done."

"But it's a basilisk," said Harry.

"An ancient basilisk," said Olivander. "Making it easier for her to revive and use ancient magic. I am glad you showed me this. A youngster embracing the old magics is indeed a sight for these old eyes." He grinned at her. Anything else you need.? Some wand polish?"  


==

I can't believe he wouldn't give you another wand," fumed Hermione as they left.

They discussed using the public floo again and Samara flatly refused, saying she was going to floo to Hogshead, with or without them. 

"Hogshead is probably safer," agreed Edward, "But I hated to suggest it when you were so worried about Knockturn."

"Are you out of your mind," snapped Hermione. "Hogshead is a pub filled with—with criminals.

__

"She was going to say filled with Death Eaters. You know that don't you?" asked Tom.

"So I guess Edward or I should go first," thought Ginny.

"Let Edward go," said Tom.

"Well if we're going to Hogshead, I should probably go first," said Harry. "As Draco said, I can apparate and they can't watch every corner like they do the floo."

"But Harry," said Ron. "You're taking Malfoy's advice? He'd be glad if you got killed."

"No he wouldn't," said Samara.

"Harry," said Hermione. "If someone wants to take you to—to—Him—Plus—" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Remember the trouble you had in apparation. What if it's worse? You won't be alert and ready to use your wand when you arrive—I'll go," she said more loudly.

"Pfaw! A mu—muggleborn? You don't realize the danger."

"I'll go first," Ginny interrupted Edward.

"You will not!" said Harry grabbing her arm.

There was a flash from the fireplace. "Hogshead!" said Ron.

"Ron!" called Hermione. **"Itare phantasma!"**

Harry followed her apparition and the others took the floo.

"Well, that wasn't so bad? Was it?" asked Edward.

"No. I guess not, but I think I'm going to keep my hair short next time we go somewhere like Hogshead or Knockturn," said Hermione.

"Next time?" said Harry.

"Well I wouldn't mind going back for that Morgan le Fey pensieve," said Samara dreamily, but I'll have to save forever—

When they got back to Gryffindor Tower it was late and supper was almost over. They hurriedly grabbed some supper and went up to the boy's dorm to look at Edward's book on purging the pensieve. Hermione was complaining that she hadn't finished her reading for class, so Ginny took Edward's book off of her, and suggested she do her reading. Hermione looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. "What about your homework, Ginny?" she asked. 

__

"We'll get your homework done. Don't worry about it," Tom assured her.

"I'll get it done," said Ginny. "It's almost done already."

"Really?" said Hermione surprised.

Ginny nodded and sat reading aloud from the manual which Edward had bought.

"It doesn't say anywhere that you have to look at the memories to purge it," said Ginny.

"Yes, but Edward wants to," said Harry.

"That's sick," replied Hermione.

"Edward!" Ginny nudged him and he looked up at her, glassy eyed.

"What?"

"We aren't here to look at the pensieve. We're here to purge it."

"OK OK," said Edward. "I'll figure it out." He picked up his manual to examine it again. "It looks like there are two different ways to do this. You can charm the memories away from inside the pensieve or use a purging potion."

"Harry's best at charms," said Ron.

"Let's do the potion," said Hermione. "No one wants to look at these memories. He said they are of the old woman's children dying."

"Oh, I don't mind," said Edward. "It's not like it's likely to be anyone I know. Of course, I'm not sure if I can do the charm, but I can try. Let me study it a bit."

"How long does the potion take?" asked Hermione.

"Just an hour," said Ginny, but we don't have any horn of bicorn.

"Snape and Figg both do," said Edward. "We could get it tomorrow."

"I don't know if this is a good idea," said Parvati.

"Of course, it is," replied Ginny. "you agreed."

"We'll get it purged," promised Edward.

"I'll do it," said Harry, looking over Ginny's shoulder at Edward's book. "The charm isn't that hard and we won't have to wait for the potion or steal ingredients." Harry pulled his wand with this right hand and with his left touched the surface of the pensieve.

Immediately, he was dropped into a memory. It didn't seem to be a bad memory. It was a Quiddich game: Hufflepuff-Gryffindor.

Obviously, the person who had the pensieve was a Hufflepuff because the memory followed a Hufflepuff chaser. Harry raised his wand to begin the purging charm, as the announcer spoke: "That's Bones with the quaffle and look out, there's a bludger!"

The bludger whacked the chaser on the side of the head. "Bones is off of his broom," said the announcer as the Hufflepuff boy plummetted to the ground.

The person who held the memory was rushing pell-mell through the crowd to get to the fallen chaser, but Harry's eyes were drawn to a messy haired Gryffindor player who had glided down next to the fallen Hufflepuff—his father! Thought Harry! James Potter was observing the Hufflepuff with concern. Shoving his hair out of his eyes, he turned to one of the bystanders, another Hufflepuff. "Is he alright, Lily?" asked James Potter.

She turned. Startling green eyes met Harry's—no—she could not see him, Harry reminded himself. "I hope so," she said. Harry sucked in his breath, wanting despirately to touch her, to let her know that he was here, that he could see her--

And then the memory moved forward, following the hurt Hufflepuff.

Harry couldn't bring himself to raise his wand and erase his parents from this memory. There was only a moment, and even though, it was regretable that that Hufflepuff fell from his broom, it was not from Dark Magic. It was the first time, Harry could look into his parents' faces without hearing dementers in the background. 

He replayed the last few minutes of the memory, watching his father fly. Now, that he knew where his father was, he could pick him out of the Gryffindor team, just by observing his flying style. The rumors were right. James Potter was an awesome flyer. He was not much older than Harry in this memory—maybe a sixth year, Harry thought. James pivoted the broom with his left hand, just like Harry had done a million times himself, turning his wrist slightly so that the whole of his hand supported the broomstick, and his right hand was free to catch the snitch. Harry felt tears collect in his eyes as he watched his mother in her Hufflepuff robes turn her face toward the game. She shaded her eyes with her hand for a moment and then pulled out her wand, probably doing a charm to keep the sun out of her eyes, thought Harry.

They didn't seem to know one another. Was this where they met? Wondered Harry, or were they just cool to one another because they were on opposite teams. He thought of how he felt uncomfortable playing Cho.

Harry raised his wand, but instead of purging the memory, he replayed it again, marveling at the uneventful moment.

"Harry?" Edward was at his shoulder. "The others were worried about you, but no one wanted to enter the memories. Harry?" said Edward again.

Harry dashed the tears from his eyes and raised his wand obliterating the memory, just as his mother turned her green eyes toward him.

"Easy to get caught up in them, isn't it?"

"I believe each memory or group of memories, has to be erased separately," said Harry.

He obliterated several more in quick succession without looking at them, and had raised his wand again when Edward stopped him.

The memory came into view in a quick pop. Harry realized the watcher had just apparated from another place. This place was horrifying. There were three women, two blonde and one with jet black hair all standing on the doorstep of a burning building—someone's home, Harry thought. With a start Harry realized that he knew the women—at least he knew two of them—Narcissa Malfoy and Valeriana Lestrange. The other must be Laurel. Harry raised his wand to obliterate the memory, but Edward's hand pushed his wand down, his eyes on the women, no, woman, Edward's mother. Harry wondered if Edward had ever seen pictures of his mother. Surely his grandmother had pictures, but Edward was watching like a starved man watches a boiling pot and Harry turned back to the scene, understanding and yet not agreeing with, Edward's need to see his mother. 

With morbid fascination, Harry too watched the image of the woman he had killed when he was just a baby. She was smaller than Narcissa, with blacker eyes, like Valeriana. With Narcissa on Valeriana's right and Laurel on her left, the three sisters chanted a spell he didn't know. And then they joined hands. The power of the spell doubled, no quadrupled, or more--The flames flashed and burned brighter, shooting to the sky. "Easy, Valeriana," scolded Narcissa as they dropped hands. "We don't want to kill them yet."

"Knock! Knock!" called Laurel in a sing song voice. "Search and curse—"

Between the sniggers, Valeriana called, "Can the little Bones come out to play?".

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" called Narcissa.

All three joined hands again and laughed. A robed figure rushed out of the burning building. The robe was on fire, the woman clutching a baby in her arms. She didn't have a wand. One of the witches, said a word**: "Crucio!"**

The flaming woman dropped to the ground and the baby fell with her, the screams of the woman and baby mingled, and then the watcher was running forward toward the fallen woman and her baby, the wild sparks of magic flying from her wand. **Glacio Flagella!** And then Valeriana was hit with a curse. She returned it with one of her own: **"Crucio!"**

Harry had been unaware that he could feel a spell through the pensieve, but apparently since this was the watcher's memory and since the watcher remembered the feelings, he and Edward were both connected to it. Both Harry and Edward were rendered speechless by the mere memory of the crucio spell.

Harry felt as if his internal organs were being ripped apart inside of him, and Edward moaned, a trickle of blood coming from his left nostril. Harry sniffed, realizing that his nose too was bleeding within the memory. "Too rough," muttered Edward. "Just like Ethan."

"Ethan?" wondered Harry.

And then the spell was lifted. With superhuman strength, the watcher, darted forward to gather the baby and the woman in her arms, with the intention of apparating them, but the woman pulled away.

"Arvil!" she said. "He's still inside. They killed him.

"Then there's nothing you can do—" begged the watcher.

"But what will they do with his body?" She pulled away from the watcher and ran for the house. Harry could think of quite a number of gruesome dark magics that would animate a dead body. He shuddered.

"Why we'll bury him of course, like a muggle in earth," chanted Laurel, and raising her hands, and when her sisters joined her the earth cracked beneath the woman's feet and she along with the entire house slipped into the abyss that was created. 

"Mudbloods and muggle-lovers first," said Narcissa, as the chasm in the earth closed over the flaming house.

Valeriana turned her wand toward the watcher again, and suddenly the memory was gone, swallowed in the movement of the watcher's apparition.

Harry looked at Edward. His eyes were shining in unabashed awe. **"Obliterate!"** called Harry, erasing the memory from the pensieve. He erased the next several memories in quick succession. He caught several flashes of green as he hurried past them. Perhaps they were Dark Marks in the sky. Perhaps they were Avada Kedavra curses. He didn't know. He didn't want to know. Winded with the quick succession of spells, he paused, and Edward took up the spell. **"Obliterate!"** He called. "Take a break," he told Harry, and gratefully, Harry pulled himself out of the pensieve and the awful memories. 

"Harry!" called Ginny, catching his hands and looking into his face. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," said Harry sniffing. "Is my nose bleeding?"

Hermione shook her head. "No," she said. 

Harry nodded, closing his eyes for a moment. All he could see was the three sisters, standing hand in hand. He no longer felt bad about killing Laurel when he was a baby. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Nearly ten," said Ron.

"I don't think we're going to get to put any memories into the pensieve tonight," said Harry sinking down wearily into a seat. "It's taking longer than we thought to purge it."

"Is Edward OK," asked Ginny concerned.

"Yeah," said Harry frowning at her. "He's OK," Harry sniffed. "It's a family reunion."

****

NOTES TO THE REVIEWERS:

Since we are so close to the end, I think I need to up the ante to 15 reviews. Tell your friends to review. Get other people to the story. –Lady Lestrange

==

****

Jager Glad you think it's better and better. Wait till you see the sequel.

**Trillium** Do you really think *puppy eyes* is going to do anything for me? Now if you can get any of those custom puppy puffs off of the twins—Yes/ Get more peeps hooked on the story. Good idea. Do it now. Neville's surprising sometimes.

  
**. ~Joda~** Wish more people weren't scared off by long stories, but I agree. Hate waiting for updates. I try to be less than a week between chapters, so keep that in mind for the sequel.

****

. **liltrick89** Glad you like the way I'm taking Harry...wow. That line in a chapter way back (can't remember) of "they never tell me anything!" was just like, freaky. It was so close to the 5th book! I know and it was written before the 5th book came out.I wasn't kidding about studying JK's books. 

No one's a big fan of Samara...I think it's because about the time you see yourself in her, she switches houses and does something totally "not you".  


**Eizoku** Missed you. Glad you're back.

  
**The Elemental Sorceress** Probably a few more poems-Peeves in the next book. I have a website for Latin/English translation. I can never get websites to appear here, but send me an email and I'll send it to you. e too much. Gotta quit that—but ennui did such a good job on it. Draco's reaction to Samara saying she was muggleborn—consider this quote to Hermione at the World cup—OK it's not a quote. I don't have the HP books unpacked. (We just moved) but he said something like, "You think they can't spot a mudblood? Stay here and you'll be sporting your knickers" So, we have to assume that purebloods make sure they can tell who is a pureblood and who has wizarding blood and who is a mudblood. Now, since Draco was certain she had wizarding blood, he had to think she was lying to him. Squibs just didn't cross his mind. 

  
**ele **Interesting for Sam. Yep.!

**Reiven** I'm working on fighting off the Imperio of yours. You know you want this chapter perfect, right? Don't rush me. And ennui wasn't completely right, but she got a lot of it.

**Silverfox1** Where would that brother come from? And is he really a full brother? ... Re read the prologue. 

**ennui deMorte** it took me absolutely friggin' forever to figure the stuff out. But me, a seer, let me contemplate that one...Sure I'd beta for you.

Wait till Samara really meets Draco's mother. Not what is expected. 

Your thought about Samara's brothers made me think, yes they probably would gang up on him==very quickly—"We can get a couple good punches in before he reaches that bloody stick of his—" Way unfair battle though. Draco would curse them silly. 

.You said, Samara should have blasted him into the lake and let him drown! Maybe, but you can't deny that he's "slytherin" Amazes me you like Tom and hate Draco. HMMMM.  
Tom's comment on Ginny not telling her brothers about Rookwood's blood - lol. And then blackmailing them about the clock - Tom was so proud!  
I have one word for you: Cantsay - erghh! I should've saw that one sooner.  
  
Come and join the group:  
  
At least stop by to look at the pic - it is how I see that Dark Mark above Hogwarts. 

Kemenran, more please. Certainly.

****

Just 15 reviews to the next chapter. Non-stop action to the end. Tell your friends. Lady Lestrange.

==

  



	57. CH 56: In Integrum Restituere

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 56

__

In Integrum Restituere

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. The chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts and then the trio heads to KNOCKTURN ALLEY. 

Non-stop action to the end, and now, on to the chapter, _In Integrum Restituere: Restore (him) to his former power._

****

Chapter 56

**__**

In Integrum Restituere

"I got them," said Ron showing Harry the fillibuster fireworks after charms class, "but I don't know if we should do it. She'll hear us. Hermione thinks her animagus is a bat or a dolphin—something with awesome hearing."

"She won't hear us." Said Harry.

What if she takes house points?"

"She won't—not if she knows who did it, She prefers to give detentions to the people who caused the trouble. That's why we have to do it in Mrs. Figg's class."

"If you're sure—We're not going to have much time--"

"We can't work on the prophecy with him in the room and we'll never talk him into leaving and giving us any privacy with our friends," snapped Harry. "The only other option is to hex the git!"

"OK, but I don't want you to get into trouble. Are you sure you can banish it to his cauldron?"

"Ron," said Harry in exasperation. "It's a banishing charm. If I can't do a banishing charm with some kind of accuracy by now, I'd better just go back to the Dursley's and try to make friends with Dudley."

They walked into potions together and joined Hermione at one of the back tables. Samara eyed them suspiciously, as she joined Ginny and they began to measure out their ingredients for the vanishing potion they were making today.

"I want you to be very careful today," said Mrs. Figg. "Last time students made a vanishing potion," Professor Snape told me that four potions books were vanished."

"Who did that?" asked Lavender.

"Fred and George," muttered Ron.

Mrs. Figg frowned at him. "Nevermind. Just be careful. Choose your partners."

"It had to be a Gryffindor," muttered Draco. "No Slytherin would be that stupid."

"It could have been a Hufflepuff," added Ethan.

Harry looked around, frowning as if in consternation that Ron had once again chosen to work with Hermione. 

"Neville was paired with Lou and it looked as if they were well on their way to completing the potion on time today.

"Guess that leaves you and me," said Harry, looking at Edward. As Edward came over to his table to join him, Harry left it, saying, coolly "I'll get the ingredients. Set up the cauldron."

Harry gathered the ingredients, but put the spider webs into his robe pocket and returned to the table. The two boys worked in almost utter silence until it was time to add the spider webs. 

"Stir continuously" read Edward "while adding spider webs. Where's the spider webs?" asked Edward.

"Ah-oh," said Harry, maybe I didn't get them. Sorry. I need to stir."

"I'll get them," said Edward, looking at the ceiling in exasperation. He was nearly at the student's cupboard, when Harry nodded at Ron who began to have a coughing fit which covered the sound of Harry's spell, "**mixtura**" which kept his wand stirring the potion. "He pulled the spider webs from his robe pocket and added it to the potion completing it and dropped in the filibuster fireworks. They disappeared. Harry smiled and glanced back at Hermione and Ron.

"Mrs. Figg, Oh Mrs. Figg," cried Hermione waving her hand frantically. "I think we put too much jellyfish. Look we aren't going to have room for the spider webs.  


"Spider webs do not take a lot of room, dear," said Mrs. Figg.

"Oh but come and look," Hermione continued loudly. I don't want to make a mistake."

"You are a mistake," muttered Draco. "You and Longbottom both--"

"Draco!" admonished Mrs. Figg. "Another comment and you will have detention."

Draco sulked over his cauldron and Ethan sniggered.

While Hermione was talking, Harry banished the invisible fireworks to Neville's cauldron which exploded showering potion which proceded to make everything in its path invisible.

The room went silent except for the fizzling of the firework and the soft drip of potion off of Neville's table. "and I haven't messed anything up in potions for ages," complained Neville, giving Harry a pang of conscience for ruining his potion. At least Mrs. Figg knew he did it right, Harry thought observing the disappearing papers around Neville's cauldron.

"My notes," moaned Lou, as they disappeared. 

Mrs. Figg had spun around to Draco, but Hermione whispered to Ron. "Edward said he would get back at Neville for that curse." And Mrs. Figg stopped. 

"It wasn't Draco," muttered Samara, as a rather sly smirk crossed her face. "It was Edward." She winked at Harry Potter.

"Our potion isn't even finished," Edward protested loudly holding up the spiderwebs.

Mrs. Figg walked back to the table Edward was sharing with Harry and looked into his cauldron. She turned, eyes narrowed, glaring at Edward. "Detention," she pronounced. "What were you thinking of—Neville is in your own house—"

"He thinks he can pick up where his mother left off," said Neville, and Mrs. Figg blanched.

"So what," muttered Edward sizing up the whole Gryffindor class, and trying to figure out how many were in on this stunt. "So what. You got me a detention—"

"All week," said Mrs. Figg.

After they left potions, Harry caught up with Samara. "Thanks Samara," said Harry "that could have gone rather wrong without your help. I just don't think we want any Death Eaters looking at the pensieve."

"I agree," said Samara.

"You agree?" Harry frowned. 

"Auras, Harry," said Samara as Draco came up and put his arm around her. "Thanks for defending me," he said to Samara. "And Potter," Draco sneered. "Don't think I owe you anything for getting me out of trouble—not when it was your fault I was in trouble."

"Owe him?" questioned Hermione.

Ron shook his head. "Slytherins are just weird."

"I can't believe Edward did that," said Neville.

No one answered him.

Ginny caught up with them, but Snape billowed into the room and no one talked to each other after his entrance.

After DADA class, Ginny hurried to catch up with the trio. 

"You set Edward up for that detention," Ginny accused them. "That was so unfair."

__

"Life isn't fair," said Tom. "The sooner you learn that, Ginny Love, the better off you'll be."

"We can't have Death Eaters looking at this," said Harry. 

"And he wouldn't leave just because we asked him to—" added Ron.

"He isn't a Death Eater," said Ginny.

"Samara agrees with me," said Harry.

Hermione took the simple gray pensieve from inside of her cupboard. "Let's just get started," she said.

"Where is Samara?" asked Neville.

"She'll be here," said Hermione.

The little group pulled closer to the pensieve as they continued the quest to find the prophecy child. Ron put his arm around Hermione, and Harry edged in between Ginny and Hermione. Neville had moved back a little to allow the others to see. Actually, it was impossible for them all to see unless some of them entered the pensieve and none of them were too anxious to do that just yet. 

Parvati and Dean as well as Lavender and Seamus were even less anxious than the others. 

"Are you sure Samara's coming?" asked Beatrice.

"Yes," said Hermione. "She wanted to ask Snape something after class."

Ginny could barely breathe as she looked into the pensieve. Her heart was pounding. The Riddle House loomed in front of her—cold and gray and forbidding.

The figure she saw was Tom--unmistakably Tom. He ran a nervous hand through his hair, and pulled

his cloak closer around him as if to shut out the approaching darkness.

"You're going to kill your father," she thought.

__

"I'm going to see him for the first time," corrected Tom. "Salazar is going to kill him."

The trio also looked at the vision in the pensieve, but they did not yet know what or who they were viewing. Dean was sitting back further, comforting Parvati, who was crying softly. "They are all so horrible. Why can't I have visions and dreams of good things?"

"The boy looks nervous," said Hermione, ignoring Parvati's whining.

"He looks cold," said Ron as he watched him pull his threadbare cloak around himself yet again. Even I have a better cloak. 

"That's the Riddle house," said Harry spellbound.

All of them looked a little closer at the boy.

"Then that's Tom Riddle," whispered Hermione.

"Yes," said Ginny tightly, and then in her thoughts asked, "Tom? Are you all right?"

"_I know that I killed them," commented Tom, his anxiety causing him to become as private as it was possible for him to become inside of Ginny's head. Ginny tried to ignore the turmoil of his thoughts and give him some semblance of privacy for this._

"I don't remember them. I never met them. I don't want to kill them--" There was a tightness in Tom's thoughts that Ginny had never sensed before. She realized that he was afraid.

The brass knockers and golden letters of the Riddle name, contrasted sharply with Tom's threadbare robes. He reached forward and tried the door. Locked. He stood on the stoop for a moment—hesitating? Wondered Ginny—and then he smoothed his mussed hair and touched his robes. **"elegantis_-" _**The skimpy cloak appeared to be a shiny, expensive garment, elegantly tailored. He pulled the hood up around his ears.

"Woah! What was that spell?" exclaimed Ron. 

"It was a glamour," said Parvati and Lavender in unison.

"Forget it, Ron," said Ginny. "It works on muggles, but some wizards can see through glamourine and anyway, you'd have to renew it every hour. Someone would probably hear you."

__

Tom spoke again. **"Alohomora!"**

Wandless, noticed Ginny. "Why?"

"Because every time Salazar touched my wand with a spell, it fried his hands--my hands—the bastard--" Ginny felt Tom's anger seething. This was more like him--

"In Tom Riddle's case, the wand might be checked by the Ministry," ventured Hermione. "After all, he was going to kill them."

"He had never done anything wrong before this, why would they suspect him at this point?" Wondered Ginny.

__

"I am a Slytherin," said Tom bitterly.

"But you were a prefect--a perfect student--"

"_I wasn't--" Tom interrupted Ginny's musings. "But I never planned to kill my father."_

Tom was spellbound, looking at the tall dark haired man that had fathered him. Several gold rings were on his fingers. He wore onyx cufflinks on his starched white shirt sleeves, and a scowl on his face. 

"But we don't know about Salazar What did he plan?" wondered Ginny.

__

"I don't know," thought Tom. "He was always getting stronger I suppose it's possible as early as this, he had totally taken me over. I'd like to know--" Ginny leaned closer to the pensive. "I can't tell which of us is in control" said Tom, examining the pensieve version of himself. "Enter it, Ginny."

Ginny touched the surface of the silvery material and was sucked into the pensieve.

"Ginny!" she heard the startled gasps of those behind her, and then Harry was with her, followed by Neville.

"We didn't want you to be alone here," said Harry placing his hand on her shoulder and startling her.

__

"Should we tell them you're never alone, Ginny Love?"

"Shut up, Tom."

"Slytherin decor," noticed Neville. "Forest green and the brass snakes--"

__

"Obviously he decorated with my mother in mind," thought Tom. Yet, he threw her out in the street. 

It doesn't make sense. I wonder, why did he keep the decorations--It wasn't for lack of money."

Ginny's attention wondered to the other boy--the other Tom in the pensieve—

__

"They named him Tom, too," wondered Tom in Ginny's head.

"That does seem strange doesn't it," thought Ginny. "Unless Tom, Sr. never knew your mother was pregnant. Do you think she kept that from him?"

"I don't know," said Tom thoughtfully. "I always assumed that he knew--that he had abandoned me in that muggle orphanage—No," corrected Tom. "He had to know I was born. He was the one who put me in the orphanage. All of my mother's relatives would have been wizards."

There was a brief silence, both Tom and Ginny thinking and listening to the shouted conversation. As they neared the slightly open doorway, where Tom Riddle was hovering, Ginny peered into the dining room.

"He looks a lot like you, Tom," noticed Ginny but she changed her mind as the boy's face flushed red and he began to pace, obviously frightened of his father's wrath. He's a little more excitable than you," she thought. 

__

"He's scared of his father," Tom surmised. "The chap is rather formidable for a muggle." 

"What is your connection with this girl?" demanded the older Tom, but his son didn't answer right away.

However, to both Tom and Ginny the answer was perfectly apparent in the face of the young man in the pensieve. Tom summarized with a vulgarity which Ginny studiously ignored. It appeared from the look of disgust on the father's face, he also suspected that more was going on between the two of them than was permitted.

The son, gathering his courage, clenched his fists, and looking his father in the eye said, "I want to marry, Lori."

"Why? Is she pregnant?" snapped the father.

"I love her."

__

A long silence followed, and Tom frowned. The father is pretty perceptive, noted Tom. "I always thought I got that from my mother."

Finally, the boy spoke again. "I'm not sure--if she's pregnant—I--we're not sure--but I love her. It doesn't

matter. 

"It doesn't matter!" screeched the father. "Of course it matters. This little gold digger has you hooked, you stupid boy. You have no idea with whom this low-life tramp has been cavorting. What she might try to pass off as your son and heir--"

"She's not a low-life," retorted the son angrily attempting to stand up to his father, but the father lashed out striking the boy across the face with his open palm.

"You will keep a civil tongue," the man demanded.

"She's from the village," the boy said softly contrite.

"And just who is this girl?"

"Lorrissa--"

"Not her name, boy! Who _Is _she? A nobody, that's who, and not suitable to be your bride.

"I didn't come to ask your permission," said the boy, facing his father, but the father was incensed. Banging his fist on the table, he caused the fine china to topple, shattering several dishes with a loud crash.

"Well, you don't have my permission," he yelled.

The vision had progressed though Tom startling them all as he stepped into the picture. The muggle transferred his ire to this newcomer. He began screaming at Tom and poking his finger in his chest. Spit flew as he yelled at Tom in the pensieve. 

__

"Filthy muggle," muttered Tom in Ginny's head. She could feel his ire. 

"I might not have killed him," observed Harry, "But his behavior sure warrants a curse of some kind."

"The lousy Slytherin git," said Neville. "No wonder Tom Riddle turned into You-know-who with that for a father--"

"You know, you don't have to watch this, Ginny Love," said Tom as the sparkles of his attempt to take control of her body assaulted her.

"I know, Tom."

Within the pensieve, the **Avada Kadavra **curse flashed, the green power of the spell 

clinging to Ginny like a halo as she, Harry and Neville exited the pensieve.

"Ginny?" Ron reached out to her. "You didn't have to watch this," he said.

"I do," Ginny said shortly. Closing her eyes, she called mentally. "Tom. Had Salazar taken you over?"

__

"No," began Tom. "Not at the beginning, not until--"

"The witch wasn't good enough for him and now the muggle isn't good enough for his son," commented Neville. "Even as a squib he still acts like a bloody Slytherin git!"

__

"A squib!" shouted Tom in her brain.

Ginny's eyes flew open. "He's not a Slytherin," commented Ginny patiently. "Tom's mother was a Slytherin. His father was a muggle."

"No,Ginny," said Neville with certainty. "You're wrong. His father was of Salazar's blood, not his 

mother. "This secret is what put my parents in St. Mongo's Some of You-Know-Who's dear followers 

manufactured the whole thing—including Tom Riddle's birth--so that they could resurrect Salazar. 

__

"What?" screeched Tom.

"What?" Ginny echoed.

Harry put his hands over his face while Ron frantically tried to wave Neville to silence, but the damage was already done.

"Think about it Ginny," prodded Neville. "If his mother was with the wizarding community, when she had

the baby, how on earth did he end up in a muggle orphanage? 

__

"I thought, my father would naturally get custody," said Tom, thoughtfully.

"But the law would give the baby to the father," said Ginny aloud.

Harry laughed. "And you expect Slytherins, to obey a muggle law?"

"I doubt that Tom, Sr. even knew the witch bore a son. Why else would he have named his second son Tom?" observed Hermione. "At first, he doesn't seem to know who Tom is—just an intruder—"

"But he seemed to put two and two together before Tom killed him," said Harry. "Including the fact that Tom's mother was a witch—"

__

Tom got quiet, a cold dread forming inside of him. Ginny knew he wanted desperately

to be alone with this thoughts. Ginny was silent in sympathy.

"The wizards wanted me there," he said at last, his thoughts flashing through the terrors and 

pains of the orphanage. My wizarding family put me there."

"The wizards wanted Tom in the orphanage," muttered Ginny. "They wanted him tormented so that he would hate muggles and then, when the time was right they could resurrect Salazar.

__

"My mother, too—" Tom was devastated by this news. "He had always believed that his mother loved him, and now to think that she might have been a part of this conspiracy—that he was no more than a body to house Salazar, even to her—"

Ginny felt like she could barely breathe. 

There was a secret cult, _In integrum restituere_," My Dad said. Antonin Dolohov told him, before he died." Said Neville. 

"Mother?" choked Ginny, tears welling up in her eyes. Her heart was breaking with the awful feeling of desolation that engulfed her. 

Harry shook his head. "She started out with the cult, but disagreed with their--methods. They killed her."

__

Tom said nothing, but the boiling, pure rage inside of him frightened Ginny.

"It was some kind of ritual," said Neville.

Ginny sucked in her breath as Tom's understanding of this ritual was revealed to her. She felt sick, but Tom's rage broke through her feeling of nausea. "Damn them straight to hell," muttered Ginny. "The lying, murdering scoundrels--" She clenched her fists, her nails digging into the flesh of her palm. She felt nothing, but Tom's burning rage, overriding everything else within her.

"Ginny," said Harry, laying a hand on her shoulder. 

__

Tom's anger tightened even more... A single thought dominated everything in him encompassing his need for revenge upon those who ruined his life. That single thought forming in Tom's consciousness was **crucio**. Die you worthless bastards! My Deatheaters. My friends. How could they? Various types of **crucio** that Ginny didn't even know existed coursed through her mind. So fast. So brutal. Then slowing to a torturous crawl.

Tom? She thought, feeling too close a kinship with Salazar. Such intense hatred that she had not felt since Salazar was warded out, but this was Tom. Wasn't it? Tom!

She felt as ragged and raw as Voldemort's hands, her body unable to contain his hatred. Like a unicorn wand casting Avada, she felt the searing alienness of his thoughts like she hadn't felt them for a long time. The pain of betrayal ate into her soul.

And they're still hiding this little secret, thought Ginny. 

__

"I-want-them-dead," thought Tom, but his thoughts encompassed so much more than death. He wanted them to suffer like he had suffered. More than he had suffered. Give them back tenfold. His intent was a hot, writhing cancer consuming them both.

"I want them dead," echoed Ginny, 

"Ginny, you don't mean that," said Harry, grasping her arm, and then pulling away. "Ginny, you're 

soaking wet."

__

"Your friends were keeping this from us," Tom realized, his anger growing as cold as ice. The betrayal of friends was too new in Tom's thoughts.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ginny demanded. "Ron? Harry?"

"Ron was worried about you--"

__

"So it was Ron's fault," sneered Tom, the need to take this out on someone so powerful that

Ginny couldn't contain it. She didn't want to contain it. She wanted to lash out with almost as much anger as Tom.

"Ron! It was Ron's fault," blurted Ginny, turning on her brother, and reaching in her pocket for her wand. What gives you the right?" she yelled as she clenched her fists instead of taking the wand to curse—someone---She realized that her hands were wet with the water elemental, and she concentrated on controlling the magic in her hands.

Harry shook his head. "We had no right to keep this from you, Ginny. We only wanted to protect you."

"I'm sorry," said Ron. "It was wrong, but--"

"No buts! It was wrong!"

"What they did was wrong too," said Harry. "I know you had some feelings for Tom Riddle while he was in your head, Ginny. It is a sad story, but there's nothing you can do for him now. He's Voldemort, 

for Gawd's sake."

"What could you do?" interrupted Hermione. "Go to him and say, some of your Deatheaters made your life a living hell because--"

"You have no idea," Ginny interrupted roughly, trying desperately to contain the magic that threatened to break loose of her failing hold.

"I made a promise!" she screeched, finally reaching the end of her control. 

"Don't you understand? Tom is not Voldemort! He was a normal child until these bloody prats got a hold of him. They ruined his life. They took his life. They are worse than murderers. They tortured him--as sure as if they put him in that bloody orphanage dungeon themselves. The number of times the muggles hurt him--beat him-rejected him--" 

Images flashed in Ginny's mind's eye so fast that if she hadn't lived them in St. Mongo's and as part of Tom's memories, she never would have been able to distinguish between them--images of Them. Pushing him down the stairs, shoving against the hot stove, and his learning the flame freezing charm in self-defense. Them: poisoning his rat, and his holding it in his hand as it convulsed into death, its beady eyes filled with pain. 

Hatred blossomed anew. He should have never been in that orphanage. Wizards put him there. Wizards that called themselves friends. Wizards that killed his mother. Tortured his mother.

"They lied! They deserved to burn in hell!" Ginny yelled. 

"As sure as they shackled me to Salazar. They made my life a living hell! Don't you see? They are still making my life hell. They created Voldemort! Consciously! Willfully! Maliciously! At the expense of a child, they created Voldemort, and Dumbledore turned a blind eye, just like he did when I was in the Chamber. This was the child they sacrificed! Tom Riddle."

"Dumbledore didn't--" began Harry, but Ginny turned on him, showering him with a deluge from the

water elemental, soaking the bed the carpet and the desks.

Parvati screamed and leaped back into Dean's arms, who muttered something about Dark Magic.

****

"Shut up!" she yelled. "They have no right to draw another free breath, the bastards!" Her voice low and menacing, she spat, "THEY NEED TO DIE!"

"Ginny!" Harry wrapped his arms around her, both of them dripping wet with the water elemental out of

control.

"Don't sacrifice children or truth!" sobbed Ginny, but Dumbledore didn't even try to stop it. He didn't even try—For any of us."

"He didn't know," Harry said. "I'm sure he didn't."

"He should have--" muttered Ginny disconsolately. "For both of us--" 

__

"Wand," suggested Tom. 

"You don't have a wand," Ginny thought, and it's your fault I feel like I'm going to explode.

__

"I've had plenty of practice bringing myself down from the elemental magic," thought Tom, as he wrestled with his emotions. "I've done it since my orphanage days--"

"Well, you're not doing a very good job right now," thought Ginny, 

"I know," he muttered, and heart pounding, she pulled herself out of Harry's arms.

"Tom, what are we going to do?"

__

"We're going to hunt them down and kill them," said Tom calmly. "Names. Get names, Ginny."

Ginny turned to Neville as he sat white-faced and damp from Ginny's outburst. . "You said your parents were tortured to keep this secret. "Who did this?" Ginny asked though gritted teeth, and Neville looked at Hermione for confirmation to speak.

She stepped into the fray, speaking **"Pergo."** She straightened Ginny wet and wrinkled robes.

"Who?" Ginny demanded again.

__

"Calm down, Ginny Love. They aren't going to tell you unless you're calm. Apologize. Tell them that, of course you won't kill anyone."

"I'm sorry," Ginny muttered, speaking another drying spell and trying to get control of the elemental magic. "You know I wouldn't kill anyone." She looked at her brother. "Right Ron?"

"You're scaring me, Ginny," said Ron, and she stepped forward wrapping her arms around him and putting her head on his shoulder. 

"I'm sorry. I wouldn't kill anyone," she repeated. "but this was all so—awful—for Tom—"

"Why are you taking this so personally?" asked Ron. "You-know-who tried to kill you in the Chamber. You still have nightmares--"

"No," whispered Ginny. "That was Salazar. We both know there were two different people involved in magiking that diary. I just think Tom Riddle's name should be cleared."

Hermione nodded. "That sounds fair," she said, repeating yet another drying spell.

Neville began counting off names: "Malfoy, Lestrange—"

"Dolohov, Black, Rosier, Crabbe, Goyle, -- 

"Avery, Effler, Ogleby, Snape-- There's someone I'm forgetting. It will come to me—"

Tom with his phenomenal memory was already recording them in the book of the dead. My friends, my girlfriend, my cousins …

"Wait," thought Ginny. "We don't know if these are the parents or the grandparents or great grandparents who are responsible. "This is your generation, and before, Tom. Some of the children now might not even know about this cult."

__

"They know," said Tom coldly. "They're Slytherins."

Ginny sat on the floor in a daze while the others discussed the dream. For a long while all she 

or Tom could think of was the cult, and something dark and sinister was lurking inside of her. She wanted to think that all of the darkness had come from Salazar, but this was unmistakably Tom's magic, and it was definitely dark.

__

"There is no dark or light, Ginny Love, only power—"

At last Ginny voiced her concern about how she and Tom seemed to overlap into each other. "What just happened to us, Tom? Were you in control there for a moment?"

__

"No," Tom reassured her. "We were just thinking the same thoughts--so in sync with one another that--"

Tom paused. At that moment, when we were together, what was your Intent Ginny? 

I wanted to kill them, she said simply.

__

"That's it. That's how Salazar did it! That's how he defeated me."

"I don't understand," Ginny thought.

__

That's exactly what happened to me and Salazar. We were never together in the same way that you and I are Ginny. We never communicated except in struggle for supremacy. Mostly we were at odds with one another, but here, when I faced my father, we were together. Our thoughts were in sync for the first time ever. Together in anger and in power—"

Ginny remembered Snape saying, remember when you have done accidental magic. That is probably your most powerful self-- What had happened to Tom and Salazar—to Tom and her was starting to make sense.

__

"and then, he killed your father." She said. It seemed safer to talk about his dead squib father than his tortured witch mother. Ginny 's thoughts were soft and careful, fearing another outburst.

__

"No," said Tom sadly. "I was wrong, Ginny. It wasn't Salazar who killed my father. It was me. It was my 

intent that killed him. Mine and mine alone. Salazar only said the words, but all the way up to

the Avada spell, there was some possibility of escape.. He manipulated me right into this.

"Into killing your father?" Ginny asked.

__

"No. My father never mattered to Salazar. What difference did one muggle make in a world of muggle vermin? It was me. It was always about me. "

Ginny was silent, an uncomfortable thought coming into her mind. "Then you could have taken me over too, Tom—Couldn't you? When we were in perfect sync with each other—just now. Couldn't you?"

__

Tom didn't answer for a moment, but she knew she was right. "I thought about it. I hesitated."

"Thanks Tom," whispered Ginny.

__

And both of them grew quiet. "If I had planned ahead, I might have done it, you know," said Tom. 

"Just like Salazar," Ginny said softly, and Tom shuddered.

Both of their thoughts tumbled over the past events. "Why didn't Salazar use **crucio** on your father?" wondered Ginny.

__

There was only a moment, and Salazar took it. If he had tried **Crucio**, I might have repented my actions, but **Avada** was irrevocable. I had done an unforgivable curse and not just any unforgivable—the killing curse. I had acted like a Dark wizard. I couldn't turn back.

"So, that explains why he used **Avada**," said Ginny I was wondering, Tom, Why Salazar just killed your father. He likes to cause pain. It seems to me that Avada was an easy way out. I thought, wouldn't he use **crucio**? I know Voldemort would--"

__

"No," interrupted Tom. It wasn't about killing my father. It wasn't even about causing the muggle pain. It was always about taking control of me. Locking me away forever and it worked. It was my intent that killed my father. I was Salazar's puppet after that. 

Ginny felt a taste of the despair that Tom experienced and then it was gone.

"But Tom, we all have those moments when we want to choke someone."

__

"But we don't all have a person in our heads that will act upon those thoughts."

Salazar needed to be strong enough and he needed my intent to be strong enough. He counted on my hatred for muggles. He counted on all the pain the cult caused me. He wanted it to surface here. He played me like a well tuned instrument and I did everything he expected. I was so stupid.

Ginny could feel the defeat in Tom's thoughts. He, like his wand, had given up hope of ever being free of Salazar, and even if he could be free, he still had killed his father. He had acted like a Dark Wizard. He would be punished like a Dark Wizard. He searched out the core of darkness within himself and in this moment that was all Ginny could see.

"It happened a long time ago," Ginny reminded him, trying to take the sting out of his guilt.

Remember Tom, this pain that Salazar likes to cause isn't merely physical.

__

"I know," said Tom softly. "The only thing he didn't expect is to have his hands fried by my wand. 

Did you see them?"

"I saw them," said Ginny thinking they looked like cooked meat, and still Salazar/Voldemort hung on to that wand. She almost had to admire the tenacity of his will. It was awesome.

__

"There is nothing to admire in him!" Tom shouted at her.

"You're right, Tom."

__

"He was burnt because of the force of the spell," Tom explained. "My wand never wanted to do **Avada** and then she realized that Tom was familiar with the spell just cast.

"Wait," thought Ginny. "You saw **Avada Kadavra** performed?"

__

"Grindelwald," said Tom, but no memories were forthcoming. She realized there was a whole new

section to his life that she hadn't explored. _That he hadn't allowed her to access. He knew how the cult and Grindelwald fit together._

"Tom?"

__

"Don't probe, Ginny Love. If you do, you will see more than you wish to—believe me--"

She took Tom's advice and turned her attention back to the little group of Gryffindors.

The trio was trying to decide which dream to look at next. 

"The boy with the wand that burned him," suggested Ginny. 

__

"Why? Ginny Love?" asked Tom. "We know who that is."

"Yes, but there has to be some reason why Parvati dreamed it," said Ginny. 

"Parvati?" said Neville. "Are you ready to put the next dream into the pensieve?"

"I don't know if I can do anymore tonight," complained Parvati.

"Just one more," coaxed Dean. "You can do it."

"These memories aren't even of anyone you know," said Hermione.

"Please," Ginny added, and Parvati relented.

Moments into the dream, both Ginny and Tom realized that the wand had quit burning Salazar after the Avada Kadavra curse that killed Tom's father. When Parvati pronounced the wand 'dead' they were the only ones who realized what that meant.

__

"For within the snake and phoenix have warred," quoted Tom. "She meant within the wand.. She said, "Phoenix must surely rule—" I don't see how," Tom lamented. "If the wand is dead—"

"But the phoenix rises again and again and eating death is the fuel—" quoted Ginny. "so at some point, the wand must come back to life."

__

"When he is cursing someone," Tom surmised. "Eating death."

"Didn't Parvati say that Voldemort let Harry go last year," said Ginny. " This might have something to do with Voldemort's wand."

"He didn't let me go," Harry protested.

"Let's look at that dream next," suggested Hermione.

"I can't," said Parvati. "I can't do anymore tonight. I'm tired."

"Neville managed to retrieve a dozen memories," said Harry with Snape pulling them out of him and his arms bleeding from Snape's spells. "This isn't even about you, Parvati."

"You're right," said Parvati, looking Harry in the eye. "This one is about you—why did Voldemort let you go? I would like to know that myself." 

Harry sighed as Neville helped Parvati put the dream into the pensieve.

"We know that the wand stopped burning –him--after the Avada Kadavra curse," recapped Ginny. "That's why Parvati saw Tom Riddle at Olivanders with his burned hands. We needed to know what the wand was doing for some reason. The next vision or dream that has Voldemort's wand in it, is yours Harry—"

Together they watched the events unfold. Harry's fear was almost palpable as he ran through the corridors away from Voldemort. The years fell away, the first scenario obviously his first year, and then, Ginny recognized too much of the second year. Harry reached absently for her as it ended and she squeezed his hand. Then the image switched to Harry digging among the bones and the black dog seemed reminiscent of meeting Sirius and the deaths in his family, and finally they came to the part they wanted to see: The events of last year. 

"It's the hand," called Dean. "Parvati! It's the severed hand that you dreamed about in second year.."

"Yes," said Parvait patiently.

Dean stared at her in wonder. "You knew He would return by this potion. You knew when you were only 12.

The same age Trelawney had her first true vision," said Parvati.

__

The dream progressed, Ginny and Tom watching studiously. Tom had retreated into his analytical mode. He had himself under a tight control, but the hate and anger was still there. But first, he told Ginny, we have to understand. Nothing must escape us. It could be our downfall.

She could feel his anger stewing like a bubbling poison potion. "Tom. What they did was wrong, but I'm not going to kill anyone."

__

Tom didn't answer. 

"I'm not," she repeated.

__

Tom continued to study the pensieve. Laughing shortly when Voldemort **imperioed **Harry, Tom said,. "He called that imperio? He was just playing with little Harry. He didn't care if Harry bowed or not. It was just a show for his Death Eaters. We however know what his real **imperio** feels like, don't we Ginny?"

Ginny shuddered thinking of the basilisk eggs. And the fleeting thought of when would they hatch rushed through her brain.

__

Probably soon, surmised Tom, still gazing into the pensieve. His thoughts ground to a halt as Voldemort within the pensieve **crucioed** Harry.

"He may not have had much intent behind his **imperio,** but he meant the **crucio**," said Ginny shuddering.

_"There!" Tom noticed. "See how the bead is traveling to Harry's wand and then it suddenly switches. Ask Harry what happened."_

"It was as if Voldemort was startled or distracted, but just for a second." Said Harry. "It was enough for me to turn the power. The bead connected with his wand just a moment later and the **priori incantum** began.

"He released you," said Parvati.

"He did not!" argued Harry.

__

"That was not Salazar!" said Tom. "That was Tom Riddle reawakening when the wands touched. He felt the phoenix magic, and added his intent to Harry Potter's spell."

Ginny voiced her opinion to the raised eyebrows of all present, and then she followed Tom's advice and decided to keep quiet.

"What I don't understand," said Hermione is if this was **priori incantum,** why didn't the other spells show in some way? What about the **crucio** he did on you earlier or the **imperio**. Did those come out, Harry? Did Parvati's vision just not show them?"

"No," said Harry. "They didn't come out in the **priori incantum**. Not only that, I had a vision—"

"You what?" Parvait and Dean's startled voices blended.

"Remember the time last year when I fell asleep in divination when Trelawney insisted I had a vision—"

They nodded.

"Well, she was right for once," said Harry. "My vision was of Wormtail being **crucioed** at the Riddle House. Voldemort told Nagini, that's his snake, that she wouldn't get to eat Wormtail because his mistake had been fixed, but Nagini could eat me—"

"Why didn't you tell anyone!" snapped Hermione.

"I told Dumbledore," said Harry.

"And he still let you continue with the Tri Wizard tournament," interrupted Ron. "Is he mad!"

"He wished me good luck with the third task." Said Harry. "Of course, I don't know if he believed it was a true vision, but since Voldemort was planning things with Wormtail, I think it is likely he was **crucioed** and Crouch said that some spell was used on Bertha Jorkins to reveal information—

__

Probably **crucio**, there too" remarked Tom.

"Not legimency?" asked Ginny.

__

"Not without crucio," said Tom. Legimency _ doesn't work that way. When I was with Salazar he would get a sense of someone lying or wanting to go somewhere or meet someone. He compared it in some ways to Helga's visions. It was fleeting and not always entirely reliable. Some minds are easily accessed and others are almost always shrouded by their actual physical make up. What worked best is when he told someone he knew they were lying, they usually confessed. I don't know how much Bertha Jorkins would have given up with torture, but it's a delicate thing. Too much torture, and Bertha's mind would have started to make up scenarios just so she could avoid the torture. That wouldn't have been very helpful to him. Sometimes **crucio** would open a mind completely. Other times the person would close down, and nothing would be gained." _

Ginny thought that Tom knew entirely too much about torturing someone with crucio, but Tom didn't explain himself. He just grew quiet.

"I might just be grasping at straws," said Dean, "But could it be that the only the **Avada Kadavra** spells were returned because that was what caused the wand to be—affected—in the first place."

"You mean because **Avada** was the spell that caused it to stop burning Voldemort's hands," said Hermione.

"Exactly," Dean replied.

"What about the silver hand?" asked Parvati.

"Maybe they were the only spells performed with the wand," said Ginny.

"Wandless magic?" asked Ron.

"No," said Harry. "In my vision, if it is a true vision, Voldemort used a wand to crucio Wormtail, and—it looked like he had been at it for quite a while." Harry shuddered.

The group got quiet.

"The only other way it could have occurred is if Voldemort himself was directing his wand to only produce the **Avada** curses." Said Ginny,

__

"Not Voldemort," said Tom. "Tom Riddle."

"Unless, it was Tom," breathed Ginny.

The group looked at her with pity, as if they expected her to be carted away to St. Mongo's at any moment now. 

"I don't believe that," said Dean, but Harry said nothing, he just stared thoughtfully at Ginny. 

"None of them believe me," thought Ginny.

__

"Ask Harry why the basilisk swept the Sorting Hat into his hands in second year," spat Tom. "Ask him why the Riddle clone kept him talking aimlessly to wait for the phoenix to arrive. And even after it arrived, why didn't the basilisk just kill him straight away. Why did it dally and delay and in fact stupidly let the phoenix within striking distance of its eyes? Ask him!"

So Ginny did.

Harry looked at her thoughtfully. "I've always wondered why that happened," said Harry. "I thought it was just blind luck or maybe my mother's spell protecting me."

"It was Tom Riddle protecting you."

There was another uncomfortable silence into which Hermione spoke. "I wonder what happened to Samara. She's not usually late, and I know she wanted to see this stuff about the Prophecy Child. We were talking about Helga's predictions in the library.

"She'll be here," said Ginny.

"Shall we go on to the next dream?" asked Harry.

"What do you think, Tom. Why didn't Voldemort kill Harry Potter? What happened?" Ginny wondered.

__

"Oh I think Salazar could have killed him, but he had already given him back his wand, and to remove it now would have been an embarrassment in front of his Death Eaters. Voldemort could have killed Harry Potter, but only at the expense of his pride, and his hands, of course."

"So, Tom, you think Voldemort released Harry too?"

__

"No," said Tom. "I wouldn't say that, but Harry Potter didn't escape on his own either. He definitely had help—help from Tom Riddle, probably in the choice of which spells would come through the prior incantum, although that spell is hard to manipulate, he might have been able to omit some of the ones which would be useless to Harry and focus on the Avada curses which would bring people who had reason to hate Voldemort."

"But Voldemort might have been killed, and then Tom would have died too."

"Contrary to what Salazar thinks, there are worse things than death, Ginny Love. I would imagine my counterpart has experienced most of them." 

Ginny felt the sad defeat in Tom's thoughts and longed to comfort him—but Tom recoiled from her pity and she was assaulted with the vision of his body controlled by Voldemort. There was no comfort.

==

Don't wait for me," Samara had said as DADA class ended. She slowly gathered her books and waited until they all were gone. It was just her and Professor Snape in the room. He was looking at the text book, but he wasn't seeing it. She could tell he was just waiting for her to leave. Meanwhile, she studied his aura. It was the worst aura she had ever seen. It was so dark, it was opaque—a swirly bluish brown with large portions of black. They looked like black holes that sucked all the light out of his soul. She counted them: 38 holes. There were only 3 other people that she knew who had the holes: Draco Malfoy, Ethan Lestrange and Edward Lestrange. Draco had 2. Ethan and Edward both had 7, but Professor Snape had 38 and yesterday, he had only 36.

"Miss Donnally?"

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking."

"I wish more of my students would try that," said Snape sourly. "I assume you have a question."

"Well, yes," She had to get him to touch her, because she knew he would not allow her to touch him. She also knew that once he touched her, he would not pull away. No one ever did. She always had to break the contact. 

"Get on with it," he snapped. "I don't have all day."

He looked exceedingly tired, exhausted to the point of illness, and possibly cursed, thought Samara. Glamour charms may hide his physical well being, but they did not hide his aura.

"When you were talking about casting charms without a wand, you held your hands a certain way." Said Samara.

"It doesn't matter," he said in exasperation. "It is_ intent_ that matters. How many times have I said that? Hold your hands however you are comfortable." He said dismissively. "You do fine. Better than most—especially for a Gryffindor. Of course I have my doubts about whether you actually _are_ a Gryffindor--"

"You think I'm a Slytherin?"

"Definitely."

"So does Draco," said Samara.

"Have you spoken to professor McGonagall?" asked Snape.

"Oh, no," said Samara. "That isn't what—" she stopped suddenly. She had not come to ask Snape about her house affiliation, but her mind took off on a tangent. Would this work? She couldn't think of a good reason to touch him when asking about her house, especially since everyone knew that Snape had an aversion to being touched, but the question about how to hold her hands now seemed stupid. He knew that she knew the answer to that question.

Since she didn't think such a question seemed plausible, she hesitated, watching Snape's aura when a sudden thought came to her. While she had been standing here, Snape's aura had been experiencing changes. At first he was simply going to answer her question. Then he became curious and almost hopeful when she broached the subject of what house she was in. Now, as she considered how to manipulate him, he was becoming increasingly more guarded, his aura pulled in and shielded. Since she had said nothing to change his perception of her, he must be reading something within her.

"Do you see auras?" she blurted.

"What? No," said Snape, his guard relaxing somewhat. "Why do you ask?"

"I thought maybe you did, and I really need a teacher to talk to. Professor Trelawney sees auras—"

Snape guffawed, but Samara continued.

"But she said she wouldn't have me in her class. She called me a minion of the snake, and told me to leave. But I need to talk to someone. I've read everything I could find about auras, but I'm sure that a teacher who sees auras could help me to understand some of the more complex ones. Sometimes the same colors are listed in books as exactly opposite. There must be a difference in the tone or shade or—"

"Miss Donnally. Stop," said Snape holding up his hand. "I do not see auras."

"Oh." 

Samara looked puzzled. 

"Am I to understand that you see auras, Miss Donnally?"

She nodded. "I thought since you often are able to tell which direction a student is going with an answer before they get there—And—" She decided to throw caution to the winds. It wasn't like this was the first time she did that—"Just now," Samara continued. "Your aura changed. You were just listening to me, then curious and maybe even glad when you thought I might be a Slytherin. Then, you thought I wanted something from you, and your aura suddenly shrank in and became guarded."

Snape sat down. "You learned all that from just looking at me?"

"Yes. 

"You made one mistake. Or perhaps it wasn't a mistake," Snape said, eyes black and searching. "Perhaps you did not want to tell me what you really wanted from me. You see, I did not become guarded because you wanted something from me. I became guarded because you were trying to discover a way to manipulate me into touching you." He looked at her directly with his black stare. "Why?"

Samara gaped at him. "How did you do that?"

"In centering on your own gifts, you forgot that other wizards also have unique gifts. I had expected better from you, Miss Donnally."

"You have the gift of telepathy—like Pansy," Samara exclaimed.

"In some circles, it is telepathy, in others it is legimency," said Snape. 

"Legimency! Then you know why I wanted to touch you," said Samara. "My gift works better with physical contact, just like legimency —"

"I would not know," said Snape icily. "I would never practice legimency on a student—except in very extraordinary circumstances."

"These are extraordinary circumstances!" exclaimed Samara holding out her hand to him.

Snape stared at her hand without taking it. His usually uncomplicated bluish-brown aura went through several changes. Aside from the holes and the murkiness, she had never seen any other color in his aura except for an occasional flash of yellow when he was particularly enamoured of some part of his subject. However, his aura was now fraught with streaks of orange as he considered the fact that he could easily control this situation to his advantage. A murky gray invaded the blue as his intellectual curiosity struggled with his ethics.

Samara read the colors carefully before speaking. "I just want to share my gift with you, to learn about yours. Does your aura change when you use the legimency or occumency?" she asked, playing upon the intellectual curiosity she sensed. After all, didn't Aldwin say Snape's grandmother was an Avery? 

Samara bit her lip in concentration. If she were older, she knew this wouldn't be a problem. He would have taken her hand already, and she wasn't as patient as Snape was. She had already calculated that she could get something out of this exchange too. She would understand a little more about legimency a rare and ancient gift. "I don't care if you see my thoughts," she said. "Perhaps you will even see the auras that I see—"

"Then why do I still sense deception?" asked Snape, more streaks of orange flashing through his aura.

"Well," Samara shrugged. "Every student has a few secrets she wouldn't tell the teachers—"

Still Snape did not take her hand. His aura had settled to its normal murky blue. "I don't believe any of the teachers see auras," he said. "Trelawney included, but I may be wrong. Headmaster Dumbledore would know. Perhaps you should speak to him."

"I came to speak to you," said Samara tightly, angry thoughts flying through her mind as she lost her patience. "Just forget it!." She snapped, turning on her heel and thinking what a great prat he was! He had the ability to show her exactly what legimency looked like in the aura and he refused to do it because—because—why? Some ancient rule? If this wasn't defense against the dark arts she didn't know what was. All she was trying to do was help him because his aura looked like hell even though he performed the glamour charms—And this is how he acted? Maybe he deserved to be miserable. Merlin knew he made everyone around him miserable. I hope he's hearing all this," she thought. 

"I am catching the general idea," said Snape, "But only because you're yelling, and legimency is a rare gift. There are other methods of defense against the dark arts that would be more useful. I doubt that you would meet with any Dark Wizard who could use it, save one—"

"Wait until I tell the Gryffindors, Snape's practically at death's door," she thought picturing his aura. "And a legimen. Last she read, legimency was still considered dark magic, even though it was technically a gift and not a magic.

"Stop!" called Snape, and they stared at one another fiercely for a moment. "Never try to manipulate me," he sneered. "If you are going to act like my Slytherins, you will be punished like them," he breathed in a low threatening voice, wand in hand. 

Samara realized that she was pinned to the wall, but he had said no spell. She dropped her eyes from his black stare, suddenly frightened. Although she could say a spell and use wandless magic without moving, one look at the sparkles which lay on his aura, told her that he could counter most if not all of what she could summon.

"That said," he continued, calmly releasing her, and moving into a teaching mode. His aura returned to its normal bluish-brown. "Legimency has long been considered Dark Magic and witches and wizards who were born with the gift or who gained it with their adult powers at puberty, were persecuted by muggles and the magical community alike. No one likes to feel that another could invade their thoughts without their consent or knowledge, but that is exactly what they believed legimency to be. 

"They believed?" interrupted Samara. "Isn't that what it is?"

Snape shook his head. " It is more complicated than that, and more elusive. Like most magics, it is significantly enhanced by touch, so the best defense is to not allow yourself to be touched by another witch or wizard who might be an legimen. Shared magic functions the same as a touch, allowing a glimpse of anothers' thoughts to become more clear. Siblings, especially twins have some of the same affinity. As far as defense, there are also wards against legimency. The simple ones don't work but the more complicated ones do, and then it is a test of wills. To win that test of wills, you would have to study occumency. However, you may have natural wards. Some people do. Some people's thoughts are so chaotic that they are impossible to see. Others have natural wards, by their very being and are difficult to see. Others are fairly easy to see. I would imagine that what I sense when I choose to see through legimency is similar to what you see in the auras.

You, however, have a greater defense against legimency though your aura seeing. It could be an early warning to you, although I won't teach you the wards against legimency yet, if you don't naturally have them, so I don't know how much the warning would help."

"You won't," Samara interrupted, reading his aura. "You could, but you won't?"

"That is correct." Snape sighed. "I suppose you see half of this in my aura. I'll tell you the other half. At Dumbledore's request, I tried to teach a child who was in danger to use the occumency spells. We used my pensieve. He abused my trust," said Snape coldly. "I will not attempt to teach this to someone I cannot trust."

"I'm trustworthy," Samara said, wondering who the student was that betrayed Snape's trust. 

"Perhaps," said Snape, and then changing the subject, he brought the conversation back to why occumency would be of little use to her.

'You were effectively immobile with my simple **adhere** charm," said Snape, "and a legimen could touch you with or without your consent. Have you been seeing color changes in my aura now?"

"Yes," she said "streaks of orange and gray. Have you been—using your gift?"

Snape nodded. "Already I know that with typical Slytherin arrogance you seem to think you are capable of healing what appear to be holes in my aura. I also learned more about Draco Malfoy than I have in five years of teaching him--" 

Samara sucked in her breath. "I felt nothing," she said amazed.

Snape held out his hand. "If you still want to continue," he said grimly.

Feeling daring, she reached forward and closed her fingers around his extended hand. It was as dry as snake skin and very cold.

Immediately his aura flashed a vivid orange. Although the holes and murkiness remained, the controlling color of orange nearly covered the blue and gray entirely. With such power in his aura, Samara wondered what thoughts he was extracting from her, and she tensed. Immediately his fingers around hers tightened. "Relax," he said softly, hypnotically, and she felt her fear of him melt. 

Then Snape's thoughts invaded her own. "Your trust makes you vulnerable," said Snape, " So relaxing is the last thing you want to do—"

Samara now attempted to struggle loose from him, stars dancing before her eyes as if she had hit her head particularly hard, and a tingling feeling coursed down her neck from her head. Snape's aura gained a few streaks of the natural blue amidst the orange.

"Too late," said Snape, "If I wanted to hurt you, but I'm going to retreat before you get a whopping headache." Samara felt nothing different as his aura began to cool into its normal murky blue. The bits of gray and holes reappeared and as soon as he withdrew from her mind, leaving behind a slight headache. She remembered why she had come here. 

Before he released her hand, she gathered her magic and let her gift of healing flow over him.

It hit Severus Snape like a waterfall. Cool. Cleansing. Wonderful. Powerful. The relief that Dumbledore gave him felt like a trickle in comparison. Instantly, he knew what she was, but he was the last person in the world who should know. He couldn't help it. He knew he should pull away from her. She shouldn't waste her power on the likes of him, but he couldn't let go of the wonder of her gift. After an eternity, she pulled away from him. Her eyes were dulled with his pain. She took a deep breath and began scraping the filth from herself and releasing it to the elementals. 

"I could have done better, if we were outside, or in that room under Slytherin common room," she said simply, if I could transfer the energy to the earth. She reached out to him again.

"No." He took a step backward. "You have found Chamber of Forever?"

"Is that what it is called?"

"I know what you are now," he said. "A total empath—THE empath—and I totally missed this when I glimpsed your mind. Were you trying to shield this?" he asked.

"No. I didn't know what it was called."

"You would have known, perhaps unconsciously, but still aware. The shielding must be a remnant of the childhood shields that naturally protect children from harmful magics. How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

He nodded. "Yes, that could be it," he said. "You are perhaps still young enough to have the childhood protections associated with virginity.

"Pr--professor?" She sputtered, turning bright red in embarrassment and then clenching her fists in anger. What business of his--?

"There are powerful protective magics attached to virginity," Snape. Interrupted her thoughts. "They need only your intent to access them—" he stated matter of factly.

"Uncomfortable, she tried to change the subject. "I can help you." She said.

"No one can help me," he stated. 

"But the holes in your aura. I've closed one of them."

"What?"

"You have holes in your aura. You, and Draco and Ethan and Edward, but yours are the worst. You have 38—well 37 since I closed one of them. Last week you only had 36…"

"**Crucious** curse," he muttered. Twice. That must be it.

"Don't touch me," Snape said, backing away again. "You must help Harry Potter. That is who this power must channel from."

"But I have," said Samara. "He had only 2 holes. I closed them ages ago."

"Potter? When had he—Last year ," Snape realized when Voldemort was reborn.

"And Draco," said Snape aloud. He didn't mean to, but he liked Draco. He never wanted Draco to become a Death Eater. Now it was out of his hands. Damn Narcissia!

"But he has only 2," said Samara.

"If she understood what they were, she would never say 'only" thought Snape.

Suddenly, Snape sucked in his breath. "Damn. Not now."

"What is it?" asked Samara. 

"I've run out of time," said Snape. "Voldemort knows something has happened. He's felt the power you've poured into me. He's calling me,. But first, I must tell you. And when you leave here, go straight to Harry Potter. Go no where else. Do you hear me?" He wanted to reach out and clench her shoulders, to emphasize his words, but he caught himself just in time. "Harry first." He repeated. "Swear it."

"I will, but—"

"Don't speak. Listen. I have so little time. Before I go to Voldemort you must perform the '**obliviate**' spell on me. Do you know it?"

She nodded.

"I cannot go to him with knowledge of you."

"Merlin, help us," said Snape, "I'm trusting a fourteen year old with my brain. Try to take only the last few minutes, since the end of class. If you don't set the parameters properly, I'll be a vegetable." Images of Gilderoy Lockhart flashed through his mind.

Snape wrapped his right hand around his left arm and started to pace. "You are the child of which the prophecy speaks. Your gift has not been seen in over 1000 years. The last full empath, was Helga Hufflepuff. That little fool wasted her gift, because she was in love with Salazar Slytherin." He turned giving her a sudden searching stare. "You're not in love with anyone are you?"

"I don't think so."

"But you've shared magic with Draco."

Blushing, she shrugged, wondering just how much Snape actually learned about her and Draco. "I've also cursed him," she said. 

Snape suddenly clutched his arm and took several deep breaths, closing his eyes. Samara wondered if he even heard her,. When he opened his fathomless black eyes, he fixed her with his stare, but said nothing else about Draco. 

"Have you shared magic with anyone else?" he asked.

"Just playing Quit," she said.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "I see." He took a deep breath, obviously containing his pain. 

"Alright, there are three things you can do with this gift," he continued. "One is what you just did with me. You can heal some maladies of the soul. I don't know what the cost of that is to you but it's probably too high. Use that sparingly. It will exhaust you. Secondly you can reflect power. That means you can reflect most any curse laid upon you according to your strength at the time—except perhaps Avada Kadavra. Have you ever done that?"

"No—I—Yes. I have," she said simply.

"What spell?" asked Snape.

****

"Crucio."

He looked at her open mouthed for a minute before he continued. "And afterwards?"

"I slept," she said. "I was very tired." 

"Who would cast cru-?" he began.

Snape gasped and cradled his arm like it was broken. At the same time, he took 2 steps towards the door.

"Lock it," he hissed. 

"**Compingere**," said Samara. "You're hurting. Let me help you," she whispered, reaching toward him..

"NO! He'll find you, you little fool, and if I take another step toward that door, curse my feet to the floor, but don't let me leave here without the '**obliviate**' spell!

"

Snape took a deep breath composing himself. "Thirdly, you can channel the power of another wizard—to heal--or to ward or--"

"The hole in your aura is opening up again," Samara interrupted.

"I told you, you cannot help me!" he sneered. "One other thing, never touch Voldemort with your healing, nor Edward, nor Ethan. None of those in Voldemort's service. He will know, through the Dark Mark—and he must not know who you are. "Dumbledore can tell you what else to do, but go to Harry first. Now the '**obliviate** spell, before he summons me and you have no time to **obliviate** me."

"Draco?" asked Samara. 

"No, probably not him either, unless he survives this war—It will not be safe until Voldemort is dead."

Finally a low moan escaped from Snape's throat, and he sank to his knees holding his arm as if willing it to belong to someone else. His glamourine had faded leaving his pale face and sunken eyes open to her inspection. His aura had filled with an incredible amount of pain and Samara could now smell his flesh burning. Panting, he muttered, "Hurry."

Carefully, Samara set the parameters of the spell, trying to ignore the smell of burning flesh. Just when she entered class and sat in her seat. She moved physically to her seat to put herself in that place mentally. Then she pointed her wand at Snape: **"obliviate,"** she said, but she knew she sent him more than the spell—the power to endure, she hoped.

Apparently he got some extra power, because he immediately apparated directly from the classroom, ripping the wards and protections around Hogwarts all to hell.

(A/N: So sorry for not answering anything at the yahoo group and being a bit late with this chapter. We have moved to a new house and instead of a fast cable hook up we have satellite. It isn't working very well and this time when it went out the phone help said there must be a loose wire and they will send a technician out—WHEN? WHEN? I haven't been able to get on line for 4 days. Somewhere I read that 59% of girls would rather give up their boyfriend for a week than the Internet. I believe it! Anyway, I finally got one of those AOL discs in the mail—And I thought those things come every day—they come every 4 DAYS. This upload is through AOL dialup and I hope there are no mistakes because it takes forever. In the last chapter, after HOURS OF TRYING on fanfic to get it up, I put it on the Yahoo group because that was a much faster upload and it didn't kick me off. Then I uploaded the earlier version missing Ginny's wand info and I don't know what else, because I CAN'T STAY ON THE SITE LONG ENOUGH TO READ IT—AURGH! I only know about Ginny's wand because ennui told me. I also rewrote without the store names because I couldn't think of any I liked. Sounds like a good contest. Name Darla's bookstore. Name Bronwr's "gift shop" Anyway, please be patient and if the chapters aren't on fanfic, check the yahoo group site. For those of you who like vampires, Darla is in the sequel.

ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS:

Raven173: Glad you liked the Parvati stuff Add me to your IM carman doogle. And hey, anytime you can get someone to do your homework for you that's a good thing right. Lol.

Raven173: Dodgy?

Smiles: Love that poetry. Keep it coming.

Bill: Thanks for reviewing. I liked Knockturn too. 4 chapters more—Unless I decide to put 2 together or tear 2 apart in the next few days. You never know. Stick around for the sequel.

Joda: Tryiong to keep everyone happy. Please be patient with my internet woes. They will be fixed shortly.

Hayes 1966: So you liked the Harry "family reunion quote" I suspect you liked the 3 sisters—Quite a difference there. Harry's mother worried about someone falling off of a broom. Edddie's mom burying someone in a house of flames.

Jager: Some artwork is forthcoming. I too hope to see more. I think ennui has some and there's some at the yahoo groups site. As far as Tom/Ginny thoughts yes I think they pretty much see each other's thought, but since we are technically in "Ginny's" point of view, Ginny gets to edit, Tom doesn't. That's why we occassionally get a bit of Tom's language, but of course Tom is from an earlier generation when gentlemen were careful what they said in front of a girl. He has a rough time of it.lol.

Claret345: Nah—Harry's stupid. Just kidding. I think sometimes JK has made Harry "stupid" (see my poem: Order of the Phoenix) and sometimes that's necessary. The hero/heroine has to walk into danger or there is no plot. I like the chess set too. I want one.

Reiven: What line? And I guess I have to try to read the story on fanfic and fix the blank spaces in eddie's speech. I don't know what they are—Internet problems. Sorry.

Draco babysitting. Well he did promise a trip to knockturn alley to those kids who missed the Halloween party. Darla-- Mother of Connor? Lol Didn't think of that.

Jager: No. He really doesn't feel remorse. He wishes she'd just forget it and move on—after all they are sort of stuck with each other. And he was acting from a different (more slytherin)point of view when Ginny was eleven.(He's been living with the Gryffindors now for the last couple years) At the time of the chamber he didn't think he'd share her body. He thought either he or Salazar would get her body and she would be left in the diary. Oh well, the downside of possession, I guess. In my book the body of Tom Riddle in the second book was only a temporary "clone" not a permanent body. Which is also why Salazar was a little pissed at Lucius for giving the diary to an eleven year old girl and not writing in it himself. Visit the Yahoo group for lots of discussion about what exactly was Ginny's rape. (Tom? St. Mongo's? etc.)

PLEASE CONTINUE TO CHECK BACK. I WILL UPDATE WHEN I HAVE 15 REVIEWS.

NON STOP ACTION TILL THE END. LADY LESTRANGE

==


	58. CH 57: The Chamber of Chains

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

The Chamber of Chains

Chapter 57

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. The chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts and then the trio heads to KNOCKTURN ALLEY. 

IN INTEGRUM RESISTUERE_ Restore (him) to his former power._ Are the words spoken to the Longbottoms—the reason the Longbottoms are in St. Mongos. This secret is still kept by the Death Eaters who brought Voldemort to life. But now, another secret is shattered, the secret of the Anti-disapparition wards around Hogwarts, and we enter the CHAMBER OF CHAINS.

Non-stop action to the end, and now, on to the chapter,

**CHAMBER OF CHAINS.**

"Opps." Samara stood staring at the place where Snape had been. Unless he had a portkey on his person, he had just disapparated, but that was impossible within the Hogwarts wards. Either he or she had done something and she didn't know what. The air felt different. It had the freshness of outdoors on a spring day after a rain. She couldn't quite put her finger on the difference, but somehow, if felt lighter. She examined the magic remnants left in the room. The magic of her healing of Snape still hung in the air along with something else, something from Snape's magic. No, that wasn't right. It was not Snape's. As she twisted her wand back into her hair, considering this, the glow of someone apparating flickered beside her, then another and another. . .   
  
"Professor Dumbledore?" she said and he stood glaring at her. His wand was out. Professor McGonagall joined him followed by Professor Flitwick. All had their wands trained on her.   
  
"What is it?" asked Samara.   
  
"Perhaps," said Dumbledore, "You should tell us. **Expellarmus!"**   
  
Samara's wand flew from her hair and her long tresses fell in disarray around her face.   


"What did you do?" Dumbledore asked. His eyes were flashing fire and Samara was suddenly afraid. 

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked confusedly from one professor to the other. "Snape was so exhausted," she began, "And the Dark Lord—" 

Although Dumbledore's eyes returned to their childish twinkle, his aura suddenly darkened and rolled in anger, and. Samara's words ground to a halt. "I only helped him," she whispered.   
  
**"Priori Incantum,"** said Dumbledore as he examined her wand. The last spell she did with this wand was **"obliviate."** "Who did you **obliviate**?" asked Dumbledore.

"Professor Snape," said Samara.

"She wouldn't tell us," said Flitwick. "But if she obliviated someone it was obviously to hide what she was doing here."

Samara could see the disbelief in all of their auras. Nothing she could say would make any difference. "Fine. Don't believe me," she snapped. 

  
"I believe the magic done here was wandless," said McGonagall sternly. "And some _other _Dark Magic."   
  
"Wandless magic is NOT Dark," spat Samara as Dumbledore raised his wand. **"Restrictus!"**

  
  
Bindings wrapped around Samara like snakes of Devil's Snare. As she struggled, they pulled tighter on her arms. "You! Fools!" She spat, dividing her glare between the three of them. "I need to get to Harry Potter."  
  
McGonagall reached out to pat her shoulder, her aura was glistening with her deception. "It's for your own protection, child."   
  
"Liar!" Samara hissed, reading her deception without any doubt. "You're afraid of me. It's for _your_ protection!" 

McGonagall withdrew her comforting hand and stood in cold observation. Her aura rolling with controlled rage. Samara realized that she shouldn't have called McGonagall a liar even if it was true. She might have been able to get some sympathy from the woman because she was from her house--  
  
Flitwick leaned in and whispered to Dumbledore. "She may not need her hands," he said. His aura reflected both fear and concern, and as he spoke, Samara realized that he was right, but the spell was frozen on her lips.   
  
**"Exceptionis incantum!"** said Dumbledore. "My spell will not allow you to speak an incantation," he explained. "You will however, be able to talk to explain yourself."  
  
Samara struggled silently, feeling the fluffy softness of the spell which made her think that she didn't want to use an incantation. That was Dumbledore's idea, not hers. She said nothing. The only thing she wanted to say was a curse and Dumbledore had effectively stopped that idea. She was too tired to fight it.

"Don't you have anything to say in your own defense?" Asked Dumbledore. His twinkling eyes belaying the anger in his aura.

She thought about claiming that being assumed guilty until proven innocent did not sit well with her sense of Gryffindor honor, but decided to hold her tongue. She was too angry to speak. She would probably just get herself in deeper. "What would be the point?" she asked.  
  
"She obviously is aiding He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," said McGonagall. "Who else would want Hogwart's Anti-disapparition wards eliminated. If that's so, it means she has chosen her side, Albus."

"I sense legimency," said Dumbledore. "It may not have been her choice, and the Dark Magic done here was not the Prophecy Child's," added Dumbledore. "It was an enchantment set up earlier."

"Could she have triggered it?" asked McGonagall.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps the person who apparated in triggered it," said Dumbledore. "The person who tore down the wards. The person she helped and perhaps healed. Who's here? I don't see how they could have escaped so quickly unless they were invisible or a small animagus. Is it Wormtail?"

"It could be Voldemort," said McGonagall.

"No one apparated in," said Samara tightly. She hesitated. Should she tell them Snape disapparated? If she did they would know he was a Death Eater. They would know he went to Voldemort, but she could tell by his aura that he wasn't evil. She couldn't turn him in as a Death Eater could she?

"Someone apparated, or disapparated," said Dumbledore, his eyes gentle, but his pure crystalline aura flashing orange. "I will know eventually." He continued softly coaxing. "Why don't you just tell me now?" 

"It's Samara's magic that confuses me," interrupted Flitwick. "I think we need Madam Pomfrey down here."

"Poppy?" said McGonagall. 

"Yes. It seems to be a string of some sort of strengthening charms, but an enchantment I've never seen done. It's an Old Magic—impossibly complicated, and very powerful. Minerva is right. It could have been Voldemort himself—but a healing charm?" Flitwick whispered his face growing pale. "There's Voldemort's spell—a spell of his own making I think and some ancient dark magic and traces of legimency. It's very hard to get a magical signature with the whisps of students spells from class remaining. I'm sorry. You try Minerva."

"But someone's magic must be here. The wizard who apparated," said Dumbledore. And if he broke the wards he would have needed healing."

"She had to be remarkably fast with that healing spell," said Flitwick shaking his head. Prophecy or not, she's still a child. Such speed would take years of practice--unless she's influenced by legimency."

"There's no other remarkable magic. Just Samara and you-know-who," confirmed McGonagall.

"And the legimency," said Dumbledore., checking the area himself.

"But it's said, He-who-must-not-be named—" began McGonagall

"Is an legimen?" added Dumbledore, nodding. "Yes. I sense Voldemort's magic too, Minerva,"

She frowned and her aura was pulled in and pinched as her face.

"Otherwise, there are just the normal teaching spells," said Flitwick. "From Severus--accio, adhere, a few summoning and banishing from students—Nothing remarkable." Flitwick put away his wand.

"I just have to find Harry," whispered Samara. "Please."

"You are not going anywhere near, Harry Potter, young lady," said Dumbledore sharply. **"Veritatis**! Are you under **Imperious**?" he asked with his wand pointed towards her. 

"NO!"

"**Veritatis!** Was Voldemort with you?"

"NO!"

"**Veritatis! **Was it Voldemort you healed?"

"NO!"

Dumbledore frowned as if he weren't sure if his truth charm worked on her. "Who told you to go to Harry?" Asked Dumbledore, his aura again flashing orange. 

Samara didn't answer right away. Instead, she began to fight the truth charm. "If she said Professor Snape, would they know he was the one who ripped the wards? She didn't think he meant to do that. It was the extra power she gave him—It wasn't his fault. But these people were ready to condemn someone on speculation. She wasn't sure she trusted them, especially since McGonagall was so obviously lying. 

"Why do you shy from the truth?" Dumbledore demanded.

She tried to read Dumbledore's aura, but it seemed he realized that she could see it, and large portions of it were partially blocked to her. He was still shining, but she could no longer read the variations. But how did he know she could read auras? Had he purposely camouflaged his own? Flitwick's on the other hand, was an open book. He was the least judgmental of the three, but he was still obviously scared of her and likely to err on the side of caution.

Dumbledore hesitated a moment and then moved forward, pushing the binding vines out of the way, he pushed up the left sleeve of her robe.

"I don't have a Dark Mark," she spat, trying to evade his touch.

"And how would you know what I'm looking for," said Dumbledore, his blue eyes flashing fire, and his aura a blazing white, like an avenging angel's. 

Samara bit her lip. She couldn't say without getting Draco in trouble, either for having the Mark or for telling her about Snape checking arms in Slytherin to find out who had Dark Marks. She shrugged. "People talk," she said. "Look, I don't want to hurt anyone. I just need to get to Harry Potter."

"Why do you wish to get to Harry Potter?" asked Dumbledore, his total distrust of her was evident in the way he held his aura close to himself.

Samara didn't answer.

"Perhaps you should have some quiet time to think," said Dumbledore, "Until you are ready to answer our questions truthfully, young lady, you will have to be confined." His aura rippled uncertainly.

"Where?" whispered Samara, struggling again against the bindings and wondering if she would dare to call a simple **incendio **charm with intent only. She knew she could have done it, if only she hadn't given so much to Snape so recently.

"Your office should still have some wards," suggested McGonagall.

Dumbedore shook his head. "No. There are too many magical objects that she could get into in my office, I need somewhere empty of aids for her—I hesitate to think it—But I believe Snape has a place that would work.--A place where magic will be of no use to her--"

" The dungeon!" said Flitwick horrified. 

"It's only temporary," said Dumbledore. "And we have to remember it is imperative that Voldemort cannot reach her—as much--if not more than preventing her from reaching him. With the wards down, no where is safe." Dumbledore sighed, his aura again flashing orange. "You need to tell us the truth," he said to Samara. 

She said nothing.

"Minerva, I believe Severus will be in his chambers. Please get him, and have him bring veritaserium."

"She began to walk away, when Dumbledore said "Disapparate, Minerva!" and in a blink she was gone. A few minutes later, she returned. "He's not there Albus. I can't find him anywhere, and his veritaserium is not in plain sight"

"That's strange," said Dumbledore. "He always tells me when— Well, never mind. I know where the room is, and we can get the veritaserium after we find the wizard who apparated here. Let's go," he said. "Stay alert." 

Samara walked silently in front of him at wandpoint. She was seething. How could they do this to her. She didn't do anything wrong and if she wasn't mistaken they were going to need her power very shortly. It's no wonder so many Slytherins went over to the dark side. If they were treated like prisoners and evil Dark Wizards just on speculation, why not make it the real thing? Why not indeed?" she asked herself. Just from the rush of power she got when she healed Snape, she was pretty sure that she and Snape could have taken Dumbledore down if she wanted to. Did she want to? Another thought occurred to her. She once did magic without words or wand. Of course she had Ethan's power to draw from when she had done the wandless crucio curse on him so long ago. It was a mistake then, but she was pretty sure she could do it again and purposefully. Snape said it was one of her gifts. She knew she wouldn't be able to control it—the magic would probably spatter everywhere, and what about the other two wizards? The next time Dumbledore drew power for a spell, dared she try to intercept it? Her timing would have to be impeccable. She licked her lips. It was intent that mattered. 

But there was no time. As she walked along the corridor, Dumbledore motioned the other two wizards back and suddenly, she was alone in a completely blank room. There was no window and no door. She had no idea of how she had walked into it. 

She screamed in fear and frustration. She felt the cloying fear of past inhabitants of this room. 

"Don't leave me here!" she shouted, uncertain of whether or not they could hear her. "Please!"

No one answered her.

The magic here was all very old. Regardless of what Dumbledore said, Snape had not used this room. Filch had though. And someone called Apollyon Pringle before him. And Dippit And Doogle. And Nigellus. The screams of people being hung from the ceiling were very real to her. The floor was spotless. There was no blood—no cobwebs—no bones of little rodents. Samara swallowed. She realized that the room itself was alive, like the room in which she danced, but there was nothing even remotely pleasant about the things that took place in this room, and remnants of them remained. It was a torture chamber. She could see no other purpose for the room. She covered her eyes and began to cry. She made the mistake of touching the wall. A flood of memories filled her, sucking away her strength and her magic.

__

"Just a little harmless gossip—Sobbing--I didn't mean to—Sir—" It was a voice Samara knew. The moaning ghost, Myrtle.

The memory switched.

__

"Yeh I knew it was after curfew, Sir, but Aragog needed—"

and switched again, to another student. She was hysterical--

__

"They won't find me! Carman, Please don't! "You don't understand. Carman!" She seemed to realize that pleading wouldn't work, and switched to threats: "I'm connected to him like you could never be—He'll find me—when he finds out what you did to me—" Then hysteria took over again. "Oh Gawd! Tom! Find me! TOM!"

Samara yanked her hand away, and clasped them together. That last was a powerful memory that touched her deeply. It sapped her magic and strength and will accordingly. Sobbing shook her and trembling, she tried to contain herself. She searched her robes for a handkerchief, but there was none, and she couldn't conjure one in this room. When she raised a hand to see if she could do magic to escape, it was sucked into the room itself, and it took her several moments to detach herself from the room's vociferous appetite. She already felt drained and exhausted. She walked what appeared to be the perimeter of the room with her hands clasped in front of her because she didn't want to touch anything. She tried to make her mind blank, but she couldn't shut out the whispers even when she didn't touch the wall. 

She was becoming very tired, but the thought of lying down and sleeping on this floor was so abhorrent that she knew she would remain standing for days instead of lying down. What nightmares would come? She ventured to ask herself, and immediately regretted it, as the room provided the terrors of her thoughts.

It was a long while before she realized that there might be a way to escape. The person calling to the person called Tom obviously thought Tom could hear her. Why? The answer came suddenly to Samara--because they had shared magic. Although she had healed Snape and Harry, there was only one person with whom she had shared magic. Only one person Samara had shared that intimately with, and that was Draco. Would he come? She wasn't sure. She only knew that he had taken bits of her magic and she had taken bits of his. She hoped it would make some kind of link. She worked on it in her mind for a while, concentrating on intent. It would work better she realized if it had been planned, if either he or she had made some sort of commitment or a sacrifice for one another—something physical—but that wasn't there. She had to rely on what she had, and hope it was enough. She called to him, gently at first and then more intensely, as she became more frightened.

Suddenly, she realized that she wasn't alone. A ghost was with her—a very burly, bloody ghost. Her nerves were already shot, but she didn't scream. She just sucked in her breath.

"It's been a very long time since this room was used," the ghost said. "Too long in fact. Your magic isn't much help to you now, is it, witch? With a sinister glare, he flew directly through her. Disoriented, she touched the wall. Memories flowed again. Different ones this time.

__

"I wasn't cheating! Look! There are no answers on it. It's just a piece of parchment."

For a moment the wizard's confidence comforted her, and she nearly relaxed. Then the fear started.

_I don't see why I should be punished—I mean—just parchment—NO DON'T BURN IT! OK, Mr. Filch. It wasn't just parchment. It was --a love note from Lily to James. You know, it was just a little prank. Harmless. Nothing that warrants a detention HERE! At least, let James take the note back to the dorm—OK Let Lupin take it. He didn't do anything wrong. _

The wizard began to panic. The fear made all the worse because of his earlier arrogance. She felt like she knew him—the texture of his aura was familiar—and then it hit her. It was the same aura that surrounded the black dog animagus that had accompanied Mr. Lupin—the one that everyone wanted to pretend was really a dog, like they pretended that Mrs. Norris was a cat.

__

Why can't me and James serve the detention together? Why not? I mean, It would save you the trouble of coming back down here again later. After all we got in trouble together—please—don't—If I showed you the note? No. I can't. Because—Because—it's not a note. It's a joke we got from Zonko's—but it doesn't work. We can't get it to work. I know—I said—but I—I lied—but—please—please—"

And he was reduced to pleading like the rest of them. Samara found herself sobbing as the memory faded directly into another one—a girl this time--

__

"At least let Lucius and me be here together! Please! You can't leave me here alone! 

She pulled herself up to face Dippit, who dismissed her with an absent wave of his hand. He hardly seemed to hear her.

__

I should tell you—I think—I mean I could be—I'm pregnant—What do you mean it doesn't matter? Of course it matters! Lucius! Lucius! Lucius! Laurel! Valeriana!"

==

"Go ahead and scream, Witch," said the ghost. "No one can hear you. No **sonorous **spell to enhance your voice." Tsk. Tsk. Poor little witch."

The ghost flew through Samara again and she staggered against the wall.

"DRACO!" Samara hadn't realized she'd been screaming until she felt the rawness of her throat, and finally the one wall flickered and opened. She fell into Draco's arms sobbing.

"What took you so long?" she accused.

"I heard you almost an hour ago," he said, "I apparated to the corridor, but I couldn't find this place until you—you—" He lifted his head and looked at her holding her at arm's length. "What _did_ you do anyway?" he said. "It was almost like—a summons."

"Did I hurt you?" asked Samara.

"No. Well, a little—I could feel—Never mind. I felt almost like I was here before, but I—"

"Just hold me," Samara interrupted. "I did something stupid."

"Humph," said Draco.

"The Hogwarts wards are opened," she said. "It was Snape who did it. Well, Snape and me. I'm —she hesitated. Snape had said to tell no one. Gawd, she wasn't good at secrets.

"The Prophecy Child," said Draco

"You knew," she said amazed. "Since when?"

"Since the Chamber of Forever, for sure," said Draco. "I suspected the first time you cursed me." He was stroking her hair. 

"Where's your wand?" he asked suddenly.

"Dumbledore took it," she said. "But I think I can accio it. Snape said that distance doesn't matter. I did it in class from Snape."

"Snape's not Dumbledore," said Draco. "And you're trembling. Get your strength back first. Do you want to go outside to connect to the Elementals? It's cold."

"No," said Samara eyes suddenly sparkling in anticipation. " I want to go to The Room—The Chamber of Forever."

The ghost from inside the torture chamber floated out to them. "She belongs to the Dark Lord," he said. 

"Go away Baron," snarled Draco. "_She belongs to me." _He put a protective arm around Samara's shoulder.

"If you know what is good for you, you will go to the Antechamber now. The others should be there shortly, Young Mr. Malfoy."

Draco nodded. "I will go, Baron, when I get damned good and ready," he said. "But not yet. He won't have her yet."

The ghost chuckled. "Damned you will be, Young Mr. Malfoy. And the girl too. Just like your mother." The ghost swirled around the ceiling and smirked. "Did you know, your father thought he could keep your mother too—"

Draco made an inarticulate sound that was half way between a growl and a snarl. "Did you know that **crucio **works on ghosts," he said in a cold hard voice. "I just recently discovered that. Do you remember what if feels like?"

The baron disappeared, and Samara was left standing next to Draco. "When you do that," she whispered. "I feel like I don't know you at all."

"You don't know me," Draco said pulling her toward Slytherin common room and the Chamber of Forever. "But you will. First, we have to think of a way to get your wand back."

==

The Gryffindors were all gathered in Hermione's room. Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting cross-legged on the floor around the pensieve. Neville and Beatrice were sitting back a little further. Harry thought they both looked like they would rather be anywhere else rather than here. Parvati, who had already put all of the visions into the pensieve was sitting with her head on Dean's shoulder and Lavender and Seemus were practically ignoring everything that was going on. Harry wondered why they bothered to come.

Why are there are snakes all over the child?" asked Parvati.

"Could it be Tom Riddle as a baby?" asked Harry. "The man looks a lot like him—Could he be Tom Riddle's squib father--"

"So you think the woman is his grandmother?" asked Beatrice.

"Snakes would be expected around the Heir of Slytherin," commented Ron.

"That's it!" said Hermione. "The child is the Heir of Slytherin! The _natural _heir of Slytherin, not the one that the cult contrived—"

The group looked at her confused.

It's the child of the other boy--the squib's second son. If it were Tom what would be the point of the other visions?" Hermione explained.

"And the Slytherin line is through his father," ventured Harry

"Then the woman is—Lorrissa?" questioned Parvati.

__

"So she was pregnant," said Tom.

"And you're an uncle," thought Ginny.

__

"Please—I can't stand that Weasley excitement about babies."

"But Tom—"

"And that's great half-uncle to the child with the snakes—not uncle--and not me. I'm just a Memory."

"If the Prophecy child is the Heir of Slytherin," said Ron. "Trelawney has been right all along. We're all doomed."

There was a long silence and at last Harry said, "Shall we look at the next vision?"

" The prophecy child is on the train," said Beatrice. "He's at the Sorting, remember?"

She," corrected Harry. "Parvati, do you remember what you said when you were Helga?"

Parvati shook her head. "I never remember them after they're over."

"You identified the Prophecy Child as a girl. You said, "A child of our blood combined, a lass."

"I don't understand why the founders are arguing over her," said Dean. "How could they not realize that she was comprised of all the houses?"

"Oh, I think I know that," said Harry. "I read some things about empaths on All Hallow's Eve and I think that the Prophecy Child is not one forth of each house as we supposed. The prophecy child is totally the house she is in, while she chooses to be that house, but she can travel to each of the houses and be comfortable in each of them."

"That's why we couldn't find her!" exclaimed Hermione. 

"We really should look at the parseltongue," said Ginny. "That's what we got the pensieve for—"

"You're right," said Harry. 

As they reached the part of the vision where the parseltongue abounded, Ginny and Harry moved forward to have a closer look. Parvati was the Prophecy Child.. All of the others were dressed in Death Eater robes. They could recognize no one.

Apparently the Prophecy Child has not chosen her side yet here," said Harry Potter.

As the snakes hissed, Neville asked, "What are the snakes saying?" And Harry began to translate the parseltongue for the others.

In parseltongue: "What are you doing? Are you bowing to this—not snake—not man—" Harry hesitated, listening. "The Prophecy Child is disgusted by him," Harry continued. " Then, I think Voldemort speaks next. He says:, ""Yes, she is, As should you."

So, someone was bowing and You-Know-Who told the Prophecy child to bow?" asked Ron.

Right, said Harry, But still the Prophecy Child doesn't bow to him. Harry felt himself cheering on the prophecy child, even though it wouldn't make any difference to the outcome. He remembered being in that Death Eaters circle and now, he noted the size of the group around and through the train had roughly doubled. 

"If she was asking someone—in parseltongue--about bowing—then there has to be another parselmouth among his Death Eaters," said Hermione thoughtfully.

"Oh sweet Merlin, they know," thought Ginny.

__

"Not yet," coached Tom. "They're Gryffindors—"

"Who?" Harry shivered. 

"Does this mean there were Death Eaters on the train?" asked Beatrice.

"Well there had to be at least one," said Hermione. "Who else would send the Dark Mark?"

Ginny breathed again..

__

"Told you so," said Tom. "You're such an angel, Ginny Love."

"Yeah, me and Gloria," thought Ginny.

A moment later, the Prophecy Child bowed an irreverent hasty bow which seemed to mean nothing to her.

"Well, if she doesn't want to bow, that's a good sign isn't it?" asked Dean.

Parvati nodded hopefully.

Then the Prophecy Child opened the book and the snakes—no not snakes--baby basilisks came crawling out of the diary. It was a small green book 

"It's not my diary," said Ginny in relief. 

The snakes poured out of the book , and the Prophecy Child took them all into her hands.

She's—not saying words, said Harry she's just—crooning to them—calling them pet names as several slithered around her neck and the ones that fell to the ground, tried to crawl around her ankles. Then the Prophecy Child looked up. "I should tell you," she said.to Voldemort. "I came here because I would like your help."

Harry sucked in his breath.

"What did she say?" questioned Hermione, but Harry didn't answer. He was staring at the pensieve.

Ginny spoke instead, "She said, I came here because I want your help."

"Oh, that can't be good," said Ron.

"And we still don't know who it is!" moaned Ginny. "We've gone through almost all of the visions and dreams and still are no closer to figuring this out! What are we going to do?"

"You have to tell them, Parvati," urged Dean.

"Tell us what?" asked Neville.

"I had another vision," said Parvati, blushing. "It started out as a dream and I thought it was just a dream, but a vision followed it. I never wrote it down."

"What!" exclaimed Lavender. "Why didn't you write it down?"

"I was going to! Snape caught me going to Trelawney and by the time I got back I couldn't remember it very well."

"There are potions to help you remember," suggested Neville.

"I told you part of it. Remember when Beauxbatons was attacked." Parvati said. "I think I'll remember at least some of it."

"Well, let's try," said Ginny.

"It was about the Yule Ball," began Parvati. "You remember I went to the Yule Ball last year with Harry—"

"Yes," said Harry. "I remember—" He did remember—He remembered Dean's jealousy. He remembered not treating her very well—He was a little nervous himself about what this prophecy contained.—"Parvati?" he said. "You know, I—I'm sorry about how the Yule Ball turned out—"

"I'm not," interrupted Dean.

"I just mean, I was—" Harry shrugged.

"Rude?" supplied Parvati.

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry."

Parvati rolled her eyes. She and Lavender giggled as they looked back at the pensieve, and Harry closed his eyes. He was asking her to the Yule ball, and she was giggling. He looked like a stuttering fool, standing in his wrinkled robes and running his hand through his already ruffled hair. Then he asked if she knew anyone for Ron—Ron himself interrupted aghast. 

"Harry! You told me Padma wanted to go!"

"Well, she did," said Harry. "She could have said no—"

"I can't believe you did that to me!" shouted Ron. "I'm not that desperate!"

Hermione patted his arm gently, trying to calm him.

Unbeknownst to Ron and Harry, the pensieve switched to Alvin Nott asking Parvati to the Ball. The comparison between him and Harry was ludicrous," thought Ginny. Harry was endearingly nervous, but Alvin was sophisticated, poised, impeccably dressed—"

__

"Oily, manipulative—" added Tom.

"You don't know that," thought Ginny.

__

"Of course I do. He's a Slytherin." 

Ginny sighed. "With prejudice like yours Tom, the Slytherins don't need the Gryffindors to beat them down."

__

"I must have gotten it from you, Ginny Love—obviously a Gryffindor trait—beating down Slytherins"

"Yeah. Look at you," thought Ginny.

Ginny was rocked from her revelry when Parvati shouted at Lavender. "You what?"

Parvati in the pensieve was dancing with Alvin Nott, her head intimately on his shoulder. 

"I just danced with him," Parvati explained rolling her eyes. 

"You went to the ball with Harry. Why were you dancing with Nott?"

" It wasn't like Harry wanted to dance with me," said Parvati.

"But Nott's a Slytherin!" continued Lavender.

"As if I would date a Slytherin. Are you out of your mind?" spat Parvati. "Even when we went back over to Slytherin, we—"

"You went back over to Slytherin!" Interrupted Lavender aghast.

"We were just dancing—" said Parvati.

"_Just dancing_ with _Nott_. I wasn't born yesterday."

"Then stop acting like you were," snapped Parvati. "I had no reason to tell you. It wasn't your business--" You were perfectly happy with the Beaubaxtons crowd anyway , Lavender, if I remember correctly. At least Nott is our age. I wasn't drooling over the seventh years. 

"That isn't the point."

In the pensieve, Death Eaters were starting to arrive. Fire was everywhere.

"And what is your point?" asked Parvati. 

"To find out what was going on between you and Alvin."

"Oh, you're calling him Alvin now," said Parvati. "Does Seamus know _you're _on a first name basis with him?"

"Leave me out of this," said Seamus hastily.

"And nothing is going on," continued Parvati. He just asked me to the ball. 

"He didn't. If he had, you wouldn't have gone with Harry Potter.

Harry put his face in his hands and Hermione patted him on the shoulder..

In the penseive, the Beaubaxton's table exploded. "You know, I think that's the main point of this vision," said Ginny. "To warn us about Beaubaxtons, and since it's already over--"

__

"I don't think anyone's listening to you, Ginny, " said Tom.

"Harry was a champion!" countered Parvati. "Anyway he asked me before Alvin." 

"Should we –do anything about them?" asked Hermione gesturing to the arguing girls.

"Oh, no," said Dean. "I'm so glad to see Parvati acting normally for a change. It's OK as long as they don't start cursing each other. Lately Parvait's been so wrapped up in the prophecy she can't even hold a civil conversation. Look how focused she is—"

"I don't think it's really civil—" interrupted Harry. Both Parvati and Lavender had now drawn their wands.

"You take that back!" Lavender shouted brandishing her wand. "I never spent the night. That's Slytherin lies! It's because of that stupid toilet portkey- Anyway, you just said you went back to Slytherin with Nott-"

"I thought you called him Al—vin," said Parvati.

****

"Expellarmus!" said Harry disarming both of the girls with one spell.

"Impressive," muttered Dean.

__

"No it wasn't," thought Tom. "Their wands weren't even aimed at him."

"Can we get on to the next vision or dream?" asked Harry as the girls glared at each other.

"When did all this with Nott happen?" asked Ginny.

"Last November," said Lavender.

"Christmas break," said Parvati.

"Well, see," said Ginny gesturing with her hands. "It's all over now. That shouldn't be a problem for either of you. Anyway, from what I've seen in Slytherin, Lauren Avery would curse anyone who smiles at him."

"Well, if she did," muttered Lavender, "She'd have to curse the whole school."

"From what I understand, that's what they were saying about you Lavender," said Parvati. 

Luckily, Harry still had their wands. After a few minutes they calmed down. 

"I think that's all we're going to get tonight," said Hermione. "Let's make an early start of it tomorrow."

The final moments in the pensieve were playing out. Snape was dancing with Parvati and warning her. "Say nothing. Dance."

"Snape?" said Lavender. "You were dancing with Snape? That's just disgusting."

"It was a dream," said Parvati exasperated.

"You dream of Snape?" she said, her voice going up an octave and catching the attention of one of the Gryffindor passers by.

They must not know who you are" said Snape, eyes intense, even in the murky pensieve. "Tell no one. Do you understand? Do you understand how important you are? Do you understand?"

."Snape was protecting the Prophecy child," said Parvati through gritted teeth. 

Suddenly a surge of magic rushed through the room. The glow globes flickered as if a cold wind or a ghost had passed them. A moment later the cold was replaced by a warm summer breeze. A freshness followed it like a clear summer night following a soaking rain.

Everyone was looking at each other in confusion, but Neville leaped to his feet. "The wards are down," he blurted. "The Hogwart's apparition wards just went down."

"What?" The group looked at him in horror.

"You must be joking," said Hermione.

"Mistaken—" added Ron.

"Hey, it's just Neville," thought Ginny, but Tom confirmed his suspicions. The Anti-disapparition wards just dropped, " he assured her.

"Oh please," murmured Neville suddenly looking very much like that little one year old who had watched his parents tortured. "Don't be her—"

"One way to find out if the wards are really down," said Harry. Pulling his wand. 

"Harry don't—"

****

"Itare phantasma!"

"You don't know what the wards might have done to you," admonished Hermione, but her scolding died on her lips as she realized that Harry had just apparated from one end of the room to the other.

Angelina Johnson banged on the door. "Hermione! Count the first years. We're taking a census to see who's still out. Hermione!"

She opened the door and peered in. "Prefect business," Angelina said, and then more quietly to Hermione. "It's an emergency. The appariton wards are down." She raised her voice a little to carry to the hallways. "Everyone stay in your room or the common room.. No one may leave Gryffindor Tower.

Parvati seemed to suddenly realize her mission as she gazed into the pensieve. "I have to protect the prophecy child too," she murmured. "I have to find her." She looked around wildly. "Dean? Dean? Have we found her yet?"

"No," he said sadly. "We're still looking, Parvati."

"You keep looking, alright?" said Hermione from the doorway. "The best thing you could do is find her—before, you-know-who does—" 

Wand drawn Hermione turned and followed Angelina into the corridor.

__

****

NOTES TO REVIEWERS:

****

XASA: Four days—You're quite a reader. Thanks for being with us. Check out the yahoo group, The_Seers_Truth. Voldemort can't feel Samara's power through Draco, because she hasn't healed him. She shared magic with him.

**Reiven** What exactly do these holes in their aura's mean? Trauma. In the case of my story, the curcious curse., omoshiroi??? It's not really Ginny's temper showing here. It's Tom's.

****

.**Raven173** Glad you like Tom. And yes, Snape forgot several things. He was a bit distracted with the Dark Mark burning. Major Draco next chapter. Stay riveted to that computer.

****

hayes1966 Of course Draco knows, and Poor Edward? Remember Ginny still has to find the emerald, so she wasn't a total waste for Eddie.

taju`akiel (dbvhunter@aol.com) Glad you are enjoying. Please keep reading.

****

Jager Glad you are with us. Check out the groups. Yahoo. Com site.

cubez@Hogwarts Glad you like. Stay with us. More good stuff coming.

Trillium Thanks for your crossed fingers, but my internet is still screwy. Next week they are supposed to check the hardware. They have finally decided it's the dish itself that's messed up SIGH. Hey, everytime I write a new chapter, you say, "it's my favorite chapter!" I LOVE IT. HAPPY DANCE.

****

Silverfox Gr, ff.net is having 'a communication problem' whenever I try to sign in. And you think you were having problems with fanfic! HA! Thanks for reading and reviewing.

****

**ennui deMorte** (I left **some of** * ennui's comments because those of you who are following the yahoo groups discussion will get a kick out of them) "da wand - Da Wand! lol, can't believe I was even close on that one. The Macarena, anyone? Neville did forget two names and it is pretty good he forgot one or else the Gryffs probably would've been light one Seer. The two names: Doogle and Patil"

So, ennui, it's obvious why he omitted Patil. Question for group: Why did he omit Doogle?

  
And for your reading pleasure, ennui, more albino ferret to come. Muwawawawa 

Samara hasn't shared magic with Harry. She healed him—twice. She hasn't shared magic with or healed Ginny. She thought she could heal Ginny, at the beginning, and Ginny told her not to worry about it when she couldn't do it. St. Mongos couldn't heal her. Then later when Samara saw a major change—Dark Mark—but at the time Samara didn't know what it was, she tried to heal her, but when she saw the mess Ginny was in, in addition to what Samara senses as Tom, she just pulled the covers up over her. She couldn't heal Ginny.

.And what was that line of BULL that she fed Snape about not loving Draco? The Slytherin answer to that is "Humph." 

****

  
**Kemenran** oho ... fun in potions. Yes, it was, wasn't it? And poor Harry never had fun in potions with Snape. Bout time don't you think?

==

BE A RESPONSIBLE READER. REVIEW. AT LEAST IT DOESN'T COST YOU ANYTHING TO READ THIS FIC. 

AUTHOR WONDERS—WHY DOES IT TAKE BETWEEN 50-60 READERS ON ADVANCED STATS BEFORE 10 REVIEWS SHOW UP?

==

Author's note:

Only 2 more chapters to go till the sequel—

Visit the groups.yahoo site.

That's groups.yahoo.com/The_Seers_Truth

--Lady Lestrange

-== 


	59. CH 58: The Chamber of Forever

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 58

The Chamber of Forever

10 REVIEWS. I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 10 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. The chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts and then the trio heads to KNOCKTURN ALLEY. 

__

IN INTEGRUM RESISTUERE Restore (him) to his former power. Are the words spoken to the Longbottoms—the reason the Longbottoms are in St. Mongos. This secret is still kept by the Death Eaters who brought Voldemort to life because they will never know how much of Voldemort is Tom Riddle and how much is Salazar Slytherin.. But now, another secret is shattered, the secret of the Anti-disapparition wards around Hogwarts, and Samara escapes from CHAMBER OF CHAINS. Will she find her wand? Will the Gryffindors realize she's the Prophecy Child?

Non-stop action to the end, and now, on to the chapter,

****

Chapter 58

The Chamber of Forever

It wasn't until Samara and Draco stood on the threshold of the Chamber of Forever that they remembered how they had left it.

The dark and dreary aftermath of Aislinn's death hung in the room like cobwebs—thick giant cobwebs that clung to everything, sucking away the life. It was almost devoid of color. Gray wraith-like images moved through it.

"We can't fix this," said Draco.

"Yes. We can."

"Look at you, Samara. You are exhausted. You can barely stand up. I don't know how—"

"We have to," spat Samara. "Either help me, or leave."

Silence hung in the ruined room.

"I'll help you," said Draco at last.

Samara stared at the bleakness of the room and thought of Dumbledore taking her wand. Dumbledore accusing her—Putting her in that—torture chamber--Her anger, cold as ice took form and the crystals of ice formed on her robe. It began to snow, the cool healing energy of the white snow filling the air with snowflakes. Samara paused, and closed her eyes, resting for a bit. 

"Samara, You're asleep on your feet. You can't do this now."

She shivered, but not with cold. Her voice was low and even and angry. "He left me there," she said, "Cold, alone, wandless—Why did he leave me there?"

"He's either a demon or an idiot, I don't know which."

"But I escaped," Samara breathed.

"Yes, you escaped," Draco soothed, "But I'd sure like to curse that old bastard. Putting an empath in a room like that—"

"He-took-my-wand." Each word was like a curse.

"Are you sure you're alright?' asked Draco, touching her face. "You seem to be existing on magic alone—It's dangerous."

"I have a sense that I am in a very dangerous position—without my wand—exhausted--bereft of protection, but I know what I have to do."

"And what is that?" asked Draco.

"Prepare," Samara said. She opened her eyes and adjusted the ice crystals clinging now in the spider webs. They looked better, but still not right—

"Prepare—" Samara repeated.

"But how will you know what you are preparing for?" asked Draco.

"Not what. Who," said Samara, picking up the ice crystals of magic again. "I would assume that my enemies are the ones trying to kill me." She said, weaving a magic sculpture of ice. "But not yet, Not quite yet.

One of the wraith-like images brushed against her, it's eternal cold lingering.

"What are those?" asked Draco. "Not ghosts."

"Memories of broken dreams,' answered Samara.

"But when did we?"

"Not us," said Samara. "Aislinn's."

Draco looked at her, his aura receding close to his body and moving with agitation.

"Worried about your Patronus?" Samara smirked.

"No."

"Don't lie to me," said Samara her eyes alight with amusement.

"A little," Draco agreed.

"Don't be," said Samara. "This should help yours." She held out her hand. "This room is going to be awesome."

"I believe you," he said, taking her hand. "I'm assuming you want to do this together."

"Please," said Samara. "I've read that shared spells are usually stronger—"

"You've read?" said Draco with half a smile.

"Yes—I—" Samara stopped. "You've shared a spell before," she said.

"Yes," said Draco.

"With who?"

"Mostly Mother. Lauren and I are compatible too. Pansy used to be—Mother is the easiest though. She's very good at it. She's had enough practice with her sisters."

"I thought she only had one sister."

"The other is dead," said Draco.

"Oh." Samara looked around the room at the evidence of Aislinn's death and decided that she didn't want to know any more about Draco's dead aunt.

==

Much later, he had gathered her into his arms and she poured her pent up feelings and wild magic into the embrace. Her joy in his arms, her frustration and fear of being muggle born and yet again her elation that it didn't matter to him. She kissed him and let the wanting fill her; then she poured it all into their embrace and into the room. The room had become a riotous, undulating wave of color and sounds—Sounds! Samara was sure she could actually hear the strains of some distant unearthly music playing-- The room was finished—more than finished, but she couldn't quite bring herself to say it was complete, because then they would have no excuse to stay here any longer, and she didn't want to leave..

She felt Draco's body shudder with the impact of her magic as he fumbled with clasps and buttons, trying to get physically closer to her as well. He was panting and hot. Too hot. Suddenly, Samara pushed him away from her. "Draco, release," she said.

With two long shuddering sighs he released part of her magic. His gray eyes had darkened to fiery bits of charcoal and his eyes held hers while he released again.

A sheen of sweat covered the golden hairs on his bare chest. Somehow his robe and shirt lay discarded on the floor. Samara's clothing was in a similar state and she clutched her robe around her as she watched him worriedly. 

"Again, I think," she said. But he shook his head. "Not this time. I want to hold a bit of your magic. I want Him to know that you're mine."

"Draco?" She reached out and touched his face. He turned his lips to kiss the palm of her hand.

"You're mine," he whispered again. "I won't let him have you. We have to find a way—"

"Draco, there is a way—but it is a permanent bonding—binding together our magics. 

"You're raving," said Draco, smoothing her wind blown hair. "I've never seen anyone contain that much wandless magic. We have to get your wand so that you can siphon some of it off before you pass out."

"I'm fine," said Samara stumbling against him. "A little light headed that's all—There is a permanent bonding" She touched his face and blew a light wind into his mouth, releasing the elemental air through him."

He pulled away from her, gasping. "Breathe woman!" he said. "Do you have any real air in your lungs or just magic?"

"Just magic," she giggled, and let the air blow through his damp hair.

"Yes," said Draco. "Let's do it."

"Do what?" asked Samara.

"This bonding spell you were talking about—"

Samara hesitated, releasing several times and staring at Draco. "Are you sure?" she asked. "When we are finished here, everyone will know that we belong to each other. Are you sure you want that?"

"I'm sure," said Draco, trying to kiss her. When she didn't return his kiss, he held her at arm's length. "I'm sure," he repeated. "Are you?"

Samara didn't answer at first. "I told Snape I wasn't in love with anyone—but"

"Snape?"

"He said that Helga wasted her gift because she was in love with Salazar."

"And you don't want to waste your gift on me," said Draco angrily, but the color of his aura showed hurt, not anger.

"No. It's not like that. It's—" Samara struggled trying to think of an explanation. "I've been reading a lot about Helga Hufflepuff. I think--It's just that Salazar never understood Helga's love. Maybe it's not possible for a Slytherin to understand. It's Hufflepuff love. It's unselfish. Sacrificial even—"

"And I wouldn't understand sacrificial," said Draco sarcastically. "You can say that here? In this room?" He gestured to the wraiths and bits of magic around them. "With Aislinn's memory all around us?"

  
"Don't get mad at me," said Samara. "I just need to know why you want this." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I know why I want it, but I don't know if your reasons are the same."

"If we both want to be together then what does it matter?" said Draco pulling her close.

"It matters," Samara countered, "Because it cannot be undone. Do you—love me—enough." She hesitated and he held her waiting for her to finish speaking. "Would you be willing--to die for me?" She whispered.

"I don't know," Draco answered flippantly. "Kill for you maybe—but—"

Samara pulled away angrily. "It's not a joke!"

"I know," he said softly. "But I can't think on it too closely. I'm not a Gryffindor, Samara. I'm not that brave." 

Draco licked his lips. His aura suddenly flickered. Samara recognized the fear in both the movement and the color. He was terrified, his voice a small whisper. "Do you have any idea how the Dark Lord will react when he realizes that I've stolen his prize? No, of course you don't know." He clung to her suddenly, his face buried in her hair, his lips against her ear. "He will take you, Samara unless you are bound to another—and even then—" Draco shivered. "You do not know him. Wards won't stop him. He will take you and nothing or no one will be able to stop him."

"But do you love me?" Samara asked, but instead of answering he said softly, "I only loved one person once in this world and she was taken away from me. And I won't let anyone take you away from me. I won't let him have you. I won't." He was gripping her so tightly it hurt. His voice was hard with determination and he covered her mouth with his, kissing her with wild desperation as if he wanted to suck out her soul.

Silently, she began winding the tendrils of her magic around his. Still kissing her, he tried to pull her down on the soft Earth, but she resisted.

"Dance," she said, moving an arm's length away from him so that only their aura's were touching, his a violent red, hers a deep healer's green, the same deep green as her eyes. "Dance with me." She said.

==

Samara noticed a shift in the energy of the Room as if the world were shut out and time had stopped. The wraiths began to dissolve in their magic. The Room was now glowing with their colors and only their colors as heady music that they couldn't define filled them. They were moving to the same rhythm although neither of them heard the music. It was inside of them at the intersection of their auras. 

"I want to touch you," said Draco in a voice hoarse with emotion.

"Soon," Samara whispered, frantically weaving her magic with his and releasing back into the Earth. "Feed me your magic," she whispered. "Slowly."

Draco's warm gray eyes locked on to hers as he began to direct his magic into her. She wrapped it around and through her own and fed it back to him. He released it again into the Earth until the dirt around them was shining and moving with the overflow of magic, interlocked like a tapestry. They were both panting with exertion

Their auras had fragmented into a cotton candy sunset that surrounded them like a warm blanket, melting the ice crytstals that Samara had earlier formed.. Although Samara tried, it was no longer possible to discern where her rich blue-green and his red separated.

"I can see it," he whispered awestruck. "I can see our magic" And for just a moment, his gray eyes became deep green like hers. He reached out to clasp her hand in his. 

Samara was barely aware that the earth beneath their feet had become mud, but as he touched her hand, their magic coalesced into a violet puddle at their feet. The sunset was drenched with mist, and Samara brushed the dampness from his face. "Water," she said, unaware of whether her word added to the magic or if it was just the natural progression of the magic.

Without warning, the ground beneath their feet gave way and they were plunged into the Water Elemental. As they went under, a flash of pain and terror unlike anything she had ever encountered washed over her. She knew what it was. Draco's deepest self. It was a sense of Draco's memories of Aislinn and the curcio--drowning and things he would never vocally share with her, but now she knew and understood. The darkness that she had only suspected before now lay like a gaping chasm before her. Perhaps he never knew love, but he knew hatred. She wrapped her arms around him and brought forth a different type of magic: Her healing. She felt the calm of her Hufflepuff self take over. She knew just what to do. The holes in his aura filled with the rich bluish purple of the Water Elemental. It seemed to take no effort at all. All of the pain of the physical realm was washed away and she felt she was solely made of magic.

As the Water Elemental receded from their feet, rain began to fall from above, first in tiny drops and then by torrents. By touching the water droplets on Draco's face and arms and chest, she gathered the magic and poured thin streams of it through herself, and back to Draco. Finally, he released it again to the Elemental. The Dance was becoming more wild by the minute. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. With each successive touch the magic was moving faster and threatening to get out of control. A part of her reveled in the wild dance. She had a suspicion that it was her Slytherin self that loved the wild revelry.

"Draco," she whispered. "Feed me." And they abruptly switched tasks. He pulled magic from the Water Element and directed his magic to her. 

It took every ounce of control Samara had to stay focused on her task as he touched her. His fingers sliding against her wet skin released the Elemental magic and she poured it through his magic, mixing them like a potion until they were all three inseparable. Finally as they danced, she released again to the Water. Each touch was on the precipices of a storm. Once when she looked at his wet lips she nearly gave in to the storm, but somehow she waited until every bit of magic that could be held inside of each of them was brought to the surface of the Water Elemental before moving on. Even then, she waited, laying her head on his chest and swaying silently in the mist. Already she was exhausted. She could hear the fast, even beat of his heart. It seemed to her as if they had been together for days—years—and everything was exactly as it should be. It was impossible that they should know each other so well in so little time. Impossible and yet inevitable.

As if on cue, she turned her face up to his and he kissed her. Their shared breath introduced the Third Elemental, Air. If Samara had chosen, she might have kissed him gently and slowly, introducing gentle breezes into the room, but Draco was not prone to gentle moments. He kissed her with all the pent up passion of the passing storm, and gale winds blew into the room, lifting them both from the floor. The force of the wind flung them against the opposite wall. 

They fell in a tangle of arms and legs and Samara lost contact with Draco. Immediately some of the power of the spell was lost. Samara cried out with its loss. She felt alone and unwelcome in a world of wizards and unwanted in the world of muggles. She was lost. She was a freak in both worlds. The moment seemed like forever, but later she realized that it only seemed long. After only a second, Draco had her back in his arms, dancing and they proceeded quickly through Earth, Water and Back to Air as he kissed her, murmuring to her between kisses. "You are better than they are. You are not a freak. You are beautiful ---and powerful---and MINE---and I will never leave you alone and lost. Never!" He gripped her as if to remind her of his sincerity and then he wrapped her in his magic. She snuggled against him and turned her face up to his.

As he kissed her, she realized that his eyes were pure green. He was immersed in her fears and now understood her a little better. She wondered for a moment, if her eyes were gray like his when she saw his memories. Then she closed her eyes and gave into the deliciousness of his kiss. It was hard to control the magic when the wind kept blowing it from her hands. It took both of them to hold it now, and there seemed to be no up or down as they literally danced on air with each kiss. Each touch brought the blessings of the Water Elemental although when Samara tried to examine it, she could no longer tell if the water was Elemental or just sweat. The ribbons of their auras were still intertwined like complex braids along a rosy sunset.

"Samara," Draco whispered, his breath in her ear was clear and yet the tumultuous roar of the wind rolled around them like a symphony. It was as if they were safe in the eye of a hurricane—a hurricane created by their magic. 

She held her breath for a moment willing him to say the words she wanted to hear—words she wanted to say—I love you—Words she would not say until he did, and yet didn't his aura say enough to her already?

It was a beautiful pure rose, as was hers. 

"Samara," Draco said again, "Stop analyzing it and just enjoy it." He kissed her. "Everything around us is just US after all—our magic—joined." He kissed her again, slowly, longingly. "It's been inside of us all along."

"But we need to control it," she said.

"Why?"

"I don't know—"

"No. We don't need to control it. This is not Ravenclaw magic," he said smothering her objections in yet another kiss. "There is no control. Just feel it, and let it be. Feel this." He kissed her again, a kiss that was filled with his magic. It shivered through her soul, and she clung to him allowing her magic to play through him. 

"I want it to be perfect."

"Nothing is perfect," he said. "Not the magic. Not each other."

"I've hurt people," she whispered. "When I lost control." 

"You won't hurt me," he whispered. " Intent. "Is your intent to make a perfect symphony of wind and a dance of color? Or is your intent—to bind your magic and mine?" 

"To love—" she began, but he swallowed her answer in his kiss.

Their kisses were becoming hotter and hotter and hotter. 

Samara had already shed her robe. Her skirt was hiked up around her waist and Draco's hand was hot on her thigh. Between kisses, he looked at her. The room had grown quiet, but neither noticed. They only saw each other, and because they saw only each other, the magic around them was still. The last of the magic had been drawn into them and was now held, pent up, and threatening to explode, but this moment it was still. They both knew there was no turning back. "The last Elemental," he whispered, his mouth hot against her skin. His magic turbulent against her aura.

"Fire," she said, clinging to Draco. She was a little bit afraid. The wind had been real wind. It had blown them into the wall and Samara could still feel the bruise. The water had been real water and had threatened to become a storm. The Earth had been the easiest to control. She had no doubt that fire would be real too. How could it not burn them to ash? How could it not, when they had only passed through only one of his crucio spells. She knew without a doubt the other was in some way associated with fire—he knew it too.

"Draco?" she whispered. "Are you afraid?"

"Terrified," he said, blandly. He lifted his face from her skin and gray eyes stared into green, each willing the other to hold the focus where it belonged, on one another. "But Exhilarated." 

Suddenly, she knew—or perhaps she didn't care. She was a Gryffindor, and she thrived on the challenge—the risk itself was intoxicating. Samara pulled Draco against her and muttered against his lips, "I've never seen this dragon breath fire." He kissed her again, both so immersed in the air elemental that neither truly breathed. When she finally lifted her mouth from his, she whispered, "So, let's see the fire, Dragon."

==

(A/N: Hey it's PG-13 and that's as far as my 14 year old brain is allowed to fantasize. Maybe this should be a "cookie challenge" on group.yahoo/The_Seers_Truth? Any one want to write the Fire Elemental and post it on the yahoo group or is it too hot to handle?—Lady Lestrange.)

==

Ginny stretched out across Hermione's bed and closed her eyes. She felt like they had been working on the prophecy for hours. Parvati flapping on about Helga predictions. Tom had retreated into her memories so she didn't even have his dry wit to entertain her. 

__

"The woman is pathetic," he had said. "I can't see why Salazar put up with her."

"How he put up with her!" Ginny thought. "He was the prat, and you of all people, Tom should know that."

__

"If the woman had one drop of backbone, so many problems would have been averted. Do you realize the pain she caused by her inability to act?"

"She didn't mean to—"

"And since when does ignorance alter the spell?" he asked. "If she'd have stood up to him just once, he would have had a little respect for her—"

"She loved him."

__

"And that's supposed to excuse her stupidity," spat Tom. "She dumped his elixor of life in the garden. Years of work—"

"It was her work! Her blood—

__

"The blood wasn't for the elixor. That was for the basilisks."

"Still, she foresaw the dangers—"

"_There's always danger, but if you **think**, you can usually outwit it. You can't just go galloping off unheeding into danger like a Gryffindor."_

"Gryffindor! What does Gryffindor have to do with this? We were talking about Helga Hufflepuffs visions, and she saw what Salazar had become--tortured, lonely and insane.

__

"Well I could use a little 'lonliness' right now!"

"Don't –I-wish," Ginny spat and Tom had retreated to some unknown memory.

"In Ginny's attempts to defend Helga, who had become dear to her lately, she had alienated Tom. Of course, she thought wryly. He couldn't exactly stay away for long..

She sighed and went back to looking into the pensive with the group.

"Loyalty is shown twice," noticed Beatrice. "Your creatures do not know what loyalty is for—"

and "A house divided lives whose loyalty is shown."

"Whose loyalty?" wondered Harry Potter. "His creatures? I know in the poem it means the basilisks that guard the doorway to the Chamber, but it could mean his creatures--like Death Eaters.

"It could mean both" said Ron. 

"But someone has to find this emerald too, don't they?" said Neville.

"Me," said Ginny. "I have to find the emerald."

"What! " They all looked at her in amazement.

"There's another prophecy," said Ginny. "It was written in Samara's book. It's about me."

They gaped at her, the silence deepening.

"Where on earth is Samara!" wondered Harry.

"Maybe she went to our room," said Ginny. "I'll go see and I'll bring the book." 

Ginny felt suddenly free to be out of Hermione's room and away from the prophecy. It was so stifling. She took a deep breath, and for a moment thought about pulling from the Air Elemental just to cleanse her body of the claustrophobic feelings, but she shook off the temptation. She felt like she had just finished an exam instead of a voluntary project to find the prophecy child. 

She reached her room, and called out for Samara. The room was empty. Ginny was in no hurry to rush back to Hermione's room. Probably Samara had just forgotten that they were going to work on the prophecy. Samara was like that. If Draco said two words to her, she forgot about everyone else. As she glanced around the room, looking for Samara's book, Ginny thought, "It would be scary to be so enamoured."

__

"Absolutely. Especially for her," agreed Tom as Ginny filled him in on what the Gryffindors had discovered. "I really don't care what they've figured out," drawled Tom. "Isn't it obvious--

Ginny still hadn't found the book on Samara's desk or nightstand. She saw a book on the floor under the edge of the bed and she scrambled under the bed to pick it up, but it was only Samara's rune's book, open to EHWAZ , the rune of partnership.

__

"So is that rune for you or for Samara," wondered Tom.

"It's just a chance that the book was open," said Ginny. "It doesn't mean anything."

__

"Right," said Tom. "Just chance that a book was opened in your first year too."

Ginny shivered and decided to read what the book said about the rune.

EHWAZ , the rune of partnership. This rune implies change or progress on a journey. Also, Partnership, trust, loyalty and faithfulness as between a horse and rider, brother and sister or two halves of a whole—Strength in partnership. See tarot associations: The Lovers; The Magician

__

"I guess we still don't know who the rune was for, do we?" wondered Tom. "Maybe for both of you," he surmised. So are you still planning on going through her trunk?" asked Tom. 

"Well, I don't think she'd mind," began Ginny, drawing her wand, to disrupt the wards, but there were no wards on the trunk. There wasn't even a muggle lock. Laughing Ginny pushed it open. "Well, I guess she trusts us all. We're her friends—"

"Friends aren't that trustworthy," said Tom morosely.

"Well, maybe not in Slytherin—"

__

"Not anywhere," corrected Tom, 

"I'm sorry," said Ginny. "I forgot—" She wondered how she could forget even for a moment about the cult, when it so consumed Tom that it was all he could think of—"We could have used your help with the pensieve," she ventured. "We're still not sure who the Prophecy child is—"

__

"Not sure?" said Tom. "Ginny, I swear those wizards at St. Mongo's had to suck out some of your brains with those memories. How could you still not be sure?"

"And you know?"

__

As soon as I was certain it was a girl, that ruled out Harry Potter. It has to be Samara."

"Samara?" Ginny sucked in her breath with a sharp hiss as the burning pain of the Dark Mark hit her like a hot poker piercing her left arm. Her first thought was panic that she wasn't allowed to leave the Gryffindor Common Room. Her second thought was to yank the comb from her hair. Samara and Samara's book were both forgotten.

__

"Portkey," muttered Tom. "Now!"

But she had already touched the device and reappeared in the corner of Slytherin Common Room. A moment later, Edward joined her.

The Slytherin Common Room was controlled chaos-- Millicent, in cat form, was sleeping on Greg Goyle's lap while he copied someone's homework. A group of first years were playing exploding snap in the corner. Pritch and another animagus scampered out of the doorway. Alvin Nott was doing prefect duty at the door, but he certainly wasn't trying to keep anyone in the Common Room. Lauren was sitting with him while he wrote the names of those who were leaving on a "Sleeping—Do not Disturb" list.

Ginny herself headed for the doorway at a fast walk, Edward at her side, when Ethan ran to catch up with them. 

"Ginny! Have you seen Pansy?" Lauren called worriedly.

"No," said Ginny shortly.

"Wait!" Lauren called again. "I just—"

"We can't wait," Ethan hissed at her.

"Perhaps Pansy is a true Slytherin now," added Gloria Snood. "Tell Him I will be his most loyal follower," Gloria added to Edward.

"Mum already has that job," he said.

"I take it your Mark isn't burning," said Ethan. 

"No," said Gloria dejectedly.

"Go play exploding snap with the other first years," said Lauren.

"I'm not a first year," said Gloria. "I'm a Death Eater."

__

"And I thought she was an angel," said Tom.

Millicent yawned and stretched and transformed. 

"Your Mark?" asked Greg.

"No." Millicent examined her arm thoughtfully. "And I brought the second highest amount of recruits at Drumstrang." Her bottom lip protruded in a pout.

"He must have been disappointed that the one had it's neck broken," surmised Greg. "He was seriously pissed off at me for dropping that veela when I got burned at Beaubaxtons."

Millicent purred, and turned back into a cat.

  
Alvin leaped to his feet, clutching his left arm. "Oy Blaise! Is your Mark burning?" called Alvin across the Common Room..

"No," she answered reluctantly.

"Then get your prefect log and take duty for me—" He started out of the door, but Lauren caught him around the neck and kissed him like she may never see him again. He touched her lips gently. "I'll be back," he said, and darted out of the door, leaving his prefect log in Lauren's hands.

"Do you know what he's doing?" said Ethan, practically dancing on the balls of his feet. Ginny was glad to see he wasn't issuing sparks yet. "He's separating the weeds from the chaff." 

__

"That's the wheat from the chaff," corrected Tom in Ginny's head.

"Do you realize what is happening?" Ethan continued.

__

"His basilisks are hatching," said Tom grimly.

"Yes," thought Ginny with a shiver. "It's time."

"He's chosen us." continued Ethan.

Edward smiled. "The new Inner Circle begins." 

+++

ANSWERS TO REVIEWERS:

~Joda~ This week rocks. Here's your Update Update Update  
  
Reiven Panties? What panties? "Dumbassdore" lol You think that was a cliffhanger? You have no idea. I tried to figure out where to cut the next chapter which is nearly 30 pages to the end. Maybe I'll be merciful and keep it one chapter. If not, you will learn the meaning of Cliffhanger. Don't get an ulcer.

  


Ilwinterhofal finally caught up, Glad you are back with us.

  
taju`akiel Counting on you to keep yelling at the slow pokes.

Trillium: Your sister's quote "Any lover can be passionate, not every lover can be kind." You said, this chapter wrecked the comparsion, a little. Now you probably think that it looks like this chapter wrecked the comparison a lot. Well as Draco said, when he met Samara—looks can be deceiving. Only two chapters left?! *sniff* That's kinda sad. Sequel is coming soon.

Sky Okay dose anyone one else really wont to hurt Dumbeldore right now what an ass. The question is: Is Dumbledore stupid or evil?  
  


. Silverfox1 About Harry's apparition. The first time he apparated, Voldemort knew he COULD apparate and that "touch" is what hurt Harry. Since then, Voldemort hasn't been concerned with this apparition from one point of Hogwarts to the other—but maybe he should be. Dumbledore, a true Gryffindor. LOL. And Neville is not super wizard, but he is discovering some strengths. After all, with such awesome parents he knows that strengths have to be there somewhere. 

Jager Sending Snape right over with a potion for your illness. Keep reading.

Kemenran 

More is on its way. Lots more for poor Ginny to deal with

. Tiamat Warcraft 

I liked My Eternal Curse too. My Yahoo IM is carmandoogle. Let me know when you are online. Join the groups.yahoo.The_Seers_Truth and we can talk about homeschool and "evil Harry Potter haters among them." Slytherins are Homeschooled. Evidence: "Carman is the best teacher of the dark arts."

  


ennui deMorte Ennui? Hello Ennui? Are you still there? Did you leave me about the time Samara and Draco started their dance? Thanks for all you do on the seers truth group. If you haven't visited, go to the groups. Yahoo.com/The_Seers_Truth Ennui has done a marvelous job setting this all up. If only we could get her a pet ferret. The enchantment is actually Voldemort's summons of Snape combined with Samara's magic. The enchantment was set up earlier—when Snape gave his consent to the Dark Mark. The Dark Mark is Voldemort's magic of course, which with Samara's magic added to it, was what ripped the wards. (Read: We will Wait: A Story of Bellatrix Lestrange) to see how the Death Eaters feel the magic of Voldemort and the magic of the sender in the Dark Mark.  


No wonder the bad guys always think the good guys are idiots - they ARE! (Isn't this a great quote)  
  
  
Come to group - you know you want to.  


+++

(A/N: The next chapter is exceedingly long--about 30 pages. I hate to cut it because there is no good spot to do so except at major cliffhangers. For this reason, I think the next chapter is worth 15 reviews. Of course if you only do 10 reviews—I can tell how many have read from advanced stats—then you just have to deal with the cliffhanger. Don't worry, the sequel is waiting in the wings. Thanks for sticking with me through such a long book. –

After you have read this, go to the group.yahoo.com/The_Seers_Truth and answer the questions. Lots of fun discussion and some cool pictures. You are invited to add your own pics related to this story and links to your stories if you have reviewed. ONE MORE CHAPTER.

–Lady Lestrange.)


	60. CH 59 On Magic Alone

****

HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH

By Lady Lestrange

Chapter 59

On Magic Alone

Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to reviews follow the story.

****

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infringement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. THANKS JK.

--LADY LESTRANGE

(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you**. If you want to skip it, just page down FIVE times**. --Lady Lestrange)

****

UP TO THIS POINT: Parvati has been having dreams and visions about the Dark Lord, Harry and a Prophecy Child. So far, they are not sure who the prophecy child is, and it is important for them to find him/her. The Sorting Hat is not sorting, so the students have "little brothers and sisters" to show around. The dream team thinks that The Sorting Hat failing is a plot to hide the Prophecy child from the teachers and anyone who can help insure that he/she stays on the side of light. No one is sure that the brothers and sisters actually belong to the house they are currently in.

The Hogwarts Express has been attacked. Dark Marks have been in the sky. The floo network is compromised. The Minister of Magic has been turned. Snape is now teaching both Defense and Advanced Defense, but it looks like Advanced Defense is just an excuse to let the Slytherins and Ginny and Edward visit the Dark Lord. Mrs. Figg is teaching potions and we know very little about her so far, except that she was against Dumbledore's suggestion to make Poly Juice Potion.

Beatrice is an animagus, a bunny. Edward's granny looks like she could have given the Dursleys a few pointers on cruelty. Slytherin is a house at war according to Snape, divided between Death Eaters and those who want to stay on the side of light. Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak and finds out when it is ripped, the Invisibility spell ceases. There is an unwelcome addition to Myrtle's bathroom, Olive Hornby. Peeves is his usual annoying self, but the Baron seems to have a little less control over him.

Samara, for some reason, lofts some wicked, powerful curses. She doesn't look like she has total control over them, which isn't really surprising since she's learned magic on her own from a book, that Harry is sure is a dark book. She seems to like Draco, but don't assume this is a romance. It is not. Ginny is still hearing voices in her head. Harry's scar is hurting more, and neither he nor Ginny know what this means. Ginny is closer with Harry this year, but again, not romantically. There is Edward, the new Gryffindor, who seems interested in Ginny, but Ginny really hasn't gotten over Tom.

We find out about Neville's powerful auror parents. We learn that Neville has a memory charm that was put on him as a baby. He's a more powerful wizard than anyone ever thought as evidenced by his yew wand and the way he reacts to Snape's ministrations in trying to remove the memory charm. We might wonder why Snape is trying to do this himself, instead of enlisting the help of Madam Pomfrey. Sirius and Lupin are on "fieldtrips" with the sixth and seventh years. 

Of course we can also wonder why Snape is so determined to teach his classes advanced spells like the Patronus, or we can just chalk it up to Snape, being mean. The Fifth year class starts apparition classes and we meet Professor Sinistra. We also visit Hufflepuff, where we see The Wall, and Slytherin house, where we discover, to our amazement, a magic room that Draco shares with Samara, but Samara has a very unslytherin use for the room. Ravenclaw to come next weekend. 

The chapter, CHAINED AND CHARMED, takes place at the same time as DANCING IS AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE-when Samara was in Slytherin, dancing. It is Saturday afternoon. Harry and the Gryffindors examine Samara's Dark Book, after they come back from lunch. They find an extreme potion, and decide they need to make a trip to the Chamber of Secrets. Ghastly Ghostly Dinner is when Gryffindor's meet with Samara after her little trip to Slytherin. Samara and Beatrice are persuaded by Edward to help him steal his snake back from his brother Ethan. Things get a little out of hand, and Samara learns more about Slytherin than she ever wanted to know. 

Now the Gryffindors are mad at her. Samara wants to make up and be friends with them, but is it possible to befriend both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy? How far will she go to make up, or will she just find some valuable information to store away for future use? (So, don't you want one of those Tee shirts?) 

LIONS AND TIGERS: We see a very stressed out Snap both in Harry's memory of what happened with Snap and Neville and in the actual DADA class. We find out Trelawney doesn't want Samara in her class and Samara decides to take Ancient Runes instead. McGonagall assures Samara that Trelawney has done her a favor. McGonagall further talks to Samara about her experiences in Gryffindor, opening the door to give Samara someone to talk to, if she so chooses. We also learned lots more about animagi in McGonagall's class. Snape dismisses the Gryffifndors and keeps the Slytherins after class. We find out it's because Snape wants them to practice their patronus because the Slytherins are so lousy at the spell. Could it be because there are so few happy memories to chose from?

In DRAGON BREATH AND BLUDGER BATS, Ginny and Edward set the Slytherins up with fire mints, and Samara gets extremely angry at them both because they hurt her friends. In an effort to contain her anger, she goes to the Quiddich pitch where she meets Fred and George. After lobbing a few quaffles at them in her anger, they decide to ask her to be a Beater for Gryffindor. She refuses, but later when she talks to Draco, he is not very nice to her, (hey, who said Draco was a nice guy?) so she wonders whether or not she should take the Beater job.

In WISH IT REAL; WISH IT NOT we see into one of Ginny's dreams. If you don't remember this dream, go and re-read chapter 28. In Chapter 29, THE SPELLING BEE, Samara is feeling homesick and friendless until Draco invites Samara back to Slytherin. Also, includes a short intro into what's coming up in potions class. 

In Chapter 30, CHILD OF GRYFFINDOR, Neville and Snape break the Imperio part of the Memory Charm. The trio discusses the Founders' spells, which put their gifts in the Sorting Hat; however they do not have the original parseltongue version of Salazar's spell. Ginny also sees Edward painting and the reader sees a bit of Ginny and Tom's relationship. In SLYTHERIN GAMES—Well, if you don't remember it, you better re-read. Voldemort is finally out and angry—burning and pillaging and we see a little-known inside version of Slytherin through Ginny's eyes. In STICKY SITUATIONS, Samara uses her adhere charm on the Weasley twins, Neville sticks Beatrice's wand to his with bubble gum, and Edward is sticking in Gryffindor. 

In OW POST the Slytherins get even for the Dragon Breath Mints, among other things—

In the Ravenclaw chapter—I'm still trying to think of a good name for it—Help me please—we meet a number of Ravenclaws and find out a little more about the characters, in Ravenclaw as well as Edward and Samara. So do you think either of them are really Ravenclaws? Hmmmm? In chapter 35 we meet Sirius again who plans to have a talk with Dumbledore about his keeping Harry safe and of course what that nasty Snape is doing to poor Neville. The Quiddich Game and then more of Neville's awesome Auror parents. 

The war is heating up and touching the lives of the children. This story is rapidly approaching –nasty things. Not for the faint of heart. Last chapter, we had a relaxing time at Hogsmeade. Samara bounces from friend to friend and Harry has some nasty dreams, and Harry is shocked to find out that Ron and Hermione are a couple. We knew that already though, right?

In THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS the trio did some exploring, but failed to find the basilisk eggs. They found other things though. Obviously, they have to go back, but first Ginny gives them some instructions.

In THE CHAMBER, THE WALL, THE WAND AND THE WINDOW, Ginny gives the trio some instructions about the Chamber, the Gryffindor boys are having trouble sleeping and Harry's talking to the Snake, Kauket. Parvati has yet another vision, about a muggle and the earlier one about the wand is explored. Trelawney tells Ginny she will open a window to the past—Didn't she already do that? Is Trelawney a little late with this prediction, or does it mean something else? 

In NO MORE GAMES we return to ADADA class and Ginny finds out by using the Quick Quotes Quill that the class is more than she planned, but the notes are stolen, so she has no proof to go to Dumbledore with—So she takes matters into her own hands. In PERVIGILO ARMARO, we see part of Ginny's awesome ward. Doors are opened and Tom is out, but he isn't everything we thought he would be. Could it be that he's keeping secrets from us? Puppy Puffs and the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw Quiddich game offer a little comic relief.

Chapter 44, MORS MORDRE. Ginny gets a dark mark. 'nouf said. BLOOD AND MAGIC MINGLED is Ginny reaction to Voldemort's Imperio curse, and a trip to the Chamber. In THE SEVENTH SUFFERING, We leave Ginny in the Chamber, while we go off with Samara to find out what happened to Ginny in Slytherin this morning, but Samara gets side-tracked, and she learns a personal secret of Draco's—so when is she going to share her secret? Speaking of secrets, Snape has a few, which he unwittingly shares in SNAPE'S SECRET AND SALAZAR'S TREASURE. In SECRETS KEPT AND THOUGHTS SHARED, we at last know what side Snape is on--almost—

And for all those Ginny lovers--awesome Ginny in WHAT IS A DARK WIZARD--where we at last, rejoin the Dark Lord. After that, aren't we all ready for a little fun and games with the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quiddich game? Harry finally confirms Edward's evil intent, although no one believes him, and now, once again Harry is privy to Slytherin secrets in NOTHING HALLOWED, on Halloween night. Halloween continues to the wee hours of the morning with THE BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE, where Ginny, Voldemort and the Death Eaters free those in Azkaban. The chapter entitled, PORTRAITS, POLYJUICE AND PORTKEYS tells of the aftermath in Hogwarts and then the trio heads to KNOCKTURN ALLEY. 

__

IN INTEGRUM RESISTUERE Restore (him) to his former power. Are the words spoken to the Longbottoms—the reason the Longbottoms are in St. Mongos. This secret is still kept by the Death Eaters who brought Voldemort to life because they will never know how much of Voldemort is Tom Riddle and how much is Salazar Slytherin.. But now, another secret is shattered, the secret of the Anti-disapparition wards around Hogwarts, and Samara escapes from CHAMBER OF CHAINS. Will she find her wand? Will the Gryffindors be able to help her?

Non-stop action to the end, and now, on to the last chapter,

****

On Magic Alone

"If we'd have looked at this one first," said Parvati. "We might have known—"

"No," said Neville. "We would have given up hope, if we saw this first."

"So she's the Heir of Slytherin," said Harry. He ran a hand through his hair, which rearranged the spikes and curls that repeated hands through it had made. "But we did find her."

Hermione poked her head into her room. "Ginny?"

"She's not here," answered Ron. "She went to her room to get Samara. I think she just needed a little breather—This is rough for her." He brightened. "But we found the Prophecy Child."

"Ginny's not in her room," said Hermione. "I just was looking there for Samara. I thought maybe she knew where Edward was—He's not here either."

"Samara's not in her room?" said Harry, alarmed.

"Well, they have to be in Gryffindor tower," said Ron. "Haven't the prefects been guarding the portrait hole since the wards went down?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "But she's not here—none of them are. Harry. Can we use the Map?"

"Oh of course. It's right here." Harry pulled the Maurader's Map out of his pocket and opened it on the desk. Although they were looking for the missing three students, their eyes were drawn immediately to the lower level bathroom where a small group of Slytherins stood. Among them was a dot labeled Samara (Riddle) Donnally.

"Riddle," breathed Hermione.

"You were right," said Ron. "Her Grandma Lori was Lorrissa."

"Harry?" said Neville in a small voice. "Do you know if any of the Slytherins are named for Valeriana?"

"No. I don't think so," said Harry. "Why?"

"Because she's here.

Harry tore the Map off of Neville and looked at it, mentally counting, not Slytherin students, but Death Eaters. Hermione and Ron crowded close to see for themselves. Valeriana, the Malfoys, Carman Doogle, Snape, Nott and a whole group of students, including Draco Malfoy and Samara—"

"We have to tell Dumbledore," said Hermione. "There are Death Eaters in the Castle."

"Mischief managed," said Harry, stuffing the map into his pocket and heading towards the door.

He almost ran into Hermione as she stopped abruptly. "Oh, how are we going to get out of Gryffindor Tower? We don't have the Invisibility Cloak."

"But you're a prefect," Ron argued.

"I still can't leave the Tower. Rules are rules."

"The twins will do it," said Ron. "Create a diversion or something and we can sneak out—"

"Angelina put up a ward," said Hermione.

"I can get through it," said Beatrice. "I got through Snape's ward. People forget about animagi."

"Good," said Hermione. "You go straight to Dumbledore, as soon as you get the chance. Come on, the twins are in the Common Room."

"Ron pulled Fred aside.

"So does anyone know why we have to stay cooped up in the common room?" complained Fred.

"The apparition wards are down," whispered Ron. "There are Death Eaters in the castle."

Fred went ghost white, and then laughed. Good joke, Ron. You had me there for a minute." He looked at Ron's unsmiling face and softly said, "George. Come here."

"We saw them on the Map," continued Ron. "Harry, show them."

"No. No. Not here," said Fred hastily putting his hand over the folded Map. "We believe you."

"We don't think Dumbledore knows where they are," said Hermione. "Bea Bunny was going to warn him, but we need a diversion to get Angelina away from the door. Beatrice thinks she can go through the ward."

"OK," said George "What about Fillibuster Fireworks?" 

Fred shook his head. "Dung bombs." 

"Dung bombs! You're kidding." Said Ron.

"Fastest way to clear a room," said Fred.

"Why argue with success," added George.

"Oh and one other thing," said Harry gripping George's shoulder. "Ginny is missing from Gryffindor Tower. In fact, we can't find her or Edward on the Map at all. We need to hurry."

Fred and George looked at each other. "With the wards down, someone could have apparated her out by now," said Fred worriedly.

"Or she could be in one of those little secret pockets in the Slytherin Dungeon that isn't reliable on the map. Said George.

"Let's hope," said Fred. Reaching into his robe pocket, he pulled out a tiny shrunken case which contained numerous magical items. He touched his wand to a round object and then to the dung bombs. Several popped out into his hand. The bombs themselves were only the size of a snitch, but they were still bigger than the case they came out of. "Here," said Fred handing Harry, Ron, and Neville a handful of small round devices with a string attached to each of them.

"We should have poisoned that git when we had the chance," said George pulling a similar case from his robe pocket., and dropping the dung bombs unobtrusively through the common room.

"What are these?" asked Harry looking at the round devices. 

"Extendable ears," said Fred. "They might help if you need to hear what's going on without being seen. You put this end in your ear. Be careful with them. They're fragile."

"Where are the Death Eaters?" asked George.

"Lower level bathroom between Slytheirn and Hufflepuff," said Harry. 

I didn't know there was a bathroom there," said Fred.

"It's on the map," said Harry.

"It doesn't make sense. Why would Death Eaters come and then hide in a bathroom?" wondered George. Wouldn't they be in the Great Halls shooting off Avada Kadavra?" 

"It's an entrance to the Chamber of Secrets," said Harry. 

"Oh God, not again," whispered George. 

"We think they came for the prophecy child," added Ron. "We know who it is. It's Samara."

"Ready?" asked Fred. "You'll need the **respirare** charm. We've added a sleeping draught to these."

"Or you can do the bubble head," said George.

Harry nodded, wand ready. 

With a quick flip of his wand, Fred set off all of the dung bombs simultaneously.

****

"Respirare!" said Harry, and Hermione, Ron and Neville also said the charm. Beatrice turned into a bunny and disappeared under the thick smoke of the dung bombs.

Fred and George," called Angelina through the smoke. "I know your work."

"Did you tell her the counter was **respirare**?" asked George.

"No," said Fred. 

"Yes, you did," accused George.

"Maybe I did. I don't remember." Fred said as all the prefects except for Hermione advanced on them enmass.

"Shit! I guess I did tell her," Said Fred.** Adhere! **"Sorry Angelina, but this is important. I have to go save my baby sister. I promise I'll unstick you from these morons as soon as I get back. 

"Adhere?" questioned Harry. 

"You have no idea how hard it is to maneuver when you are stuck to one other person. Four together should be literally impossible." Said Fred. 

Harry raised his wand above his head, "**"Itare phantasma!"**

He said and disapparated.

Hermione looked at Ron. "Sorry," she said **"Itare phantasma!"**

Ron and Neville headed toward the portrait hole, but the group of prefects tried to intercept them. As soon as they took a step, they overbalanced and landed in a heap on the floor. "Ok," said Angelina taking charge. "Who can get their foot under us? How about a hand? Can anyone reach the table?"

Ron and Neville walked around them intent upon getting the ward down, but they were stopped, by an awful sight. Lying panting just inside the door was a little brown bunny. 

"Bea!" said Neville picking her up. "She mustn't have been able to get through the ward. **Respirare!"**

She took several deep breaths, and changed back into a witch. "She spelled it to repel animagi," said Beatrice amazedly. "I couldn't get through—"

"And then you couldn't breathe," supplied Neville. "Do you need your puffer?"

"No," said Beatrice taking another breath. "I'm OK now. I just got several breaths of the stink before I realized I needed to stop breathing it. The bunny brain got a little confused with that—"

"I could see why," said Neville going to the doorway and raising his wand as the prefects managed to roll themselves to the bottom of the dormitory steps. "Let's see---**Adflictum est**!"

The ward shattered.

Ron's mouth hung open in surprise. "Where did you learn that spell?"

"Oh," said Neville. "I've known it since I was a baby."

==

. 

"I don't want to leave," said Samara as they stood on the threshold of the Chamber of Forever, the Earth beneath her feet still undulating softly. It was in Samara's eyes the most beautiful place in the world. "I'll probably never see it again," she said brushing her wet and wildly blowing hair out of her face.

"Sure you will," said Draco, the aura of fire shimmering with real sparks of fire. His usually neatly combed hair was blowing with the Air Elemental.

"Do you think Dumbledore will let me come back?" she asked incredulously. You weren't in that torture room—"

"Dumbledore won't be here," said Draco. He closed his hands over the abundance of fire magic in his hands, but did not draw his wand to siphon it off.

"Do you really think He can defeat Dumbledore?" Samara didn't even try to contain the excess of Elemental magic. She just reveled in it.

"He defeated Death!" Draco showered Elemental sparks down the corridor. "How difficult can it be to take down that old coot? I could probably do it myself."

"You think your Dark Lord is so powerful?"

"More—" said Draco.

"Are you sure about this, Draco? "You just said you wouldn't let him have me, and now, we are planning on going to him. If he's so powerful--."

"You just said this binding was permanent," countered Draco.

"It is."

"Then we have nothing to worry about," said Draco. 

So why was his aura smothered in fear, thought Samara.

"And you'd better call him Lord Voldemort,. "He doesn't like to be called The Dark Lord, and remember--"

"I'll remember," said Samara exasperated with Draco's constant instructions.. "Don't say anything about Tom Riddle or my parentage. We should go. Dumbledore will be looking for me soon." Samara shivered. "I don't want him to find me."

"Let's go then," said Draco, as at last they left the room. He was showering sparks with each step. "But first, Samara, we have to get your wand."

"Draco," said Samara, pushing back her wild wet hair "I have an excuse. I don't have a wand, but you're starting to remind me of Ethan."

"Curse off your tongue, woman." He snapped playfully, pulling his wand from his pocket and performing drying charms on both of them.

"My wand's probably in Dumbledore's office," said Samara, "If not in his pocket."

Draco grimaced, pocketing his wand. "Let's hope it's not in his pocket. One of the house elves could get it from his office.."

But first we'd have to tell a house elf," said Samara.

Not necessarily," said Draco. "Pansy would help—"

When they walked through the Slytherin Common Room they looked for Pansy. Draco asked a few first years who were playing exploding snap if they had seen her. 

"She went down to the kitchen to see if the house elves could pop us up something to eat," answered one of them. "The wards went down and they haven't let anyone come into the Great Hall for supper."

"I don't see why we couldn't eat," said another disgustedly. "Everyone in the castle is freakin out—even you Draco. Why are you trailing fire elemental?" 

"Come on," said Draco, ignoring the sparks and hurrying to the exit of Slytherin Common Room.

Alvin Nott was sitting by the door reading a magazine. "Wards are down," he said without looking up from his magazine. "You aren't supposed to leave the common room."

"Humph!" muttered Draco as he stepped over Nott' s outstretched legs.

"Where are we going?" asked Samara.

"To find Pansy--," Draco answered, getting quiet and staring straight ahead as if deep in thought.. "or a house elf—"

He frowned. "Let's go to the kitchen and see," he said.

"See what?" asked Samara. 

"If Pansy could help—" He didn't wait for an answer. He began hurrying along the corridor, Samara following at a jog.

They heard voices and Draco abruptly pulled Samara behind a suit of armor as Flitwick and Sinistra passed. How they didn't see the sparks the couple were emitting was more than Samara and Draco knew.   
  
"It won't take too much more to reset the temporary wards," said Flitwick.. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall have the grounds done. Sprout and Vector have started the North Tower.

"They won't be as strong," said Sinistra, ."doing them in pieces. We should be all together."

"It would take too long. It will only be weak at the corners. As soon as we're finished, you can be sure no one can apparate through

"It won't stop apparaition inside of the ward," said Professor Sinistra.

"No, " said Flitwick, "I know it will only prohibit apparition across it, But I don't think that matters too much right now. Students apparating to cheat is the least thing we need to worry about," said Flitwick. 

"Their voices faded in the distance.

"Come on," said Draco, hurrying out into the main corridor only to be halted by another sound, Mrs. Norris. It sounded like she caught something.

"Filch's cat," whispered Draco. "We have to wait."

"Her aura is not a cat's," said Samara. "She's a witch."

"I know. My parents said Filch has had her since they were here. Rather long time for a cat to live." He put a finger to his lips signifying silence as they listened to Mrs. Norris.

A moment later, he sucked in his breath, pulled Samara to her feet and was hurrying her forward again. 

"Mrs. Norris is still there," protested Samara, a wild wind blowing around her and stirring the sparks.. "I thought you wanted to stay hidden.

"You're going to meet Him sooner than I thought," said Draco. "He calls." 

Samara halted in her tracks remembering Snape's pain as he tried to tell her about the Prophecy child's gifts. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

"We are going to go to Him," said Draco simply. "It's better if we go to him sooner rather than later anyway," said Draco. "At least he can protect you from Dumbledore. Now, hurry." 

"Wait," said Samara "I just remembered a shortcut The couple crept along the wall to the dungeon suit of armor, but they were not alone. 

"Do you hear voices?" asked Samara, consciously trying to halt the continuous flow of elemental magic which was blowing and sparking and seemed to want to be involved in their lives forever.

Silently Draco nodded, but he didn't slow his steady pace along the wall. "It's dark," he said. "They won't see us—"

"What do you mean they won't see us," muttered Samara. "We're both spouting mini fireworks."

"Where's this tunnel?" asked Draco.

"I don't' remember for sure, and in the dark—" a little shower of sparks lit her way for a moment.

Suddenly, they were blinded by the flash of wandlight issuing from three other students. There was a moment of panic, and then a familiar voice—Edward's. "Bloody hell," he whispered. "You are so-o-o dead, Draco. You better hope the prophecy child is Ginny." Edward put his arm around Ginny.

"It's not," said Draco. "Sorry, Weasley."

"You know," said Ethan. "I'll miss playing Quit with you. You were a prat, but at least you were a challenge—Oh wicked!" exclaimed Ethan as Draco lost several handfuls of fire and it exploded into flame on the floor. "That was just—"

Samara and Ginny both doused the flames with Elemental water. 

"Is it that noticeable?" Interrupted Draco, sparks issuing from his fingertips.

"Is Avada green," said Edward.

"Do I get that unbalanced with wandless magic?" asked Ethan frowning.

"Worse," said Edward, drowning Draco's response with another deluge of elemental water.

"Here's the tunnel," said Samara. She opened the dark passageway with a rush of wind and "**Alohomora!"**

"Where are you going?" asked Ethan snidely. "Isn't your Mark burning, Draco?"

"Like hell," answered Draco, lighting his wand and entering the tunnel with Samara. "We just have some business we have to take care of first."

Before the tunnel closed, they heard Ethan call, "He'll make it a summons!"

"So we'll run," replied Draco.

They passed through the dark tunnel lit only by wandlight. When they emerged, they were in a deserted corridor. Undoubtedly, they were the only ones who would venture into the dark Slytherin dungeon passages at night. When they emerged, they were only a short jog to the pear and the kitchen. They tickled the pear and went in.

The kitchen, laden with the delayed supper, smelled wonderful. Samara took a deep breath.

"Oh-h, Miss Samara is hungry?" cooed one of the house elves.

"Yes, but we don't have time—" Samara looked worriedly at Draco. "I don't see Pansy—"

"Where's Tully?" demanded Draco.

"OH-h Tully is not here," said the house elf worriedly. "Myna will fetch her."

"No!" shouted Draco. 

"Miss Samara is hungry?" asked the house elf forcing a glass of pumpkin juice into her hand. "Miss Samara likes?" said another elf, smiling anxiously. Samara took a sip out of politeness.

"Is Tully doing my errand?"

Several of the elves looked at each other in confusion.

"Myna does not know," answered one of them. "Tully has gone away --with Maximus and –"

Draco breathed a sigh of relief. "Good."

"Draco, Sir is hungry?" asked the elf.

"No—I'm not—" said Draco turning to leave.

"Draco, Sir will take something with him?" said the elf, hastily pushing an apple into Draco's hand. Draco looked at it for a moment as if confused, but Samara bit into hers right away. She had eaten nothing since lunch and the apple tasted wonderful.

"It still has its seeds," said Draco. He frowned at Samara. "You don't eat them?" he said.

"No," she replied around a bite of apple.

"Remove the seeds," he demanded of the house elf. "From both of them." And in a flash both apples were cored by the house elf's magic. Draco grabbed Samara by the arm, and pulled her from the kitchen. "Let's go."

"I'm coming," she said picking up the pace. "Where are we going now?" 

"Draco?" she said worriedly.

He had stopped at the end of the corridor, and stood shivering with the pain of his Dark Mark and taking slow deep breaths. 

"Draco, are you alright? Do you know where you need to go?" asked Samara. She hesitated. "What are you thinking?" 

"I'm thinking—Thank you, Aislinn." He took her arm in his, closed his eyes imagining and without warning, apparated both of them to the Dark Lord.

Samara found her footing back on solid ground, but she felt as if her head hadn't quite caught up with her body. Certain that the floor was moving under her feet, she snatched at the lapels of Draco's robe as much to catch her balance as because she was angry.

"Give me a heart attack, why don't ya!"

"A what?"

She practically shook him as she shouted. "Don't you ever do that again you son of a bitch!" She ended her diatribe with a shower of hot sparks of Elemental magic

"Apparate you?" asked Draco with a wry smile. "Would you rather I had left you for Dumbledore?"

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. 

"Well, warn a person!" said Samara, still showering sparks and wind.

Draco pulled his wand and began to try to siphon off some the wandless magic.

Another shuffle of robes caught Samara's attention and she turned, pushing windblown hair out of her face to see a couple of older students and several adult death eaters in black robes with white masks staring in their direction. One of them was quite close, and moving closer.

"Who are you?" Samara demanded, letting the fire in her body collect in her hands. The abundance of magic at her disposal was making her bold. 

"The bitch," the woman answered shortly. She didn't even look at Samara, but as she reached Draco, she pulled her wand. **"Pergo,"** she said cleaning and straightening his wrinkled robe. Her face was pinched with anger, and her aura was a study in rage and disbelief. "How dare you come to the Dark Lord in such a state, Draco! I didn't raise you to—"

"But mother," drawled Draco, while showering sparks of his own, "You didn't raise me at all. House elves did."

"Don't be insolent," she snapped. "You are lucky that he frowns on others doing curses without his leave. He will think you have had no upbringing at all—"

"How much can a half-blood, who was raised by muggles know about etiquette?" Draco asked. 

"Watch your tongue, or I'll remove it for you," snapped Narcissa looking cautiously over her shoulder at the sinks.

"Don't worry, Narcissa. I'm sure the Lord Voldemort remembers what it was like to be fifteen—or sixteen at least--" said Lucius clapping Draco on the shoulder, his red aura, silky with rose tones throughout it. "New girlfriend?" asked Lucius with an oily smirk that made Samara uncomfortable.

"Oh yes," drawled Draco. "Introductions are in order. Samara, My mother and father, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy. Mother. Father, may I present, the Prophecy Child.

There was a moment of stunned silence, before Narcissa reacted. "Are you mad?" she hissed. "You must have a death wish, Draco, because you won't survive this. You could have just told us you wanted to die and saved the family name."

"You're right. You are a bitch," Samara blurted, the remnants of wandless magic removing whatever small amount of restraint that she had.

"You stay out of this!" snapped Narcissa, brandishing her wand.

"You can't keep her," said Lucius, his aura going from teasing red, to death white.

"I'm not a puppy," said Samara, but Draco spoke at the same time. "I'm not you, Father."

"Draco! You have some respect for your father," said Narcissa, whose hair was starting to blow with suppressed magic.

"Why? You don't," countered Draco, showering his mother with sparks.

Samara sucked in her breath as she saw the change in Narcissia's aura which began a spell.

"Draco, I don't know when you became so difficult—" began Lucius, but Draco's eyes never left his mother as he blocked wandlessly with the fire in his hands. "**Testudo!"** The clash of the two spells shattered over the bathroom, showering them all with a hurricane of sparks.

Samara doused them with the water elemental.

"He should be thanking me," said Draco. "She chose His side. She wouldn't have done that without me.

"I don't think he'll see it that way," said Narcissa.

"She'd never have agreed to the Dark Mark on her own. Now the choice is made, and in his favor. 

"No, the choice is fouled," said one of the Death Eaters across the room. You have meddled in things that do not concern you, Draco.

"Well, Carman," said Draco. "I'm not the only one am I? Meddling must run in the family.

Carman raised her hand with a curse, but Narcissa stepped forward and clasped Carman's hand. "Mother. I'm dealing with it," she said tightly. 

"Not very well you're not," Carman answered. "You don't hear Ethan and Edward talking to their elders with disrespect. If they spoke to me, like Draco speaks to you the next thing out of their mouth would be a scream."

"Not in the Lord Voldemort's domain," said Narcissa through gritted teeth. "Not without his permission—Although I can't see that we'll be waiting long for permission. Of course, he may just want to kill Draco himself. Of all the stupid stunts you've pulled—"

If there was a way we could get out of range of his summons—delay--" began Lucius, but Narcissa cut him off. "There isn't. Not anymore. We've discussed this already and this isn't the time or the place--" 

"Excuse me," said Samara, finally interrupting. "But we're at Hogwarts. Hardly Voldemort's domain.

"Lord Voldemort," they all corrected her loudly. '

Samara shrugged. "Nonetheless, Dumbledore—"

"The Chamber of Secrets is His," hissed Carman. "Has always been His—"

Glancing around, Samara grimaced. "We are in a Hogwarts' bathroom—a boy's bathroom."

****

"Mutus!" said Narcissa, throwing the spell carelessly at Samara., 

Samara blocked, the excess magic in her body reacting strongly to the spell. She again showered Narcissa with sparks and the muting spell died in the flames.

"Draco!" she accused, showering the bystanders with more sparks. "We're still at Hogwarts. We need to get out of here before they fix the wards."

"I'm flattered that you trust me to apparate you again, but we have to wait on Lord Voldemort. He hiked his hip up against one of the sinks, and leaned back as if he didn't have a care in the world. "He'll be here shortly."

Edward, Ethan and Ginny fell into the bathroom panting from exertion. "How did you get here before us?" Ethan asked Draco as Alvin joined them.

"I'm just good," said Draco smugly as he pulled his apple out of his robe pocket and tossed it to Samara. "We even had time to stop for a snack."

==

The corridor into which Harry apparated, was completely dark. His eyes searched the darkness, but saw nothing. He dared not light his wand. The brush with Voldemort through the apparition brought him two thoughts, first an emotion that seemed remarkably like joy. It was strange. He had never felt anything but pain through the scar. He had never thought of Voldemort being happy. It was a disturbing thought—very disturbing. Anything that Voldemort was happy about, could not be good. The other sense he received was a certainty that Voldemort was--expecting him. The silent silvery light of an apparition beside him caused him to turn. "Hermione."

She reached out for him in the darkness, her warm hand clasping his. "Which way?" she whispered.

Harry started edging along the corridor toward the bathroom, when something brushed along the intersection directly in front of them. Hermione startled and gripped his hand, but she made no sound. Then she whispered, "Rat."

Harry shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "Ferret," he corrected. "This way." He turned and followed the ferret towards the bathroom. Once outside, Harry relaxed a little. The Death Eaters were already inside of the bathroom, having apparated there when the wards went down. A flurry of robes as a latecomer rushed unseeing past him, caused Harry to shrink within himself. More were coming! He wished desperately for the Invisibility cloak, but it was lost to him.

Hermione was muttering a spell. Leave it to Hermione, thought Harry, as the wall became soft and cushy. She pulled him into the niche she had made and with a whispered spell closed the wall over them hiding them from view.

It was extremely tight quarters, apparently made for one person, not two, but it effectively hid them.

"They can still hear us," whispered Hermione. "And it's a timed spell. In about 10 minutes the wall goes back to solid—"

Harry turned towards her, brushing against her and blushing. "It's awesome," he whispered. Shifting again to figure out where to put his arm. "You always know—" 

"Not mine," interrupted Hermione. "Ron's.".

Neither spoke for a moment.

Harry reached in his pocket, and pulled out the twins extendable ear devices. He explained, "It should help us to hear—"

When they got the devices into their ears, the first thing they heard was a sizzle and a splash, and then Edward's voice. "I can't believe he tried to steal her right out from under Lord Voldemort's wand. There's a point where boldness and stupidity overlap."

"You should know," said Ethan. "Living with all those Gryffindor's—"

"Shut up, Ethan," teased a feminine voice. "Next time you drop fire on your robe, we'll let you fry." 

Hermione suddenly gripped Harry's hand. That was Ginny's voice! Ginny! Harry moved forward, but the wall in front of him stopped his rash action, and Hermione whispered frantically in his ear. "Dumbledore is coming. We'll get her out!"

"She must be under **imperio**," said Harry.

"How did you get here before us?" Ethan asked.

"I'm just good," said Draco. "We even had time to stop for a snack."

"Last meal?" said Ethan.

"If we weren't in the anteroom to his chamber, you know that comment warrants a hex," replied Draco.

"Draco, you can't think you can steal his prophecy child and live?" said Edward.

==

"That remains to be seen," said Draco, when a hissing came from behind the sinks and one of them slid aside to reveal a skeletally thin wizard, dressed in black robes. When he came into the light, Samara gasped. 

Two tiny serpents were wrapped around his wrists. Others were held in a magical basket. So this was the Dark Lord, thought Samara. She was unimpressed. His aura was a shredded mass of fibers reminding Samara of a muddy gray dryrotted rag. The holes were uncountable and the murkiness so thick that she couldn't even discern the original color of the aura. In fact the only color that could be seen was the deep blood red of the overlay which lay clotted over the whole mess. She searched for some evidence of wandless magic, her vision blurring from exhaustion and lack of food. 

Draco had said the Dark Lord used wandless magic almost exclusively, so she should see an abundance of sparkles, but there were none. There was only a essence of gray and black particles which looked more like dirt than like magic. Of one thing she was certain—this was not the aura of human being.

"You have brought a new recruit?" the Dark Lord questioned Draco. His strange snake like face creased into what Samara assumed was a smile as he looked at her. "Someone special to you, young Malfoy?" 

"I have brought the Prophecy Child," said Draco calmly, as he knelt at the Dark Lord's feet and kissed his robes, but Samara could tell that Draco was anything but calm.

The smile disappeared from the Dark Lord's face his aura changing from mud and holes to liquid fire as he looked at Draco. Samara could almost feel the heat emanating from him.. 

"Another one?" said Voldemort glancing at Ginny. He took a deep breath, the rage in his aura simmering, but his voice was a soft hiss, almost a caress. Áre you the Prophecy Child?" 

"I am. What are you?" Samara blurted.

He took a step toward her, his aura exploding with anger, and hesitated, allowing the fire in his hands to fizzle to nothingness.

Ethan and Ed drew identical imaginary lines across their necks.

"You are too full of magic," the Dark Lord said reaching out to place a long white finger on her face. "It speaks without thought." 

She flinched, and he said, "You have nothing to fear. You are of value to me." His aura flashed orange.

"And Draco is of value to me," she retorted shifting imperceptibly away from his touch and the control of his orange aura.

Rage again flared like fire in his aura, but his strange face showed no sign of his feelings. "I see," he muttered. "If you are the prophecy child, you are an empath and a healer. Is that correct?"

"Yes," said Samara.

"Prove it to me."

"I know who I am," said Samara raising her head a little and pushing the windblown mess of her hair out of her face. "I need prove it to no one—" she felt Draco suck in his breath beside her. "However," she continued. "One of your basilisks is dying—" she pointed to his basket. "It is being crushed by the others. Surely you know they will devour each other if left in the basket."

"I know many things," Voldemort said enigmatically. Samara wasn't sure he was talking about the basilisks.

Samara took a step forward, opened the basket, and ordered the basilisks to "be still!" She thrust her hand inside and pulled out one of the basilisks which was bitten and bleeding, the butt of the others fury. Immediately the little creature wrapped itself around Samara's wrist and attempted to thrust its needle like fangs into her arm.

"Stop,' she hissed in parseltongue as she jerked its head away from her wrist and looked at it carefully. "I know you can't see me and you're frightened, but you needn't bite me. I'm trying to help you."

"Hississus!" 

"I am not hisssissus," said Samara. "I am a friend. Sissahauss. Be still and quiet. You are safe for the moment. Which is more than I can say about me or my companion—" The basilisk continued to slither wildly up her arm. "Be still sweetling," Samara hissed again allowing her healing power to enter the little serpent.

Ginny stepped forward beside her. "Samara!" she blurted. "You speak parseltongue!"

"What?" said Samara.

"You talked to the basilisks!—the basilisks," Ginny repeated in parseltongue. "Oh. It's hurt," she hissed at the baby Samara was holding.

"Oh, yes. I know. I've always been able to talk to snakes. My brothers quit trying to scare me with them when I was about five. If I'd have know you spoke it--"

"Have you found my emerald, Virginia?" Voldemort interrupted.

"Not yet. I'm sorry," said Ginny dropping immediately to her knees and kissing Voldemort's robe as if suddenly realizing that she addressed Samara before she addressed Voldemort. She was instantly contrite, whether of her own accord, or because of Tom's influence it was hard to guess. "I'm sorry, Master." Ginny murmured. "I will look harder."

Samara looked askance and reached out to Ginny, grasping her shoulder. "What are you doing Ginny?" she asked in parseltongue. "Are you bowing to this ---?"

"Yes, she is," said Voldemort in parseltongue. "As should you."

Samara blanched as she realized he understood her. She had thought, from her reading, that she was probably alone in her gift of parseltongue. She just didn't think of Voldemort –and certainly not Ginny. Glancing from Draco to Ginny. Ginny gave her a barely imperceptible nod as the basilisk slithered off of her wrist and onto Ginny's shoulder, curling around Ginny's neck. Ginny did not touch it. She was utterly still on her knees, awaiting Voldemort's order.

'I suppose I should tell you that I came here because Draco thought you would help me," Samara told Voldemort. "And perhaps I can help you, but I really don't know you. I'm not promising anything—"

"Bow to me," said Voldemort again in parseltongue, this time, his rage bubbling forth. Samara had the distinct feeling that he wouldn't ask again.

"If it means that much to you," Samara replied bending down on her knees and kissing his robe as she had seen the others do. "I'm really not one of your little group though," said Samara switching to English. "You see, Dumbledore was being a complete ass. He took my wand. He locked me in this torture closet—"

"Dumbledore?" whispered Valeriana. "Used the Chamber of Chains?" Samara watched the auras of the Death Eaters go from disbelief to confusion to anxiety. She realized that most, if not all of them, had intimate knowledge of the room of which she spoke. She wished she could read Voldemort's aura.

Valeriana cracked her thumbs and then her wrists. 

"Go on," ordered Voldemort and the Death Eaters were silenced.

Dumbledore blamed me for the wards going down—well that was kind of my fault—but I didn't do it on purpose and Draco seemed to think you would help—"

Voldemort burst into laughter. "You took the Hogwarts' wards down by accident!"

"It wasn't all my magic," said Samara uncertainly looking at Snape, who gave no sign that he remembered anything, so she revealed nothing about him.

"Nonetheless, she is the Prophecy Child you seek," said Draco. "and now she is pledged to you."

"What!" Interrupted Samara, still dripping hot magic.

"Hush," said Voldemort gently, lifting a hand in her direction, and she felt the fire in her ease. A soft floating feeling filled her, like clouds on a lazy summer day, and she decided that she wanted to hear what Draco had to say.

"Explain yourself, Draco." Said Voldemort.

Draco looked at Samara, his aura glowing rose for a moment and then orange. 

Samara frowned wondering if he was trying to purposefully manipulate his aura for her benefit or was he just trying to manipulate Voldemort.. 

He turned back to Voldemort and spoke, his aura growing more orange by the moment. Samara clamped her hands over fists full of wandless magic.

"She is pledged to me," said Draco. "and I am pledged to you, so she is loyal to our cause. The prophecy says she will choose her side—She has chosen." Draco took a deep breath and continued. "She sees auras, and she's powerful. I believe she has healing tendencies because she admitted to me that she often sees her own aura as green. You've seen for yourself what she has done with the basilisks. She was sorted into Gryffindor, can unlock the Ravenclaw puzzles, and although the magic I have felt is mostly Slytherin, I have tested her Hufflepuff traits. She has Hufflepuff friends, but more than that, she has also repeatedly relinquished her advantage when she felt she would hurt me—"

"You tested—" hissed Samara, flinging both hands full of fire at Draco. 

"Testudo!"

"Cru—"

"Exceptionis incantum!" said Voldemort. Voldemort paced around the two of them thoughtfully, his aura clearing to a pale orange. "Continue Draco." He said laying his hand on Draco's shoulder.

Samara studied Voldemort's aura intently, trying to decide what had just happened. Had he held her under Imperio? Was he so powerful? So subtle? 

Draco's aura trembled with barely contained fear. "I was attracted to her magic before I realized her importance to you. Then—then Dumbledore took her captive. He believes she is the prophecy child. He had her locked in the Chamber of Chains.. I rescued her and brought her here." Draco took a brreath and abruptly pulled his aura in close to himself, wrapping himself in it like a shield. "I would have--of course, deferred to you, Master, if –if I had realized—sooner--"

Voldemort's aura changed too, becoming positively murderous as he looked at Draco. Then he turned to her.. "So, you _are _the prophecy child?" said the Dark Lord. Rage that made Ethan's crucio look like an embrace still flaring in his aura and Samara retreated as step involuntarily

Voldemort struck out toward her with his right hand and she noted one of the basilisks was wrapped tightly around his wrist. The tiny creature looked lost in the bloody overlay of his aura. "**Finite Incantum."** You may continue your spell, he said.

"My spell?" She looked at him in confusion.

"The **crucio**," he said, stepping back and allowing her open access to Draco.

Draco paled.

She and Draco had discussed this possibility in the glowing embers of their passion. He had even welcomed it. "If he lets you do the crucio," Draco had said between kisses. "Promise me, you will do it. It will be easier than his."

"You don't know that he will subject you to crucio," Samara had argued and Draco had said nothing except, "Use the fire. It's easiest for me to handle."

Samara hesitated studying the auras of those around her. Draco had pulled his aura in close to himself, steeling himself for the spell. He seemed to think it was inevitable. Ginny, went so far as to whisper, "Just do it, Samara."

"Why does everyone's aura look like if I don't do this, the world will cave in?" asked Samara. She turned to Voldemort. "Would you put me under imperio again?"

"No," said Voldemort. But if you don't do it, I will. He has taken what is mine. He has used you. He must be punished."

Samara again sized up Voldemort's aura, thinking that whatever she did, it would be better than his crucio. "One thing," Samara told Voldemort. "I don't belong to you." She watched his muddy mess of an aura darken.

She turned to Draco, whose aura had lightened to a pale rose color, and looked directly into Draco's cool gray eyes. She gathered the fire, hot in her hands. "I don't belong to you either," she said, trying to find the intent to hurt him. **"Crucio."**

Before she had finished the spell , a house elf popped into their midst. "Master," it said to Draco, and squeaked in fear. "Tully is sorry to disturb, but Miss Pansy said to come immediately." The small cedar wand it was holding was intimately familiar to Samara. And her crucious curse fizzled out.

****

"Accio," she said, and her wand flew from the house elf's hand to her own.

"You shall not hurt, master," said the elf.

"Tully!" Croaked Draco. "What took you so long?"

Dumbledore was keeping it," said the elf. "I had to wait for him to put it down."

"Go back to the kitchen," the Dark Lord said harshly and the house elf disappeared with a pop!

Samara was never so happy to feel the warm wood in her hands and she held it for a moment before trying to put it back in her tangled wet hair. It was hopeless. A thousand mundane thoughts rushed through her head. She decided to do a drying charm to try to get the wandless magic under control, but she and Draco were just too overloaded with it. The Chamber of Chains had exhausted her and although her dance with Draco had renewed her magic, she still felt like her body had not quite assimilated the magic yet. Truthfully she needed to release the rest of the magic, but she was also afraid to. It felt like the magic was the only thing that was holding her upright. She dried her tangled hair again and pulled her fingers through it, trying to remember the spell Lavender had taught her to untangle her hair. It completely eluded her at the moment. She started to put her wand into her pocket instead, when Voldemort spoke.

"That was not exactly a powerful spell. I would expect the Prophecy Child to be more powerful. You have to say it like you mean it. **"Crucio!"**

Draco collapsed in gasping agony.

Samara didn't think at all.. She raised her hands not calling the elementals, but reaching for a talent deep within herself. Consciously calling what she had only used intuitively before. A shimmering wall of blue mist began to form behind her hands, but she was too weak to control it, and it escaped like water through her fingers. Voldemort ended Draco's crucious curse before she could gain control of the shielding spell.

"I told you, he is of value to me," she snapped, magic dripping haphazardly from her fingertips.

"You may indeed have brought me the prophecy child," said Voldemort, blandly. "Child, Child. Put your magic away. We are on the same side, are we not?"

"Draco?" questioned Samara.

Shuddering, he pulled himself to his feet beside her. "We are on the same side," he said softly.

"That little stick is your wand?" questioned Voldemort.

"Basilisk infused into cedar," she said. She hesitated before reversing the wand and handing it to Voldemort for his examination. "Speaking of basilisks—They're really uncomfortable in there. Do you mind if I take them out?"

Voldemort, rather preoccupied with examining Samara's wand nodded. 

And Samara took the moment to whisper worriedly to Draco. "Are you alright?"

He nodded and put his finger to her lips.

Voldemort's face creased into what could only be described, as a rapturous smile, which Samara thought, looked hideous on his lipless snake face. "Rena," he muttered, as he rubbed a long finger down the length of her wand. "My Rena."

Then Voldemort looked at Samara and added as an afterthought. The basilisks are all partially imprinted to me. All except the smallest—have begun the process-- so they are bound to obey me. Even though their eyes are not open yet, they have a dangerous bite."

Both Voldemort and Ginny's aura flickered. Samara frowned. "Was he lying to her? She wasn't sure, but Ginny seemed perfectly content with the little fellow wrapped around her neck like a collar. Obviously she wasn't afraid of getting bitten.

"Thanks," said Samara as she released two of the basilisks and allowed them to slither up her arms. She was going to stop at two, but the others were anxious to get out of the crowded basket and she didn't want any of them to feel left out. "Poor babies," she crooned to them in parseltongue. "As long as you get along with each other you can come out. Come on. It's warm next to my body and you can curl around my arms like you curl in the sand and the trees, but you must remember you are brothers and sisters. You cannot attack each other while you are on my body, or I will put you back in the cold place."

"They are not pets," said Voldemort. "They eat one another. You are not going to get them to treat each other like brothers and sisters. They are vicious, mindless, warriors and you are in danger from so many of them," he said as Samara allowed the seventh basilisk to slither onto her. 

She looked at him. His red eyes were intense and for a moment she thought his aura was tinged with rose.

"Do you care about my being in danger?" Samara smirked. "I'm so glad. Dumbledore didn't seem to care." The eighth basilisk crawled onto her shoulder, edging one of the others away. It hissed in her ear

"But if you don't mind, I'd really like to get out of here before Dumbledore comes looking for me—"

"Oh, he won't come so soon—" said Voldemort. 

"Master," said Lucius Malfoy. "Someone is in the corridor—Potter."

"Oh well, bring him in—Don't go sulking in shadows Potter, someone might think you like the Darkness." Voldemort chuckled.

Lucius turned to do his master's bidding, but before he could bring them in, the two students pounced from behind the doorjamb. Lucius' wand was out in a moment blocking Hermione's spell and attempting to disarm her with **Expellarmus! **When that didn't work he fired a binding spell before Hermione could speak again, and physically took her wand from her bound hands.

"Oh if it isn't the little lion cub," said Voldemort blocking Harry's stupefy spell effortlessly with Samara's wand. He glanced at it in amazement that such a small wand could channel so much power.

  
"Hello Harry. Did you come to meet the new arrivals? Lucius tells me you met their mother—" Voldemort gestured to the basilisks draped all over Samara's body.

"I killed their mother," said Harry coldly. 

"Yes, I know," said Voldemort "And left her body to rot. Wasteful child. By the time I got a chance to check the Chamber most of it was ruined. We did get some of the basilisk skin for potions, though, so it wasn't a total loss-- 

So unlike _this trip_ which has been _immensely profitable_. I've collected my basilisks and my prophecy child and Dumbledore can collect the bodies of Harry Potter and the Mudblood. 

Hermione struggled momentarily in Lucius binding spell and Harry raised his wand, but Voldemort's shield charm crackled against his spell.

Voldemort's face creased into a grin. "I have a new wand Harry. Basilisk and Cedar."

"No!" Samara cried.

Harry glanced at Samara a look of horror on his face, and Samara took a step forward, placing herself between Harry and Voldemort. "Wait!" she said reaching out and touching the sleeve of Voldemort's robe. "Don't kill him. Let's just go. Dumbledore will be here any minute, and Harry's part in the prophecy is over now. You have what you came for--there's no reason for you to kill him."

"I don't need a reason," said Voldemort coolly, his eyes resting on Samara's fingers, clenching his robe.

"Then perhaps you need a reason to spare him," said Samara releasing his robe. "Do you know the gifts of the prophecy child?

"All too well." Voldemort's eyes glittered malevolently at her. "But I don't know that you are the prophecy child. It might be Virginia."

"I am the Prophecy Child," she said. "My talent has not been seen in a thousand years, and yet those who love deeply enough have called a portion of this ancient magic, the magic to reflect a curse—any curse." 

She thought briefly of Harry Potter and a smirk crossed her lips, but her threat was an empty one and

Voldemort's aura darkened dangerously. She wondered if she had pushed too far. She switched to parseltongue, allowing him to save face with his Death Eaters. 

"Unless I misinterpret my History, you have encountered this magic before—" she hissed softly, her eyes holding Harry's for a moment and then turning back to Voldemort. "You've encountered a portion of this magic," she continued. "And you have what you came for. What benefit could possibly be gained by your killing him? There is only risk," she said reasonably, "and no benefit."

For just a second, Voldemort's aura contracted, and then he recovered, the murky grayness gaining a tint of orange before it faded into an unreadable mess again. 

When Voldemort spoke, it was also in parseltongue. "Risk?" he said caressing the wand in his hand, and looking pointedly at Draco. "If you set yourself against me . . . Draco will die."

Samara what are you doing?" Draco called worriedly. "You've chosen your side—"

  
"But this is not Dumbledore. These are my friends. I don't want them dead!" Of course she didn't want Draco dead either--

"They're my friends too," said Ginny and she stepped forward, grasping Samara's hand.

With effort Samara brought up the shield magic, she was infinitely thankful that Voldemort did not choose to test it, because she doubted that she would have had the strength to reflect an adhere charm at this point. She was so tired and even with Ginny's help the ward was exhausting. 

"Let them go," said Harry.

This was the first moment that Samara realized Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were not here by accident. They were trying to save her! The thought was sweet, but ludicrous. "Harry, go back," called Samara, but Harry didn't go back and Voldemort, with murder in his eyes and his aura, raised his wand—no her wand—Cold fear filled her and the shield flickered with her lack of concentration. 

"This is real touching and all," Samara blurted in English, "but we really didn't want to be rescued, Harry. I'm leaving with Lord Voldemort and if you die before I go it's really going to screw up my day. This is my choice and I have made it— 

Voldemort lowered the wand, looking at her in amazement as the door burst open, and the Weasley twins brandishing their wands leaped into the room.

****

"Aucuo auditus!" shouted Fred and George together and when their spell hit Samara's shield it was reflected. Fred and George fell to the floor, clutching their ears. Although neither realized it, the shield did not totally reflect the spell due to Samara's exhaustion. The ringing in Samara's ears caused by the twins' spell made her feel sick and disoriented.

The pain had not even begun to ease by the time the door opened again, this time revealing Dumbledore. At his side was Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom and at his feet was a small brown bunny—Beatrice.

"Hello Albus," said Voldemort. "Late as usual. It's good to know there are some things that never change." 

"Hiding behind children now, are you Tom."

"I learned from the best," he taunted Dumbledore. "It's kept _you_ alive all these years didn't it?" 

Dumbledore's twinkling blue eyes were flashing fire. As he raised his wand.

"Ah-ah—"said Voldemort. "I'd choose my spell very carefully, Albus, since my prophecy child will be giving you a taste of it." 

****

"Pervigilo Armaro," said Ginny softly and Samara felt new power flow into the weakening shield.

'You're at a stalemate too, Tom. You can't win. Her shield prevents us from hurting one another The prophecy says do not sacrifice children. Do you think you can escape your fate?"

"The children may leave," said Voldemort. "Go on, and your precious Potter too." None of the children seemed to be in any hurry to run away. Voldemort smirked at Dumbledore. "It was quite nice to be able to have this little chat after all these years—Pro-fessor Dumbledore. As you can see, your tutelage has been invaluable. I've done quite well so far," he said, but it's not a stalemate as you might think." His voice lowered into a command. . "Nott! Release the dementers." 

The old man shuffled forward a few steps, his bright eyes belaying the feebleness of his body. He twitched when he touched Pandora's box. Samara didn't know if that was because of the dementers inside or because he had endured one too many crucio curses. He flipped open the box and recited:

A Child born of hatred to set you free

To chase the souls of dreams that will never be--

He had no sooner finished reciting than the dementers poured out of the box. They went right through Samara's shield, but their eternal cold disrupted her weakened shield, and Dumbledore fired a spell through it. Hot and focused, it hit Nott and he crumpled, dropping the box. The dementers immediately reversed track, heading for the fallen box.. Alvin scrambled forward to pick it up, narrowly missing the opened maw of a dementer who also wanted the box. Alvin's father was not so lucky.

Alvin's scream of rage and pain echoed through the room as he stumbled forward to his father's fallen body, holding Pandora's Box in front of him like a shield.

"Master," whispered Ginny. "Please. We're tired, and the shield is weakening—the dementers-- 

"Get to the portkeys," he told his Death Eaters as Harry's patronus blossomed on the other side of the shield.

"The mudblood?" said Lucius, but Voldemort didn't answer him.

"Ah Harry Potter," called Voldemort as he saw Harry's stag patronus, do you think that since your mother's magic has run thin, you can call upon your fathers? I think not. Do you know what his last words were Harry?" Voldemort's voice was a harsh whisper. "He said, 'Lily, give him the baby.'"

"You're a liar!" screamed Harry, but the stag patronus flickered, and Voldemort smiled as his dementers sensed his hesitation and moved in--

"Dumbldedore never told you the rest of the prophecy did he—" Voldemort continued. "The parts about me and you?" Harry's scar exploded with pain, as Voldemort reached a hand towards him—He didn't even touch him this time, Harry thought frantically. " Tsk, tsk." Continued Voldemrot. " That's the trouble with being a Light Wizard, Albus. One little lie, and everything falls apart."

"Dumbledore didn't lie!" shrieked Harry, but some part of him believed Voldemort. _"Don't sacrifice children or truth"_ and Harry swayed dizzily as the dementers clustered around him for a moment before a lion patronus leaped forward to protect him.

Voldemort glanced at Lucius. "Kill the mudblood," he said, and laid his hand on top of Ginny and Samara's clasped hands.

Lucius shoved Hermione away from him. "**Avada-"** he began, but something small and brown ran under his feet, and he stumbled, his spell going wide.

****

"Accio!" shouted Hermione and her wand flew from Lucius pocket to her still bound hands. **"Expecto patronum!"** and a silvery white unicorn joined the lion patronus.

"Virginia," Voldemort said softly. "Use your portkey."

Ginny reached into her hair to remove a silver comb that she wore. She held it in front of her to say the word—**fidissime **and Samara again felt the flickering of the shield as something passed through it—not a spell? And then she knew who came through the ward as she felt the soft fur of a bunny brush her leg beneath her robe, and then the familiar tug behind her navel as the portkey activated.

==

"Ginny!" Harry leaped forward missing the portkey by seconds and falling flat into the empty air where Samara's shield had been a moment ago.

The stinking cold breath of a dementer at his neck brought him back to the present. But Voldemort's words caused Harry to doubt. His father's voice, came to him through the dementers, "Give him the baby," he begged. "Just give him the baby, Lily."

"Not Harry," called his mother and Harry was drawn into the midst of their death. Avada flashing green and the cold of the dementers seeping into his very soul, as the thing pushed back its hood.. He shoved away the thoughts, screaming, "LIES!"

****

"Expecto Patronus!" And his stag patronus joined the tawny white lion and Hermione's pure shining unicorn, dispelling the cold of the dementers. A bottle brush tailed cat patronus, spitting and hissing, joined the unicorn, running beneath the sparkling white wings of a Griffin. Suddenly, they were all gone. The light of a Death Eater apparating, flashing silver and the pain in his scar so severe he felt as if his head were split open. 

Ron rushed from the fallen twins to his side. "Harry? Are you alright?" Ron's worried face swam in and out of focus as the pain in Harry's scar throbbed.

"A cat?" muttered Harry. "Your patronus is a cat?"

"Not a cat," said Ron. "A keisel—A Death Eater killing, dementer eating, keisel." His voice caught in a sob as Hermione put her arm around him, and he turned, hugging her fiercely. "Ginny—Did you see Ginny, Hermione? I couldn't help her—or you--with Fred and George unconscious—and the dementers—"

"I know," soothed Hermione.

"She used a portkey, Hermione." His voice broke. "She did it herself—Why?"

Images of Ginny's kiss on Halloween night came to Harry. The pain in his scar. Ginny's rush to get away from him. He had thought it was because of the diary. "She has a Dark Mark," said Harry.

"She does not!" snapped Ron incensed, but Harry said nothing. His eyes on Dumbledore, who did not seem surprised at all.

"You knew," Harry accused. "You knew she had the Dark Mark and you did nothing! What did you do, send her to him to save your precious prophecy child?"

"Harry—" said Dumbledore. "You don't understand."

"I understand perfectly! You were so focused on the Prophecy child, you could give a damn about the rest of us!"

"Harry, we need to focus on the Prophecy Child," said Dumbledore. "If she has indeed gone to Voldemort of her own free will—"

"And what about this lie?" snapped Harry. "Voldemort was right, wasn't he?"

"I'll explain," promised Dumbledore, suddenly looking very, very old. "I'll tell you what I should have told you, long ago."

"Help me get the twins," Ron whispered to Hermione, and they started to move away from Harry and Dumbledore, but Neville's hand on Ron's shoulder stopped him.

"Where's Beatrice?" asked Neville. "Did anyone see Beatrice?"

They all looked around worriedly for their friend, but she was no where in sight.

There was a sudden cold and a flash of green.

"The Dark Mark," whispered Ron looking out of the window at the cloud-filled twilight. "The Dark Mark above Hogwarts."

"The moment of truth will come in a flash

The night sky will glow with gloom

"A friend's flight. A friends mad dash,

May halt the moment of doom." Intoned Hermione.

"Oh Beatrice. What have you done?" she whispered, as Neville started to cry. 

==

The soft green carpet of Slytherin common room was never so welcome as it was now, as Ginny sunk to her knees in it. Samara collapsed beside her.

Already Voldemort was moving, directing, giving orders to the Slytherin children. The non-death eaters in the common room had scattered like spiders before a basilisk.

"Severus, has Edgecombe altered the floo?"

"Yes, Master."

"As soon as we are through, you will close this floo. I have no need of it now that I have my basilisks. The next time I enter this cursed building will be to light Dumbledore's funeral pire."

Draco apparated into the room and started toward Samara..

Alvin Nott apparated next with Pandora's box clutched in his arms. Shaking from head to foot, he muttered. "I did it. Oh Merlin! I did it!"

"Was that the first time you apparated?" asked Draco.

"Yeah," breathed Alvin, rubbing a hand over his tear-streaked face. "I thought if I splinch, Dumbledore gets the box and then the Ministry can put me back together again so that Lord Voldemort can rip me apart again. I can't splinch. I can't—Professor Sinistra has no idea what the incentive of fear does—"

Draco chuckled. "Samara?"

"I don't know what happened to her," Ginny reported to Draco in a worried whisper. "I let go of her, and she just collapsed. I thought I was helping her with the ward, but I think I was helping her to stand —"

"She's just passed out," said Draco, hopefully, gathering Samara in his arms. "It's overload of magic—like quit—"

"Are you sure?" muttered.Ginny, as she shifted her robe to cover Beatrice and wondered what on earth she was going to do with the bunny. Millicent edged closer, purring.

"No," said Draco worriedly. "Professor Snape will know—"

"Alvin!" said Voldemort jubilantly. "You recovered Pandora's box with an adult's finesse." He passed his hand over Alvin's Dark Mark and a smile creased Alvin's face. "I am pleased," Voldemeort said. "You may choose your reward. Think about it."

"My father," said Alvin, the pleasure of the Dark Mark fading as soon as Voldemort removed his hand. "The dementers—" Alvin closed his eyes and tears escaped them as he thought of the dementers swarming over his father—kissing him--such an incongruous word to describe sucking out a man's soul. 

"Yes, well, he wasn't much of a parent to you, was he?" Voldemort ran one of his long fingers down the tear streaked side of Alvin face. "You may think of me as your father," said Voldemort graciously. "I am so proud of you!"

"Come!" said Voldemort turning to the center of the room. "Virginia! Samara! Bring my basilisks. We are off to the Snow Castle. Severus, you may bring who you wish, when you are finished with Dumbledore. 

Neither Virginia nor Samara moved, and Voldemort hesitated stepping from the hearth.

"She's hurt, Master," said Ginny.

Voldemort took two long steps to them and bent to examine Samara's face. His snake tongue flickering and tasting. "Severus!"

"Too much wandless magic," said Snape. "I don't know if it--damaged her."

"This was your fault!" Voldemort roared, turning on Draco. **"CRUCIO!"**

While Draco was writhing on the ground, Voldemort went to him and put a foot on his twitching body. "If she dies," he said viciously. "You will die. Very slowly." He released the crucious spell, and Draco lay gasping for breath. "Do you understand?"

"Yes." The single syllable was an effort for Draco.

"If she lives and is no use to me because of this—" Voldemort ground his teeth. "**CRUCIO!**" When he released the spell, Draco did not get up. Voldemort turned to Snape. "Severus! Get what potions you think you need and come with us," He had already gathered up Samara, still covered in his basilisks, into his arms, when he looked around –"Pritch, do you know how to close this floo behind us?"

"No master," said Pritch worriedly.

"Find someone who does. Virginia!" He nodded toward the floo in front of him. "Go!" he said. "Snow castle. The word is ----"  


Ginny stumbled forward, and with the bunny still at her feet stepped into the fireplace.

"Master," said Snape. "If I go with you, now, Dumbledore will know—He expects me to be here with the children--" He glanced at the prone Draco.

"At some point," said Voldemort. "We all have to make choices." And then he stepped into the floo, "Send my Mark," he told Snape.

Severus Snape raised his wand and closed his eyes. **"Mors Mordre!"** he said sending the Dark Mark into the sky above Hogwarts. 

==

END

==

Author's Note: Thank you all for reading and reviewing so faithfully. You really have been my inspiration throughout this epic story. If you haven't visited the yahoo groups site The_Seers_Truth please take the time to do so. It's an awesome site put together by "ennui" . She's worked hard on it and we would appreciate your input. As far as the sequel, it isn't far enough along for me to post the next chapter day after tomorrow, but I hope to have it up shortly. …

…any ideas on how to get the girls back?????

Just kidding_. _

No you weren't. You're lying now. Is that my influence? 

Shut up, Tom.

Speaking of Tom. There is a new Tom/Ginny episode at the beginning of this story on Fiction Alley. Please check out the new stuff and leave a review.

THANKS FOR STICKING WITH ME—must have been that adhere charm. I finally got it! Yeah!

****

NOTES TO THE REVIEWERS.

billy 

I decided not to fit into JK's mold of making each book last exactly a year. There were several reasons for

this. The timeline I need with Tom and the basilisks as well as the use of Ginny and Winky during the previous

years meant that the basilisks couldn't hatch at the end of the year. Secondly, I think Voldemort is being 

mighty accommodatating to Harry Potter to neatly plan his big plots to coincide with the end of the school year.

I didnt want Volde to be that predictable.

Hope you will continue reading my other fics until the sequel is up.

****

The Elemental Sorceress 

Glad you are able to get the site now. Thanks for reading.

****

~Joda~ 

My story is all you can think about? Oh my. 

****

Trillium 

Whew! It is hot. Author fans herself vigorously. Blows out fingernails. The emerald is important later and 

as you see, Ginny isn't there to help the trio now, she had to tell them before she left. You already know 

Draco was called. Hope you keep reading my other fics until the sequel is up.

****

XASA 

Did I say Draco was nice? Did I ever say Draco was nice? 

On the other hand, he's not a monster either.

****

bbs 

You wrote: "I still think what I said before: Neville is the prophesy child. (hey, stop laughing!)"

HMMMM. Yes, I remember you. Weren't you the other child my sister and I did that memory curse on? 

More awesome Neville in the sequel. Stay tuned.

About English class--I'll trade you English for Algebra.

All of you can take bbs advice now " and immediately go back and re-read the entire thing!"

****

Raven173 

I can't increase the rating because what you got is about as hot as I can go. Partnership rune is for Tom and Ginny.

About Dumbledore, he's either a demon or an idiot. Read my *Twas the Order of the Phoenix.* "A stupid Dumbledore

just doesn't seem real--"but it's cannon.

****

Ilwinterhofal 

It's all here. Uncut and complete. Ready for the sequel?

****

Sky 

Glad you're having fun. Please stick with me and read the sequel or some of my other fics.

****

Pia2 

Yes, I felt somewhat the same way about JK's OOP. I guess that's the problem with writing about 14-15 year olds 

when your readers are nine. I don't have the restriction JK has. Of course, I wonder how she's going to get

through the next few years. No Draco/Samara and Fire elemental--at least nothing is planned right now. Of course

Draco/Samara wasn't supposed to happen at all in the beginning of this book. I thought it would be Samara/Harry

but Draco just took her. I feel a little like the Dark Lord. How did that happen?

****

Reiven 

HMMMM 15 reviews to get the sequel. I don't know. I'd like to be about ten chapters ahead of the readers so I have some room to change things if I need to. I'm not sure 15 reviews will be enough to get the sequel, because I don't know if I'll have time to get that many chapters written. Right now, I have 3 solid and about 5 in various forms of repair. I know where it it going and am more confident than I was with this one in the beginning, but I had 40 chapters written before I posted any with this story. I don't anticipate the sequel will be as long as this though.

Advanced stats tells the word count and number of hits on every chapter and lists the reviews separately for each chapter too as well as the total amount of reviews.

****

Tiamat Warcraft 

No. I made a mistake when I called this Harry Potter and... because on fanfic if you search for Harry Potter and anything, you get so much you can't find anything. The next story will be called: Beyond the Darkness. email me and we'll talk about homeschool. ladylestrange@hotmail.com

Quote: In the end, everything tastes like chicken, and chicken tastes good. 

****

Jager

Why does Samara bug you? I should ask this on the Yahoo group. People either love Samara or hate her. Glad you like the Draco/Samara bit though. 

****

Silverfox1 

You wrote:So was Draco summoned with all the rest? And if so, did they have enough time to complete the 

fire elemental? lol. Worried that Samara and Draco had to cut things short? Ahhh.

I like Gloria too. She never was meant to be much of a character, but she's been fun.

****

ennui deMorte 

You SKIMMED? SKIMMED! **SKIMMED!** GASPS! Falls on the floor twitching. And I thought I was immune to Crucio! 

Ah--poor Draco, so misunderstood. Oh and just for your information, Draco is a dragon. Drake is a duck. And never should the two be confused. We will assume that little mistake was from an over active spell checker. I had one of those once. Changed Hermione's name to Herman for two chapters. What a mess.

And as far as Scary Red Eyes taking Samara and "she's his niece, gross!" First of all, let's remember who we are talking about. He _is_ pretty gross. And the correct relationship is actually, half great niece. Secondly, didn't Binns warn you about that Slytherin inbreeding. Remember the nine year old married to—well-- you'll be reading the chapter again before it's up on Fiction alley so I won't belabor the point.

Yeah well, Killing Draco could be a possibility, but he's counting on Samara's power. Let's just hope it's

enough--hehehe.

You have the rune stuff right on.

I guess you probably see why Alvin got invited now. No doubt Snape talked to Volde and told him to have a little patience with Alvin. It was hard for him to leave the girls. Baby basilisks are less than a foot long. 

Don't think they could swallow a human unless Volde, ummmm--chopped up the food into bite sized pieces. Ok. Did we say gross?

Everyone else review and then come back to group. We have things to discuss...

****

Kemenran 

So sorry Kemnran. There's no more....

****

Reiven 

You wrote: "I think I might just take you up on that cookie challenge, it would be a blast." So there you go

all of you who are waiting for more fire elemental, Reiven's volunteered. And she's a great writer too!

****

author's notes:

Anyone else wanting to see more fire elemental or other deleted scenes written, come to the yahoo group.

There will be a scene from the opening of Azkaban from Valeriana's point of view up shortly on my story,

WE WILL WAIT: A STORY OF BELLATRIX LESTRANGE.

The sequel will also be started shortly. The title of the story will be BEYOND THE DARKNESS.

In the meantime, might I suggest you go read DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. It's a little lighter than SEERS TRUTH, but there are lots of smile lines.

THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME THROUGH IT ALL!

And stick around for the sequel. **Adhere!**

LADY LESTRANGE


	61. THE COST OF MAGIC: A Preview of the Sequ...

**The Seers' Truth: Beyond the Darkness**

**By Lady Lestrange**

**Chapter 1**

**The Cost of Magic**

Disclaimer: All Potterverse belongs to JK Rowlings.

This fic is a sequel to "The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning." If you have not read "The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning," it is suggested that you read it first.

Lady Lestrange

Still here? OK. Some spoilers for "The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning" follow, but if you really intend to read on without reading "The Seers' Truth: a Broken Beginning," here are some pertinent facts that will help you to understand the story. Otherwise, you would probably be hopelessly lost.

What you need to know, if you have not read The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning:

Tom Riddle, at age eleven, was possessed by the spirit of Salazar Slytherin. This combination became Voldemort. The phoenix feather wand was Tom's not Salazar's. A Prophecy Child, which Helga/Trelawney/Patil predicted would change the course of history, is now in Voldemort's hands, but due to Dumbledore's blunder, she is near death. The ministry is infiltrated by Death Eaters, and Azkaban is opened. Ginny Weasley, in an attempt to help the "innocent" Tom Riddle, whose memory lives in her head, finds herself surrounded by Death Eaters and a Death Eater herself. Ginny is also part of a Helga prophecy. Want to know how all that happened? Read "The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning," formerly entitled, HARRY POTTER AND THE SEERS' TRUTH.

( ) Indicates parseltongue spoken.

**Chapter 1**

**The Cost of Magic**

**By Lady Lestrange**

Fourteen year old Ginny Weasley rolled over and clutched the sheets trying to wake up, whimpering in her sleep. She was eleven in her dream and writing in the diary, doodling really, making little hearts with Harry's name in them. She decorated Harry's name with bubble letters and colored them in with her quill.

"I wish Harry would kiss me," she wrote. "I could just imagine—" In her sleep, Ginny tossed restlessly, remembering what was coming.

"What do you imagine, Virginia?" His writing was neat and thin. Spidery writing that reminded Ginny of the script in an old storybook. It was beautiful writing really. She would never tire looking at it.

"What it would feel like to have him kiss me—at least notice me," she wrote in the diary.

"Tell me," wrote Tom.

"I can't."

"You know you can tell me anything, Virginia."

She squirmed in her sleep, thinking he was still calling her Virginia. He was still so formal, but not for long. . . no not for long.

"I know, Tom." She sighed, biting on the end of the quill. "He thinks I'm just a little girl—his best friend's baby sister. He doesn't even know I'm alive."

"Perhaps I can help." The words formed slowly in Tom's neat thin handwriting. "There's a spell—somewhat like a love potion."

"What is it?" Ginny wrote anxiously.

The heart she had drawn with Harry's name in it reappeared on the diary page, complete with the decorations and doodles around it. Beneath it letters began to appear.

"_It needs your kiss, Virginia," wrote Tom. "Lick your lips and kiss the heart and Harry will kiss you before the year is over."_

"Really?" She looked at the diary for a moment and kissed the heart, thinking of Harry.

"_Try again," he wrote. "Lick your lips first."_

"I did," she complained.

She waited for the diary to answer her, to tell her what she did wrong. The writing came, flowing onto the page, explaining what she had to do.

"Remember, I told you that you always need a bit of the witch or wizard who casts a spell to make it strong? Once more, and when you have your lips on the diary, open your mouth a tiny bit and put your tongue against the page."

"But I'll spit on it."

"Exactly," wrote Tom, and Ginny hesitated.

"That's disgusting," she wrote.

"It's just a little thing, Virginia. The spell needs something of yours if you want it to work."

"Yes, but——"

The words came fast and harsh. Big sloppy letters marred the page, the thick ink strokes covering the curly decorations she had made around the heart. "Spit on the damned book, brat!"

"No."

"Would your prefer blood?" The diary in her hand ruffled its pages, and she slammed it shut, but not before one of the pages caught her finger at just that particular angle needed to draw a single drop of blood.

"No." Ginny opened the diary and sucked her index finger. She stared at the book as her blood sank into the page. As she watched, the word Harry in the center of the heart changed and reformed itself into other letters. Letters tinged with the red of her blood: TOM.

The dream suddenly skipped ahead as dreams do. It was much later in the year and she was in the Chamber of Secrets. It wasn't the first time, nor the last.

"You would bleed for me?" Tom wrote. His flowing spidery handwriting looked beautiful on the page.

"Yes," she wrote.

"Oh, Ginny Love," he wrote. And nothing more came for a long time.

She wrote, "Don't you know how to do this Tom?"

"_Yes. I know how," wrote Tom. "There are two ways—the magic can come out of the diary, or you can come into the memory." _

"You can come out?" she wrote excitedly.

"I think it's better for you to come in--"

She frowned. "Will I be able to get back out?"

"_Of course. Why wouldn't you be able to get out?"_

"You can't."

"_That's because the evil wizard put a spell on me—a spell we are going to break. Remember?"_

"I remember. Tell me what to do." Ginny wrote.

No answer came.

"Tom, tell me what to do."

The answer when it came was written in a slow careful hand.

"_This is not as simple as it seems, Ginny. It is consent."_

She was going to answer, but a second later, the writing began again, Tom continuing to explain.

"_Do you remember what I told you about consensual magic?"_

"Yes."

"_I am not a physical being. I exist only in a magic memory. You cannot push me away if you change your mind."_

"I won't change my mind. I trust you, Tom."

For a long while no answer came, but when it did, the writing grew rounder and bold strokes of ink quickly filled the page. "Open the diary and place your hand against the open book. Swear that you will free me—swear by your magic."

"No blood?" wrote Ginny, recognizing the change in writing. She knew the change in writing signified that it was now the evil wizard to whom she was compelled to write. It was not until much later that she discovered that evil wizard's name was Salazar Slytherin.

"Not yet."

She shivered, her hands tensing in fear and clutching the sheets where she slept.

Misstresss! hissed a small voice. Misstresss!

Ginny awoke, sitting up abruptly in her bed and breathing fast. It was only a dream. Everything would be all right. Only it wasn't her bed and nothing was all right. The sting of the paper cut still on her fingers and her heart pounding, she looked around the room—a room in His castle. The nightmare was not over. The nightmare had only just begun.

"You know, Ginny Love," observed the memory of Tom, which she now carried in her head. "We really have to try to improve the quality of your dreams of me. It's depressing."

Is danger? A ssheiss? hissed the voice. Mistress-s-s-s is ssscared.

No, she calmed the little serpent, speaking in parseltongue. There is no predator. Nothing for you to be afraid of— Of course, for Ginny, fear was a different matter.

She was in His lair at the Snow Castle and when she closed her eyes she could see His lipless mouth telling her once again to find his emerald. She could see His deep green eyes watching her…They slowly turned to red as He raised His wand. His voice hissing, "Blood and magic mingled. You are mine." Her Mark burning.

She shuddered with the memory. Was there nothing of her Tom left in that snake's body?

"I rather doubt it," advised Tom.

She pulled back the sleeve of her robe to see her Dark Mark. It was still and quiet, but just inches below it, toward her hand, was another mark: two puncture marks made by his basilisk's fangs. She looked at her hand expectantly and found that sometime during the night, the little basilisk had claimed his mistress with a bite on the index finger when she dreamed of the paper cut, and finally, she had the third, which was actually her first. The serpent had sunk his fangs deep into her neck moments after she had portkeyed from the grizzly scene of last night's events. _No, it wasn't His basilisk_, she thought. _It was now hers since it had bitten her repeatedly. _

Samara's book had said that one might feel sick after being bitten, but the bites were necessary to imprint the serpent to its wizard master. She didn't feel sick. Her neck hurt where it had bitten her, but the bites on her hand and arm were not so sore. She felt tired, and rather numb, but she thought that was from the events of last night. The reality just hadn't sunk in yet.

She rubbed her thumb along the cool iridescent scales of the serpent. It was green and turquoise and had a reddish glint, rather like the colors of a rooster. It was beautiful. She should hate the basilisk. Its mother had been everything she feared in first year, but the tiny serpent was quiet, only a baby really, literally born yesterday.

The tiny thing wrapped itself around her wrist twice, and its tongue tasted the skin of her hand. Its eyes were still closed. She tried to remember how long it took them to open. She should remember from her reading of Samara's book.

"Honestly, Ginny Love. Do you ever remember anything you read? It's six months," advised Tom.

"That's right," she thought.

"_Of course I'm right," said Tom with his usual arrogance. "And you'd better start teaching it to keep its eyes closed. I'd rather like to keep our body alive."_

"My body," corrected Ginny as she laid her hand across the basilisk's face.

Your eyes must stay closed, she told it.

Yessss Missstress.

Feeling the warm lump that was Beatrice, her witch friend and bunny animagus at her feet, she added, You will not eat anything I do not give to you. Only I will feed you.

Tom found her attempts to keep Beatrice alive strangely amusing. "You are speaking to a serpent," said Tom. "It does not understand Beatrice is your friend. It only understands that Beatrice, in her animagus form, is prey."

Do you understand? Ginny asked her basilisk in parseltongue.

Yesss Missstress. No hissuss unlesss Missstress givesss.

Ginny smirked, and Tom was silent for the moment.

Ginny rubbed her hands over the fine material of the bedding, arranging it carefully so as to not awaken her friend Beatrice. Her friend's life could depend upon how obedient the little serpent was to her. The entire situation felt impossible. Surreal.

Ginny leaned back against the silken pillows, thinking He did nothing half way. Hanging near the bed was a clean dove gray robe that looked new. It was expensive, made of the softest angora. Fine stitching depicted black serpents, which slithered around the hem, their scales showing iridescent color as they moved. It was infinitely better than any robe she had ever worn, but she told herself such things did not matter to her. She was here for one reason and one reason only: to find a way to free Tom from Salazar.

Also, beside the bed was a plate of fruit, the orange already cut into bite sized pieces, as if He knew it would be her choice. His guests were treated with as much opulence as his enemies were treated with pain. The question always was: at what point did one meld into the other?

She hesitated a moment and then popped a piece of the orange into her mouth, feeling a bit guilty for enjoying what He had given her. She pushed the apple aside saving it for Beatrice. _What on Earth was she going to do with Beatrice?_ she wondered. She knew her animagus friend had come with her to help, but Ginny couldn't think of any way for the bunny to help, and she could think of a lot of ways she could get killed.

"Bet I could think of more," Tom challenged.

"Shut up, Tom," thought Ginny.

Ginny Weasley ran her hand slowly over the Dark Mark on her arm. Pleasure and pain, He had said, and she had felt both from Him, although the pain was more real to her. Right now, The Mark was still and quiet—just a tattoo.

She looked out of the window. The sun was just risen over the ice. It was beautiful. The colors of the sunrise had almost disappeared with the morning light, but a few pinks and blues were still visible against the ice and snow. She wondered how far the stronghold really was from civilization. She didn't know. All she knew was that it was unplottable. Death Eaters couldn't even Apparate to it without his call. She had no idea where on Earth the castle was. She didn't think anyone knew, save perhaps Maura Rosier whose family had built the Snow Castle for a family retreat years ago.

Ginny had Apparated to it once with a house elf and once she had come through the floo, but Voldemort had told Pritch to close the floo between it and Hogwarts. The floo was probably no longer an optional way back. Did she want to go back? How could she? How could she ever go back to her family? Visions of the twins, unconscious on the floor, dementors held off only by Ron's patronus and Ron's eyes accusing her of betrayal would haunt her forever.

"How long are you going to sit here and feel sorry for yourself?" Tom inquired. His feelings decidedly disgusted with her lack of action.

Tears crept into her eyes and she dashed them away. As much as she hated to admit it, Tom was right. How could she feel sorry for herself? She had things to do. First, she had to find a way to get her friend Beatrice back before Voldemort found her. There was no way that Beatrice would survive the Dark Mark. And secondly, she had to find Samara. Samara was in the most danger, both from Voldemort and from the monumental amount of magic that she had consumed. Ginny found herself wondering, not for the first time, how she had managed to get herself into this impossible predicament.

"It could have had something to do with demanding that Snape take you with them to Salazar," said Tom.

Sighing, she swung her legs out over the edge of the bed, intent upon finding out how serious her friend Samara's injuries were. But first, she had to find out where Samara was—

"Careful, Ginny Love," warned Tom.

He was too agitated to sit. His prophecy child could die. A century of work—all the waiting and it could all be for nothing. He paced like a caged animal, feeling helpless. It was a feeling that he thought he had left behind ages ago. Outside the room, whispered ridicule was passed from Death Eater to Death Eater. _Later_, he thought. He would deal with them later.

Just because he was too powerful to mock outright did not mean that he wasn't mocked. He had learned long ago the only way to stop the laughter was to stop the laugher—hard and fast—and then the fear kept the others in line. Some called his methods evil. He called them effective.

Most thought he was a hard man who ruled with an iron fist and a yew wand. Some thought he was not a man at all, and they would have been closer to the truth. However, no one expected him to be at the child's bedside. He was not the nurse-maiding sort. He always left that to Helga. Still the curious and taunting were lying in a heap outside of the door. _Fools!_ They thought he couldn't see their taunting. But he saw. He knew. He always knew.

He levitated the dead body of the latest healer out of his way, depositing him in the corridor with the others, the healer who said that she could not be saved. His anger seethed anew thinking of it.

"Too far gone to the Elementals—" the healer had said. He would kill the man again if he could. His patient blue eyes and patronizing smile had reminded Voldemort of Dumbledore as he remarked that some things must simply be accepted. The words ate like an acid into Voldemort's gut, and Voldemort had pronounced the _Avada Kedavra_ spell. If he had it to do over, he would not have used _Avada_. The man would have died much more slowly so that he could have looked death in the eye and knew exactly what he had pronounced for the prophecy child. The healer's slow death would have given Him satisfaction, but it wouldn't have changed the outcome, either for the healer or for the prophecy child.

_No_. Voldemort railed. _Death would not be accepted, not unless he had chosen it for her. And he did not choose it. Let the weak accept it. Hadn't he defeated death?_ He sighed and settled himself in the chair by her bed—

For himself, and only for himself, he defeated death and at such cost. No one knew the cost of such magic. Ancient magic. Powerful magic. Magic more caustic than anything his current body could handle, but he had done it. When magic was still powerful, near the Rift. When there were few Mudbloods because few believed that Muggles and wizards were the same species. When he lived in the flesh of Salazar Slytherin, he had done it. He had examined death more closely than anyone alive. Countless numbers had died so that that he could understand the moment when consciousness left the body. Countless more had suffered to the point of death, so that he could learn how to evade its final end.

This was his most exhausting experiment. Most began to lose their grip on sanity after more than seven brushes with death. After he realized that, he never used the same person more than six times. Well, he smirked, almost never. Some deserved to die several deaths for their crimes. Some, of course, lost their sanity before the sixth trial, but their weakness wasn't his problem. He found that those who were insane approached death with more calm than the sane person. They were almost like the religious zealots. Of course, he didn't see much difference between the religious zealots and the insane.

The only thing that intrigued him was that the zealots and the insane didn't seem to suffer as much, and he wanted that protection for himself. Such was not to be. It was too fleeting and never the same. He could not isolate it.

Many of his experiments found themselves in a half-life, existing for days, or weeks or months, like the soulless dementor ravaged bodies, until at last they too faded to nothing without their souls. How did these soulless creatures differ from the vampires, the undead? And what about those that died and rose again like the phoenix?

Like a man possessed he pursued his goal. Did the phoenix ever really die? He touched the wand in his pocket and thought, not for the first time, that perhaps the phoenix had been a mistake. _No._ They were all necessary sacrifices in his quest for immortality. Even the phoenix was necessary. He could not have done it without their sacrifices. At last he had learned which threads to cut and which to bind. At last he learned how to reanimate a body, but none of those souls had a strong enough intent to stick with their new bodies, no matter how beautiful a body he chose for them. At last there was nothing more to do but to test it with his own iron willed intent.

The pain was beyond bearing—first the pain of ripping his soul from his body and second the pain of reanimating the new body he had chosen, but he had learned to endure, and in the end, he had conquered death. He was successful, but it was too late for his Helga. She embraced death like a lover. She had left him. She had left him with a sniveling son and a note and a lament about her loyalty to friends. Her loyalty was to HIM! Couldn't she see that? _Damn her._ It was only much later that he realized she had removed one of the emeralds, which depicted the stone basilisk's eye. Only later had he realized how deeply she had betrayed him—she who had professed her love.

Salazar's mind came back from his wanderings and watched his basilisks slithering over his prophecy child. Whether they were protecting her or simply reacting to the heat in her body, he did not know. They did not bite her. They did not eat. They would not allow themselves to be removed. Some would have thought their morbid vigil, like His, was because they cared about her. They did not. They were war animals that had no thought of life or death beyond prey and predator. Sometimes he wondered if they weren't the lucky ones.

He shut out the feelings that threatened. He was beyond caring about anyone or anything. He was beyond feeling—the Potter brat had seen to that fifteen years ago. _No, it had happened long before that_, thought Salazar, thinking of the years in the Chamber with only the stone serpents for company. It had happened over a thousand years ago when the world was turned inside out, or perhaps it had happened when his son deserted him or when Helga chose to die rather than take a stand that compromised her rigid standards of loyalty. If she had loved him like she professed, she would never have deserted him. No, he decided long ago the love she spoke of was a myth. Love did not exist, but as long as fools believed in it, they could be exploited.

He reached out and touched the face of his prophecy child. Samara had not allowed him to touch her while she was conscious, but now she was completely at his mercy. He could search her thoughts as well as the legimency would let him in this half wizard body, but what good would it do? It was dangerous. He could lose her. He could lose her anyway. _What would you do, Helga?_ He thought. _How would you save her?_

"_Helga wouldn't have allowed her to be hurt," spoke the voice of his nemesis. "She would have protected her with her own body if necessary, like—"_

"What are you now, Tom?" Salazar interrupted with a sneer. "The voice of Helga Hufflepuff? Isn't it enough that you've been my conscience all these years?"

"_If I had been your conscience, things would be different."_

"Yes, I would be sane," replied Voldemort. "And whole. And the Potter brat would be dead."

Salazar folded his scarred hand over the wand in his fist to silence the annoying voice, but it was not his wand he was holding. It was hers. He reached in his pocket for the phoenix wand and silenced Tom. The pain of that silencing, as always, took him by surprise. Magic should no longer bring him pain. He had suffered enough. More than any—He closed his hand over the burnt skin on the palm of his hand, willing the throbbing flesh to silence, but the pain would not be stilled. Only the phoenix tears would still the pain, and no phoenix was going to cry for him. He hissed through his teeth, a sound of frustration as much as pain, but he endured, and the magic continued to exhort her cost.

After all his planning and work and years of waiting for this moment, it was intolerable that his prize was snatched from him once again by Dumbledore. He knew where the blame for this catastrophe lies. He knew it wasn't the Malfoy boy's fault that she was in such a state. Still, the boy needed the _Crucio_ to wipe the smirk off of his face—the slippery little snake. Voldemort smiled. The boy reminded him of Carman before she was tamed. He could see none of Lucius in the boy. Well, maybe the girl saw some of Lucius's manipulative charm. Still, there was nothing within the boy that would save her.

_No._ It was Dumbledore's spell penetrating the shield that caused this—Dumbledore's spell and the Chamber of Chains. If His prophecy child died, the debt for her death lay solidly at Dumbledore's feet. Not that it was surprising. Dumbledore had exhibited such backbone before with Grindelwald. The hard choice: if I cannot turn him, kill him. The asset must not fall to the enemy side. He could not blame Dumbledore. He would have done the same thing. It was, after all, the only logical choice. But he missed Grindelwald. He was certain that, in time, the old wizard would have deferred to him, the classic story of the apprentice surpassing the master. But Grindelwald was dead, and he was alive, after a fashion.

"Master?" Voldemort turned. It was Severus.

"Have you finished your brewing?" asked Voldemort.

"I have," said Severus entering the room with the flask and going down on one knee and kissing the hem of his robe.

"Get up. Get up. You'll spill the potion."

Voldemort caught the incensed thought from the man: _I have **never** spilled a potion_. But Severus said nothing, and Voldemort had more important things to think about. "Tell me about this potion," ordered Voldemort.

"Her problem is twofold," continued Severus as he conjured a blue fire on the nightstand and put the potion on it. "She needs to draw herself back from the Elementals and she needs to release the monumental amount of foreign magic in her system. I can't control her decision in regard to the Elementals, and she can't swallow my potion in her unconscious state." Severus folded his hands in front of him and looked at them. "And I don't know if breathing the fumes will have the same effect as the actual potion. She should drink it, but that isn't an option. I can't control the dosage in the air, and all the potion will do is removed the hurtful magic, in any case. It will not guarantee that she will chose to pull herself back from her immersion in the Elementals. She must decide to do that on her own. Simply, she must want to live."

"But it will remove the foreign magic?" asked Voldemort.

"Yes—" Severus hesitated.

"Speak plainly," demanded Voldemort reaching out to touch Severus face, but as usual that touch did not afford him a look at the man's thoughts.

"Instead of removing the foreign and hurtful magic," said Severus, "It could remove—more than that."

"Can't you tell? Monitor her somehow?"

"Yes," said Severus, "but I don't think you want to stay in the room with her, the fumes cannot be contained by another magical substance. I was planning on doing the Bubble Head Charm to protect myself. Of course, you could do the same—"

"Ah," said Voldemort, understanding dawning. "You are protecting your own magic, then?"

Severus hesitated a moment and then said, "Yes, Master, I am."

"Good." Voldemort eyed him critically, thinking as he had thought many times before, there was more to Severus Snape than met the magic. He could usually discover those plans, but not with Severus. Of course, part of the reason for that was that Severus was an Occlumen and a Legimen himself and had natural shields common to those with that particular gift, but it was more than that.

He thought of his surprise when he felt the healing and power flowing into Severus just before he had gone to retrieve his basilisks from the Chamber of Secrets. He had called him and Severus did not come. He was very patient, waiting several minutes before upping the pain of the Dark Mark, but still Severus did not come. He had not wanted to summon him, but at last, he had no choice. He had missed the hatching of his basilisks once.

That mistake too he could lay at Dumbldore's feet, he thought bitterly, remembering the last clutch of basilisks lost. There were thirteen eggs that time too, but only one basilisk survived, the mother of this clutch. This time, only one died because he was with them at the magic of their hatching. For the first time in history, he had kept most of the clutch of basilisks alive. Today should have been a day of celebration, he thought with irritation. _Damn Dumbledore!_

He had never summoned Snape before, due to the sensitive nature of Snape's work at Hogwarts, but he wanted him present for the hatching. When he had finally determined that he had to summon Snape or risk missing the hatching again, the summoning had surprising results. Severus had Apparated right through Hogwart's Anti-Apparition Wards, and although Severus's magic was briefly disrupted, he was not unduly harmed. Unfortunately, Severus either could not remember or would not reveal how this miracle occurred.

And then Samara arrived and told him _she_ had taken down the Hogwart's Anti-Apparition wards. Voldemort no longer knew what was the truth. The time had long past when he trusted anyone, but he could always discern the truth, except from Severus, who was so blocked. Severus always contended that the shields were naturally occurring and outside of his control, but occasionally Voldemort wondered how much of the shield was really natural and how much Severus had placed. But yesterday, Severus was hiding nothing. He had searched Severus thoroughly. There was nothing to see. There was no information about what had really happened to the wards.

Still, Severus was entirely too secretive. There were Occlumency wards of Severus's own making that he painstakingly would take down one at a time at Voldemort's request, but they were still there. Severus said they were for Dumbledore's benefit. Voldemort wondered. Of course, there were the Occlumency wards that mirrored his own and that damned childhood shield that should have been long gone. He had suggested to Lucius that he find someone who could seduce down Severus's shield, but Lucius had said no one would have the cold slimy fish. Perhaps Lucius needed some incentive to look harder.

Voldemort started to pace. At least, Severus hadn't thoroughly poisoned the thoughts of the Malfoy boy, although there was a time when Voldemort thought perhaps he had. No fifteen year old boy would guard his virginity so well unless he knew what it meant, and yet—Voldemort smiled as he mind went back to the unconscious Prophecy Child.

"Then we need someone to sit with her during this critical time," said Voldemort. "Someone who will remind her of the pleasures of life. I know just the person: the young Malfoy. How can you tell if the dosage is too strong?"

"Convulsions," said Severus shortly, "when the potion begins leaching her own magic, but I'd rather stay with her myself. If it is leaching Draco's magic—"

"Elf!" shouted Voldemort, and Winky popped into the room.

"Yes, oh Great one. How may I—"

"Shut up," snapped Voldemort. "Escort young Malfoy to me."

The elf disappeared with a pop and Voldemort turned back to Severus. "You will tell young Malfoy nothing." He gripped Severus shoulder and for once, Severus did not shy away from the touch. "Nothing," Voldemort repeated allowing the pain of the Cruciatus Curse to flow slowly through his fingers into Severus, the fire melting his bones into liquid as it progressed with sure precision, first his shoulder— "Nothing," said Voldemort as the Cruciatus progressed both into his neck and down his arm, burning his bones to nothing, the nerves firing in agony.

His physical contact with Severus was intoxicating, allowing him to see Severus's turmoil as well as the bones sizzling to a liquid flame with the inexorable force of his spell. Each tiny bone in his wrist popped and cracked like twigs consumed by fire as he waited for Severus to acknowledge his superiority.

"Yes, Master," said Severus through gritted teeth.

Voldemort held the curse still, almost disappointed that Severus had capitulated so soon. Usually he was more resolute when young Malfoy was concerned. "You will remember that both Malfoy and the Prophecy Child, are mine," said Voldemort. Tightening his hand on Severus shoulder, he felt the bones crumble like cinders beneath his hand, and Severus whimpered.

"Yes, Master."

"Such tension in your neck," Voldemort said softly, at last releasing the Cruciatus Curse and allowing his long fingers to caress the lingering pain in Severus' neck. He felt Severus tense more severely, wanting to move out of his touch. "I am not touching your mind, Severus," said Voldemort softly. "But what secrets do you hide there that you fear my touch?"

"I have no secrets—"

"Liar," Voldemort said softly. "We all have secrets."

"Nothing of worth."

"You have worked hard on my potion," said Voldemort. "It's time for you to relax. Go to Knockturn Alley. Enjoy the sites. Take Lucius with you, he knows how to have a good time."

Young Malfoy knocked on the door.

"Go on, Severus," said Voldemort. "I will take care of my Prophecy Child and young Malfoy here."

"But the potion is delicate, Master. Perhaps I should explain—"

"No," said Voldemort simply, waving Severus away. "Go."

Obediently, Snape left Voldemort alone with Samara and Draco, stepping over the dead bodies of the healer and two Death Eaters who dared to question why Voldemort was sitting with the Prophecy Child.

"Would you like me to have them removed?" Severus asked gesturing to the dead Death Eaters.

"No," answered Voldemort, thinking they were a physical reminder that he would not be mocked. Reminders, such as they were, were always effective. "Come, come, Malfoy. Don't dawdle."

Although Draco's eyes strayed first to the dead bodies and then to the girl in the bed, he knelt, sufficiently debasing himself, and crawled to Voldemort's side, kissing his robes with reverence. It was amazing the effect of a few bouts with Cruciatus, thought Voldemort. He was certainly not so arrogant now. Voldemort smiled.

"Thank you," whispered Draco, his eyes again going to the Prophecy Child and then dropping reverently to the floor.

Voldemort said nothing at first, allowing the boy to continue to kneel on the cold stone floor. Minutes passed and neither moved. At last Draco shifted his weight, his young body unused to the stillness, but Voldemort did not bother to tell him to rise from his subservient position.

"Do you love her?" asked Voldemort and when Draco failed to answer, Voldemort laid a finger along his cheek, stoking gently, waiting for the thoughts to come; it was remarkably easy now that the childhood shields were down.

Voldemort laughed softly. "So Malfoy, you traded one magic for another, and now your goal seems to be slipping away. Good. Then you will protect your investment well. Severus made a potion," continued Voldemort standing and moving towards the door. "You will remain with her. Talk to her. Tell her that you want her to live."

Voldemort wondered where exactly in the process she might be. It was possible that she would be past the point where she wanted to live. If she were, it would be difficult to convince her to embrace the pain again. He considered trying to draw out her thoughts just to satisfy his curiosity, but he decided against it. His intervention could push her away at a critical juncture. He could wait. A thousand years in the Chamber had taught him the value of patience.

"As the potion takes effect," he continued, "it will help her to release the magic that is burning inside of her. Tell her that the pain is temporary. It's important for her to understand that as soon as she is firmly on this side of the veil, I can relieve her pain. When the process is completed, her body will convulse. At that point, you will call my elf and send it to me."

"Yes, Master," said Draco, still on his knees. Voldemort noticed his hands were shaking. Perhaps his parents' _Crucio_s after his own was too much for the boy, thought Voldemort. But he had to be sure that the parents were not party to the boy's deception. It would make him stronger in the end and less likely to stray…He knew that the boy had strong magic and strong ambition—a dangerous combination. He would have to play him carefully.

"Sit," Voldemort ordered, gesturing to the bedside chair he had just vacated and Draco stood, his body still struggling with the after effects of the Cruciatus. He sat hesitantly, uncomfortably, on the edge of the chair, his back to the potion flask, which was slowly oozing a pale smoke that immediately dissipated.

Voldemort's snake senses could smell the light flower scent already, and pulled abruptly on the air elemental for his own protection, but Draco didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Voldemort touched Draco's face once again, this time gathering a glimpse of his indecision and fear. _Fear was a good thing_, thought Voldemort, as he left Draco alone with his Prophecy Child and his thoughts.

Wormtail scampered up to him, crawling over the dead Death Eaters and sniffing them. And for just a moment, the snake-like essence in him wanted to strike, to swallow him whole, to feel his furry little body in his mouth, tasting the last pulsing of his life seeping away, but he mastered the animal within himself. Then the wizard transformed.

"Minister Fudge awaits you, Master," said Wormtail.

"Thank you, Peter. How long has he been waiting?"

"Since 8:00 o'clock this morning—about four hours."

Voldemort released the air elemental in his lungs as he entered the corridor and held out his hand to Cornelius Fudge. Stupidly, the wizard still took it, and any hope of deception that Fudge had disappeared, not that the fool could play that game anyway—

"Dumbledore is beside himself," said Fudge. "He's running on about dementors at Hogwarts and no longer heeding my advice for caution. He's called out the Order of the Phoenix."

"You don't say," said Voldemort calmly, his long strides taking him toward the dining room. "Let's discuss it over lunch."

He thought about the aurors killed at Azkaban and whom he had replaced with his Death Eaters. A smile played around the edges of his lipless mouth. "Now, aren't the Scrimgoers members of the Order?" he asked.

"Yes Master," agreed Wormtail.

The smile widened.

Please come and read the sequel: The Seers Truth: Beyond the Darkness>


End file.
